Comments by "flagmichael" (@flagmichael) on "The Car Care Nut" channel.

  1. I knew about this (and the prices!) for several years, but wondered why I had never seen a YouTube video on it. Good work!
    129
  2. We had changed oil on our 2014 Prius when the maintenance reminder told us to. I noticed the maintenance schedule said 10K miles were good while the reminder was 5K mile. I was about to change to 10K miles when I saw your video that first told me to change every 5K miles. I think you may have saved me a small fortune somewhere in the not-distant future.
    58
  3. Having a third gen Prius myself, this one really got my attention! I had heard about the EGR cooler problem and didn't know what to do about it. I had not heard of the valve problem. I see the valve from the dealer is not much more than the Rockauto price, so if I have to replace it I will go with the Toyota kit from the TSB.
    37
  4. My son has the 2002 Prius that I bought used at 102K miles. It needed it's first repair beyond tires, wiper blades, a couple of windshields (Arizona is the land of flying rocks) and 12 V batteries, at 198K miles when the inverter cooling pump died. At 208K miles it needed a hybrid battery rebuild, and soon after that the forward fuel/air sensor. That's it! The interior is in fabulous shape at 20 years; the legends on all the dash controls are perfectly legible. I'm sure if Toyota can make cars like that other manufacturers can, too... they just choose not to.
    34
  5. "Would you like to be saying 'hopefully'..." I think that says a lot!
    28
  6. Perversely, I am always glad when warranty runs out on something I have bought. I do not have to wrangle with the warranty administrators; I take care of it myself on my own schedule.
    22
  7. We bought a 2002 Prius and never bought any other model. The reliability is so far beyond that of any other car we have had in 45 years I have no idea what would be in second place. The 2002 now belongs to our son. I replaced the inverter pump at 198K miles (the first actual repair it needed) and now, at 212K miles, it needs a hybrid battery. (The first gen is much less reliable than later generations.) When we get our house refi completed I will get a rebuild kit for it but in the meantime it limps along in town just fine. How much does the hybrid battery cost to replace? It depends on the model, year, and source. The kit for the 2002 is $1938, somewhat more than later ones, from a source ChrisFix recommends. That amounts to $102 per year, or $0.28 per day. The later generations should do a lot better for battery life.
    22
  8. WOW! This is probably the most enlightening video - car or otherwise - I have seen in a very long time. Lots and lots of details I didn't know about how the ECU interacts with the converter, how to find an exhaust leak so small that only the converter cares about it, and other things that could have led me in the wrong direction.
    21
  9.  @justinb1536  Gold does not always go up. In August it was $2070; now it is $1837... an 11% loss in half a year. I remember January 1980, when there was so much hoopla about Gold hitting $850 (equivalent to almost $2700 today). Within a couple of months it dropped to $300-$400 and stayed there for years. Gold has lost about $100 per ounce just in the last month.
    20
  10. Lots of good stuff I never knew in this one! One issue that had confused me was about not plugging tires. I recently learned, partly the hard way, that the problem was not with plug failure but with not removing, repairing, and remounting the tire. Flat tires are generally run "low" on the road for a while before they are noticed unless the leak was very small. My wife recently had that experience; she wasn't sure how long the TPMS light had been on. She inflated it to get to the nearest town where she was able to take it to the chain store where we bought it. They found the inside was damaged - lots of rubber crumbles inside it - and they replaced the tire. We had road hazard coverage so the replacement was free. However, I never knew about the "slanted" puncture issue. It makes sense. Eric O at South Main auto has a video about why a tire should not be plugged - he shows the rubber debris in a tire that had been run low or flat: "Why Tire Plugging Can Be Deadly!" https://youtu.be/WxnkGiAOOhM?t=163
    20
  11. No starter, either. No CVT worries (as Nissan has had). Truly amazing vehicles.
    18
  12. WOW!!!! What a labor saver! My wife is a dog lover, particularly German Shepherds. I didn't even know about the intake filter until I saw your earlier video, and (being okay with a short cut) I used a wooden skewer to pick the dog hair loose (of course there was a mat of dog hair!) and a shop vac at the grill to vacuum it out. I will order or buy a G92DH-47010 today and vacuum it when I clean the car - a 2014. Thanks a million! Unfortunately, we can only click on the thumb up once....
    18
  13.  @RotoRCol  Lots and lots of them. In "How to change Toyota Spark Plugs on 4 cylinder engines" https://youtu.be/IAb9b3Hrea0 alb12345672 commented, "There are lots of counterfeit denso plugs around. You get what you pay for! I was told BY DENSO to only buy from a Toyota/Lexus dealer or Advance auto." Welcome to the 21st Century, I suppose.
    16
  14. We make the 300 mile (each way) trip to see the grandkids an average of almost once a month. We get in the Prius, fill the tank, and go. Every time, around the halfway point, I marvel at how comfortable, convenient, and affordable it is to glide down the freeway at 75 mph, averaging about 50 mpg, with no worry about breaking down.
    14
  15. The problem you have is that the oil dipstick is too short. Ask the parts counter man where you used to work for a longer one. I guarantee he will be impressed.
    14
  16. My wife and I have had a lot of cars over the last 47 years, but for the last 16 years we have owned nothing but Prius. She got one new in 2002, and the reliability was so good we were astounded. I traded in a Nissan 300ZX for a used 2002 Prius in 2002, and we have had only one problem beyond dead 12V batteries in all these years: my 2002 had a bad inverter coolant pump at 196K miles. By far the most reliable cars we have ever had. I have no idea which would come in second place.
    14
  17. This is destined to be one of the most valuable videos for Toyota fans everywhere. These are the sorts of things we all want to know about the cars and trucks and SUVs we may call our own. I would add: First generation (US) Prius 2001-2003 are enthusiast cars only! They had a lot of quirks and issues. They can be made reliable but they can be a challenge. For example, the 2001 I gave to my son has the original engine ECM (no software updates in that generation) that has a short "engine start" time. On the first cold day in autumn it will sound like it starts but does not actually fire up; cleaning the intake every summer will prevent that. The failure produces the big red Triangle Of Death! To clear it you have to successfully start the car four times in a row. More? It has the original electric power steering ECM, which could allow the steering wheel to shake violently when backing up. More? Well, what should you do when the "turtle" dash light comes on? Really, it is a warning light in the shape of a turtle. It means the hybrid battery is overheating and you have to back off (in fact, the system insists you do) until the battery cools down. I've only seen it once, trying too aggressively to back out of a snowbank. Anyway, if it looks like a Prius instead of a 4 door Ford Focus of its time, you are okay. Otherwise just know what you are getting into.
    13
  18. Same here. I wondered how Ebay could have genuine Toyota parts for so little.
    12
  19. Before the US EPA released specifications for detergency in gasoline (1996, IIRC) there was a big difference in detergency between regular and premium gas. I think it was Shell that showed commercials on TV where they lit the exhaust of a car running regular gasoline with a torch, and then showed the exhaust didn't burn when Shell - or whichever - premium was used. I think that era was where the legend of premium gas started. Thank you a thousand times for championing top tier gas! There are probably some cars that do okay with EPA standard gasoline, at least for the life of a cheap car, and almost any car can tolerate a bit of random gasoline once in a while when there are no good choices available. We can eat at fast food restaurants once in a while, too, but we have to make good food and top tier gas the mainstays in our lives.
    12
  20. One thing that really sets him apart is the ability to get important information to us. Some car channels wander and talk about performance and such, but I just want my car to work right.
    12
  21. I worked on computer controlled equipment in aviation and in an electric utility for about 20 years before I dealt with OBD2. I think this is a very good start, particularly in explaining why things that do not seem to be emission related (like coolant temperature) do affect emissions.
    12
  22. Oh - a reminder that this applies only to the Toyota family of vehicles. I was once the unfortunate owner of a 1985 turbo Volvo. The Volvo system resulted in oil mist being inhaled ahead of the turbo (not a defect, just a characteristic of the design). Every October the engine would start once, then die, then start and keep running. The Volvo gurus clued me in to the massive glop in the throttle body and Idle Air Control Valve and, just as they said, it took half a can of throttle body cleaner to clean it all out and get it running reliably for the season - or until there was another failure. I like my Toyotas much better!
    12
  23. I have been in a lot of automotive forums where some members - particularly those in the UK and Europe - say 5K mile oil changes is too often. They say in the UK the manuals say the interval is 12K miles or 15K miles. I wondered what was going on, and found that 200K mile car life is very common in the US but is remarkable in the UK. Now 7K miles per year is typical in the UK and few make it beyond 120K miles (17 years). Okay then.... We have had nothing but Prius since 2002 - we love the reliability and economy, and they are the right size for our family. None of them have ever had oil consumption with 5K mile oil changes. My 2002 now belongs to my son, and it still does not consume oil at 210K miles. After watching the video, I understand why not everybody has the same experience.
    11
  24. It is rather disturbing that we are not hearing about the importance of cleaning hybrid battery filters from other sources. I never knew until you told us about them. When I looked at the one in our 2014 Prius I thought, "good - the filter does not have much dirt on the fiber mat." When I watched your video I understood there is no fiber mat - it was a mat of dog hair! You also gave us the number of the external filter that is a snap to clean.
    10
  25. The first gen Prius was a real laughingstock even in 2002 when we bought ours. Gas was about $1.10 per gallon, and it was only around $1.50 at the beginning of 2004. But when the price rose above $2.00 by May the lowly Prius was sold out quickly, and people were paying above MSRP for used Prius! That put Prius on the charts as a serious contender.
    10
  26. This video is a hoot! People is CrAzY! One of the strangest customers I had when I worked as an avionics tech at a small airport was the guy who carried in a transponder (a device that responds to the radar with flight codes and altitude). He said he was just flying along and it quit. Not unusual with that model. I check it out ad find a transistor missing - simply not there. Here's another one that is put in wrong - and another one. All told nine transistors were defective, the wrong type altogether, missing, or put in wrong. Maybe it failed in flight but it was diddled with after that!
    9
  27. Zombnado!
    9
  28. I almost always keep my cars until they start "crumbling" - a sharp and relentless increase in repairs. That has varied from 20 years / 270K miles for a 1985 Volvo wagon to 10 years for the 1984 Dodge 600 (Chrysler Lebaron).
    9
  29. I remember a time when there was not a really big spread in reliability from one automotive brand to another unless you got into the really high end. I'm old enough to remember when Mercedes were reliable. The field has narrowed a lot now. If it is not Toyota (I presume Lexus is included) I don't want the heartache. I know Honda still has luster in some circles, but they had too many major problems that went unresolved for years. The 1994-2004 automatic transmission problems are at the top of the list, ranking the 2003 Honda Accord as the second worst vehicle in carcomplaints.com database. I doubt Toyota would ever let a fire like that burn for a decade. My wife and I have had nothing but Prius since 2002 and have never been stranded. None of the other cars in our 47 years together could make that claim. Our son has inherited my 2002 Prius; on December 26 it displayed hybrid warnings late at night 200 miles from home. It got him home at reduced speed, and the next morning I reset the system. It got him around town until we rebuilt the hybrid battery last weekend. It made it 19 years and 210K miles on a first gen battery. My respect for Toyota design increases every year.
    8
  30. An inflator carried in the car will straighten it out... unless it deflates enough to unseat the bead.
    8
  31. For how an alternator could cause serious damage, consider an alternator overrunning clutch that fails and causes the serpentine belt to fail. If the engine overheats because of the broken belt there could have been a lot of costs associated with that alternator.
    8
  32. You have my eternal gratitude! I had not even heard of the hybrid fan filter until you mentioned it in a previous video, and when I looked at the one in our 2014 Prius (that had carried or German Shepard many times) it was about 80% blocked with dog hair. I was able to clean it out with a wooden skewer and a vacuum cleaner, saving me a bit of work. I just picked the hair loose and it was sucked right up. Soon I will pull the fan out and make sure it is clean. Why did we buy one? Our first one (2002) was for fuel efficiency, but we stuck with them for the reliability. We had never known a car that was so reliable, and we have had a succession of Prius cars ever since, all of them used. Our 2010 gave us good service until it seemed to become magnetized, attracting a truck, a deer, and an SUV that bashed in the sides within six months. We now have a 2014 Package V Prius and we couldn't be happier. I 200% agree with staying away from the first gen Prius unless you are an enthusiast. You didn't even mention the Triangle Of Death problem on the first cool day of Fall with 2001s and early 2002s, or the flaky throttle position sensor that can cause it to go to idle when driving along, or the early steering racks that could shake in reverse. Staying with 2010 and later saves a lot of headaches.
    7
  33. BIG thumbs up on this one! Quite a few years ago (about the time I stopped buying cars other than Toyota) I had heard enough Bad Oil Filter horror stories to convince me to get my oil filters from the dealer. The kicker is that the filter for our gen 3 Prius (looks just like the filter shown in the video) is something like $8 at the dealer when I get the drain plug washer with it. I never imagined a horror story like this one, though.
    7
  34. Yow! It makes sense... counterfeits of all sorts are flooding the market. I think I will go to Toyota for them.
    7
  35. The sad thing is the service manual for our third gen Prius calls for 10K mile intervals, even while the reminder is for 5K.I was just about to switch to 10K when our CCN warned that way lies madness.
    7
  36.  @mikeschlup5279  The CCN has done videos about the difference in wear - particularly in cylinders - from doing 10K mile intervals rather than 5K. Our 2014 Prius reminds us to change every 5K but the manual says 10K. I was about to change to the manual's recommendation when CCN wised me up. At 176K on the vehicle with negligible loss of oil between changes I have no doubt he saved me from a world of regret.
    7
  37. I bought a smart key for our first 3rd generation Prius from an online remote and key store that had given me great service, but it simply wouldn't program. The dealer said it looked like the key had been used with another car before, and now I know what that means. Fortunately the online store accepted it back.
    7
  38. I was happy to see the flat spot warning right at the beginning. A family member was medically ineligible to drive his car for what turned out to be several months. It made flat spots on all the tires, and driving a few days didn't help. Four new tires was needed to get them right. Great idea about taping the plastic bags over them, too! I'm surprised I don't see objections about the battery situation, though: technically, the alternators are capable of recharging a nearly dead battery. They can't do it without wear and tear to the battery and alternator though, so your advice is still exactly right. A 100 amp alternator will not put out more than roughly a hundred amps, even into a short circuit, because that limit is what it is capable of producing with 14V excitation voltage at any rpm. The inductance of the windings (which are on the AC side of the bridge) exactly balances the increase in EMF as rpm increases above roughly half the alternator's design speed. At full rated output the alternator quickly becomes a lot hotter than it was designed to be; okay for a few minutes but destructive as the heat builds.
    7
  39. That is so sad!
    7
  40.  @saganandroid4175  Fortunately, in hybrids the battery is small enough to nest near the middle of the vehicle, as we saw in the video.
    7
  41.  @TheCarCareNut  You did good.
    6
  42. I agree about staying clear of the first gen Prius. My son has the 2002 I bought used in 2004 with 103K miles on it. It gave me good service but it is quirky and too many of the 2001s and early 2002s had troubles: steering shaking in reverse, sudden loss of drive power (defective accelerator pedal), Triangle Of Death on the first cool morning of the Fall if the throttle body is not cleaned regularly.... Mine had 198K miles before it needed the first actual repair: replacement of the inverter coolant pump. About a year ago we rebuilt the hybrid battery at 208K miles. A couple weeks ago we replaced the upstream AF sensor and I hope we don't wrestle with anything that inaccessible in the future. One difference worth mentioning is that the first generation ran the big motor-generator (MG2) at 270V instead of 540V. That greatly increased the heat in the hybrid transaxle. The strange thing is that when the only Prius cars on the road were first generation, people were raving about how ugly it was... even though it was very hard to tell from the 4 door Ford Focus of its time unless you saw the hybrid battery cooling vent on the drivers side C pillar.
    6
  43. Aw, c'mon! You could have pulled it apart if you really wanted to! We'll cut you some slack this time though. I agree it is definitely not a CVT, if only because it works in forward and reverse with no physical change at all. It is a magical power transfer device. In my mind, the amazing thing is that the hybrid transaxle is more reliable than even a classic manual transmission - no clutch or synchros to wear. Expecting 200K miles and much more without any service other than occasional fluid change is wishful thinking in just about any other type of transmission. Finally, that clatter you mention (I never knew it was from the planetary, only that it was from something in the transaxle) is downright frightening at times. Our 2010 did it once and I was concerned it was about to throw a rod - no kidding! A little research revealed it is normal - at least in the early third gen - if the ICE starts a second before the system is shut down. Something about gasoline build-up somewhere, I guess. About five seconds of fear and it all smoothed out. Lesson learned: if the ICE starts when the engine is cold, let it run a few seconds before powering it all down. No more clanking.
    6
  44. Dang! I was hoping the AZ designation meant they were made for us here in Arizona, not aftermarket parts.
    6
  45. Just a side comment about the cabin filter: I was active in Volvo forums in the 1990s, when I owned a 1985 Volvo. One of the hot topics in the early 1990s was failure of the AC evaporator in the 1991-1993 Volvo 850s. The alloy evaporator would leak from pinholes in the faces, requiring a $2000 replacement ordeal. Volvo quickly found the failure came from pollen collecting on the surface, which formed a corrosive paste when the AC was shut down. Adding a cabin air filter was the solution. The evaporator alloy change was to accommodate R134a, which was brand new and would become mandatory in 1994. Today virtually all cars (maybe there is an exception) have cabin air filters, but you should know air quality is not the only reason. Maybe the alloys used in today's R1234yf evaporators handle pollen better, but probably not. There are very few unimportant parts on cars today. Probably the aftermarket filters would work well, but I have doubts about counterfeits.
    6
  46. If every driver of a manual transmission car had to replace the clutch assembly himself when it wore out there would be a lot less clutch abuse. The last time I helped my son replace his pilot bearing (it failed in the first few weeks after the clutch job for no obvious reason) I pulled a muscle in my face as I struggled to hold it in the right position for him to get the first bell housing bolt in. It hurt for days!
    6
  47. A recruitment reminder: "Ladies, if you have any desire to be a mechanic, follow up on it! Every mechanic in the world has wished many times they had smaller hands." This definitely looks like one of those occasions.
    6
  48. Our Car Care Nut is 100% on your side about the 5K mile oil changes. Our third gen Prius service needed reminder comes on at 5k miles but the service schedule that came with the car called for 10K miles. I was going to back off to 10k when I saw his video warning about the advisability and stakes in going to a 10K mile change interval. I happily do them every 5k miles now!
    6
  49. Amen! The last intense job I did on our cars was replacement of a clutch in my son's Acura Integra. I actually pulled a muscle in my face trying to get the clutch to line up. It made rebuilding the hybrid battery on the 2002 Prius seem easy by comparison. I have to rely on others for the brute force work now that I am in my 70s.
    6
  50. Car thieves miss those days, too. Hondas were notorious for being easily stolen with a worn down key.
    6
  51. I have been using the BlueDriver device; like the Carista it is a dongle with a dedicated app (non-subscription) that is about 3 times the price of the Carista. ChrisFix introduced me to the BlueDriver, and it is the only non-professional tool I know that can read the non-CAN modules in the first gen Prius. The Carista seems like a better choice for the average owner who does not have the 2001-2003 Prius. In a future video, it would be great to get a rundown on a drive cycle for Toyotas. I found one on-line but the source is not a Toyota Master Mechanic. Just sayin.... EDIT - MY MISTAKE: Early in watching this video I sneaked over to another window to see the Carista on Amazon. It showed the price as $29.99. At the end of the video I went to the Carista website to verify it did not access the various modules in the first gen Prius. Then I looked it up on Amazon and saw the price was now $59.00! EDIT AGAIN: My fault. I had slipped somewhere and was looking at the FIXD dongle - a whole different thing. Maybe I should get more sleep.
    6
  52.  @captainamericaamerica8090  The recall should be out of the supply chain already. In 2020 the product was recalled for a packaging problem: "The products' caps were not rotated enough during manufacturing to engage the child resistant mechanism, posing a risk of poisoning if the contents are swallowed by young children." As long as the bottles are kept out of reach of children it is not an issue anyway. FWIW, I buy almost exclusively used cars (3 new ones in 51 years.) Two things I check immediately: the dipstick for varnish above the full line, indicating a steady use of non-synthetic oil, and the wrong color coolant. Substitutes are a yellow flag; although the consequences of inadequate coolant are sometimes severe, sometimes (as in the case of Dexcool) they are important for the good of the car. Seeing non-Dexcool correct coolant is a big deal for me. If that is done wrong the car hasn't had proper maintenance.
    6
  53. It is smart to do the severe service intervals for oil changes anyway, methinks.
    6
  54. If my Tesla would need repair that does not fall in the extremely limited DIY range, it would have to be flat-bedded 150 miles to the nearest authorized service center. Then I would have to get a ride down there when it was ready. My Toyota takes very little effort on my part - mostly oil and fluid services - to avoid the hassle and expense.
    5
  55. Auto week says it is the same in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state and Washington D.C. They are collectively called "CARB states."
    5
  56.  @MyLifeThai371  The 0-60 time of the 3rd generation Prius is almost identical to that of the US version of Delorean DMC-12: about 10 seconds. The Prius is faster than many people think and the Delorean with federal emissions was slower than people think.
    5
  57. I would have made that mistake.
    5
  58.  @JeredtheShy  I doubt people who ignore the service info would know about the hybrid filter; I didn't know about it on our third gen Prius until I saw the CCN's video about it. I kinda looked at it and it looked all right, with the fibrous filter not looking too bad. Then I realized that was not the filter, it was dog hair!
    5
  59.  @jaymorgan.  If you are gentle and the timing is right, it isn't a problem. What you have to avoid is shifting into a forward gear while still moving backward (the faster the worse) or into reverse while still moving forward.
    5
  60. Ooh! One thing I forgot that I heard about on another channel that I can't remember... I'm getting old. Anyway, it was about putting the keyless fobs far enough from the hybrid cars when changing the oil. It is possible to accidentally leave the system "ready" as we drain the oil with the system sitting quietly. Then the ICE starts!
    5
  61. 100% agree! I take a lazy approach and buy the filters at Toyota. For $6 I know I'm getting one that is right for the car. I almost changed from the 5K mile interval the reminder system uses to the 10K mile interval the service schedule calls for. AMD warned me off just in time! Soon I will have to replace our spark plugs, and his video about counterfeits convinced me to get those at the dealer as well. Their supply chain is certainly better than aftermarket parts stores. Toyota can't afford to put knockoffs in their new cars, and we can buy the plugs they use.
    5
  62. Callbacks are demoralizing for everybody involved. Everybody ends up with some but the best end up with the fewest. I don't remember everything I fixed but I remember everything that came back on me. (Electronics, but same thing.)
    5
  63.  @TheCarCareNut  Worse yet, customers don't blame the mechanic, they blame the dealership. In these days of on-line reviews that can be really bad.
    5
  64. Starters and alternators are the "poster children" for rebuilt horror stories. I would pay four times as much if necessary to avoid an auto parts store rebuilt.
    5
  65. Remember what the CCN said about the things to check, including vacuum leaks. Replacing two catalytic converters in hopes that is what really is the problem is a lot of money to place on a bet. If I get a P0420 code again I will rewatch the video, take notes, and check each issue (including the possibility of not driving enough / far enough) before I get too wild with my wallet. If the two codes came up within a year or two of each other, I would be especially dubious of the two converters failing so close in time .
    5
  66.  @TheCarCareNut  I wondered about the contamination being such a big problem because I didn't visualize that part - essentially oil everywhere inside the recovery equipment! Thanks for clearing it up; I'll definitely go to the Toyota dealer to do this for me.
    5
  67. The first gen Prius was a bit different. Toyota launched a campaign (under warranty) to seal the hybrid battery terminal lugs where they exited the case. That made a big difference. I don't think the battery cooling intake had a filter, though.
    5
  68. In a clean vehicle like that a reman engine would be worth considering.
    5
  69. I would recommend annual throttle body cleaning as well, because the atkinson-miller engines tend to burp soot. My son has my early 2002 Prius, with the un-updated ECU that throws the Big Red Triangle of Death!!! (drama is important in our lives) every autumn when the weather turns cold unless the TB has been cleaned recently. Thanks for the warning about the refrigerant oil! I was good with charging R12 back in the caveman days, but R134a took me to the shed the first time I tried it so I don't do my own now. With your warning, I think I will use the dealer for A/C services on our 2014 because we don't have any other Toyota specialist in town.
    5
  70. The good, the bad, and the ugly. That is information we need.
    5
  71. I like the towel idea!
    5
  72. Ah! This explanation clears up a lot. One of my concerns about autonomous vehicles is the problem of dealing with unusual emergencies. Imagine a truly self-driving vehicle in the wildfire shown in https://youtu.be/cI2sgyoiL1o The Toyota system (if I understand right) does not interfere with human understanding required to come out alive. Much better. I would also like to comment that the last two non-OEM replacement windshields I have seen (and one was a brand new one on a rental Sienna two years ago, and one was on our used 2014 Prius) had badly rippled areas. You aren't kidding when you warn about that.
    5
  73. With the steel plugs and aluminum heads, the grip should be looser when warm because the aluminum expands about twice as much with heat. https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/linear-expansion-coefficients-d_95.html
    5
  74. This is a subject I am very familiar with. I would be very surprised if it does. (A plate doesn't do it; stopping EMFs requires an RF shield. RF and EMF are names for the same phenomenon: electromagnetic energy.) The EMF story goes back to 1984, the year I started working in an electric utility. Data mining on a survey found that the electrical workers in the sample had roughly twice the prevalence of two really nasty brain cancers: astrocytomas and gliomas. This got international attention. In the US we didn't see any big problem in consumer products but the EEC/EU took it very seriously indeed. Regulations were passed to keep EMF down to very low levels. Me? I often found myself working in high voltage substations where just touching a grounded fence produced an unpleasant shock. I hoped I would get cool mutations, like wings, but it never happened. Sometime in the last decade or two - I noticed it at the time but then forgot just when it was - a much larger study showed no correlation between EMFs and cancers. That is where we stand now; EMFs are a technical problem rather than a health problem. However, during the time when EMFs had everybody's attention I saw a lot of tests for EMF levels and for radio equipment (like amateur radio transmitters) being affected by the car, and the car being affected by the equipment. Nothing ever showed up. Technically speaking, there are good reasons for not even seeing large EMFs inside electric or hybrid cars. Much of the HV wiring is DC, and the AC wiring is on the other side of the firewall and floor pan from the passengers. In effect, an EMF shield is inherent in modern electric/hybrid automotive design.
    5
  75. I think you have a bright future. You are providing understandable explanations to the things lots of people wonder about, especially the ways to properly operate hybrids, EVs, and all the others. Welcome from Flagstaff, Arizona! I am thoroughly enjoying our 2014 Prius package 5, bought used after our 2010 Prius (package 2) apparently became magnetized. In a six month period, after decades with no collisions, it was sideswiped by a pickup truck trying to avoid another car that pulled in front of it; hit in the other side by a kamikaze deer as my wife drove down a dark road; and finally damaged beyond economical repair - although it could still be driven and all the doors worked - when a young driver (who was aware she had uncontrolled seizures) had a seizure in a parking lot and smashed the right side of the car as it was parked, spinning it nearly 90 degrees before a witness was able to turn off the ignition. I gave my 2002 Prius to my son when I retired two years ago. He has never had a car as reliable as that 18 year old first gen Prius. Aside from that, you have never made a secret of your faith. I am less vocal, but (having had my life saved by a miracle when I was an atheist and remaining an atheist for three years after that) I regard God as an expert at resource management. My wife had parked the car in the handicapped spot - she has handicapped plates - a few minutes before. The SUV that was stopped by her car would have rocketed into the supermarket entrance otherwise. Girl Scouts were selling cookies there, and people were coming and going. Without her car it would have been the worst accident in Flagstaff history, destroying the families of a dozen or more people in a horrible second or two, including the life and family of the driver who just didn't understand how serious her mistake was. Instead of tragedy it didn't even make the local paper. Our car was insured, as was hers, and the damage totaled less than $20,000. Any of us involved would gladly have paid $20,000 to have prevented that horror, but instead we got an $8000 head start toward our much nicer car. The driver of the SUV learned a fairly expensive lesson, but did not suffer the horror of unprotected life. Many will see pure chance in this but I have been around long enough to be impressed by how often amazingly good things happen "by chance."
    5
  76. Our Care Care Nut did a video that prominently featured fake iridium plugs: "Toyota Counterfeit parts EXPOSED!"
    5
  77.  @TheCarCareNut  I guess we really shouldn't be surprised. This engine is not like the Dodge slant six my first car had. I don't think a minute in the procedure went by that I didn't see something I had never seen before. PCV between the crankcase and intake flange makes a lot of sense as long as the oil is maintained!
    5
  78. It's easy for us DIYers to forget there are a lot of people for whom that is the obvious choice. People without a garage, or a toolbox, or a back that will put up with bending over the engine compartment, or who just have more money than ambition or interest at the time.
    4
  79.  @kens805  You have me beat by 5 years. Just this past year my back has become much less forgiving.
    4
  80. Okay... now I wish I had a car with a starter or alternator.
    4
  81.  @janjohnny4945  We have had Prius since 2002; my old 2002 needed a hybrid battery half a year ago around 19 years and 208K miles. The first gen was a lot less reliable than the later ones. I did a battery rebuild, using a ChrisFix video for guidance. The first gen Prius kit was just under $2000; the second gen Prius kit is just under $1500. I keep cars until they are no longer economical to repair so I may end up rebuilding our 2014 battery sometime.
    4
  82. My 2002 Prius (now my son's) needed its first repair besides the usual consumables - tires wiper blades, 12V batteries, a windshield (Arizona is the Land of Flying Rocks) - at 198K miles: the inverter coolant pump. $150 plus a few hours getting to it and life was good. It just got a hybrid battery rebuild ($2000) out of my pocket at 210K miles and 19 years old. Would I really have spent only $100 per year for an extended warranty that would actually have paid for those, and would it have extended past 200K miles? Sure, why not? Any wacky thing could happen.
    4
  83. As a quick screening check on any used car (I have only bought 3 new ones in 50 years of driving) I look at the dipstick above the "full" line. If I see varnish I thank the seller for his time and keep looking. My 2014 Prius, at 147K miles, has just shiny metal above the full line. BTW, the second car I bought new - a Dodge 600 - was the worst car I ever owned. The carburetor died in the first week, and things didn't go any better.
    4
  84. I have a 2014 Prius so it doesn't exactly apply, but I usually find a tip or two in seeing it done with other Toyota hybrids.
    4
  85. Set the display to show the battery charge state, and do not enter a car wash if the battery is very low. It is not an issue for that length of time - I do it several times a week - if the hybrid battery is in good shape.
    4
  86. I have had Prius cars for 19 years and never knew about the filters until I saw the video here. What an eyeopener! So simple a thing that is so incredibly important. (Now I have the filter element for the gen 3 Prius and have to actually install it.)
    4
  87.  @TheCarCareNut  You are a wild man!
    4
  88. Look at it this way: the life expectancy on the hybrid battery is about the same as a typical automatic transmission (a lot better than the Nissan CVT, probably others). The hybrid battery is about the same price range as a transmission repair. In 20 years of owning Prius cars I have only replaced (rebuilt, actually) a hybrid battery once. Our 2015 Prius is around 150K miles and the battery is still going strong. The hybrid transaxle may be the most reliable transmission made, including manual transmissions. In any case, we have turned away from anything but Toyota hybrids because they are by far the most reliable and lowest maintenance/repair costs of anything we have owned since my first car in 1970. My first Prius, a 2002, needed a hybrid battery replacement recently. It cost us $2000 for the rebuild kit and I rebuilt it following ChrisFix's video. Except that it weighed 100 lbs and I am 70 years old with no healthy helper it was simple and affordable... it cost about one cent per mile we drove.
    4
  89. I was thinking the very same thing. There are a lot of car brands (everybody can fill in their own list) that would really worry me trying to handle this level of complexity.
    4
  90. Well done! There is another case of noise being the answer, but being a Toyota mechanic you may not see it much. Exhaust leaks from one branch of the exhaust manifold can imitate a rod knock. Nissan had a lot of problems with broken exhaust manifold studs in the 1990s. The tap-tap-tap sure sounds like a rod knock, but listening to the engine block reveals that it can't be heard on the engine, only in the air. That truck sounds so much better fixed!
    4
  91. In conventional and electric compressors the oil is actually circulated ("entrained") with the refrigerant. That way it lubricates the intake valve and everything else. I once had the misfortune to own a 1984 Dodge 600 (like a Le Baron) and had the further misfortune for it to develop a pinhole leak in the bottom of an A/C hose. The oil leaked out, and then the refrigerant leaked out, destroying the compressor! If you visualize it, you can see it is impossible to have the refrigerant in one part of the compressor and the compressor mechanism in another. The scroll pumps the gaseous refrigerant and must be lubricated where the refrigerant is.
    4
  92. Being a techie I bought a first generation Prius (2002). Even though it was a lot "buggier" than current models it was still the best car I owned in my life. Now we have a 2014 Prius and it is heaven. In our 19 years of Prius ownership none of them have ever stranded us.
    4
  93.  @TheCarCareNut  For some reason I never thought about that!
    4
  94. Straight talk from one who has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. Nothing could be better.
    4
  95. Me too! I haven't had to deal with an evap system problem and have no confidence in my present level of understanding.
    4
  96. Toyota is one of the four founding members of the Top Tier consortium. I only use non-top tier brands if there is literally nothing else available in the remaining range. There are lots of low-price top tier brands: see https://www.toptiergas.com/licensed-brands/ I had a Nissan 300ZX manual transmission that developed a horrible clutch judder. I monkeyed with it for months and decided to give a top tier brand a try. Within a hundred miles it was smooth as could be. I've recommended top tier gas to friends who had clutch judder and in all but one case that fixed it. In the remaining case the springs in the clutch disk were trying to pop out (a common Honda problem).
    4
  97.  @47f0  If there is that much water vapor in the air, that is a problem in itself. In any case, you are right: nitrogen and (dry) air have exactly the same change in pressure with temperature. Darned myths.
    4
  98.  @TheCarCareNut  This is also a possibility for a future video - key programming and the many gotchas in that. I bought a second fob for our used 2010 Prius from an online source I had used with no problems, but the fob would not program. The second dealer mentioned it may have been programmed to another car before; they apparently are single use fobs. In the end I bought a fob at the dealer, which included programming. At least it worked and was not much more than the online source plus local programming.
    4
  99. One of the oddities I noticed in our 2014 Prius is that the oil change reminder is every 5k miles, while the schedule says every 10k miles. I was prepared to change to 10k when The CCN reported that 10k mile intervals results in cylinder wear, and that the cylinders can't be honed or oversized. 5k miles is fine with me.
    4
  100. I was preparing to go to the 10K mile change interval the 2014 Prius maintenance schedule called for instead of the 5K mile interval the reminder had. Then I saw your video a while back that warned 10K mile changes were a bad idea. I think you saved me from a horrible mistake. (Edit) Seeing exactly why the delayed oil changes cause such serious damage really clarifies it.
    4
  101. He made a believer out of me, too. I can afford oil changes a lot more than I can afford engine changes. If he was some random Joe I would be skeptical, but a Toyota Master Mechanic is convincing.
    4
  102.  @rstuff1605  Rain-X is good stuff, but I learned the hard way it is seriously incompatible with Mr. Clean AutoDry Car Wash. I did the Rain-X and then washed the car with Autodry. Soon after that we were caught in light rain on the freeway so I turned on the wipers. AAAH! the wipers appeared to be spreading thick white paint on the windshield! I rolled down the window and stuck my head out enough to make it to the next off-ramp where there was a gas station. Nothing helped; when I operated the wet wipers I go the white paint effect. We continued after the rain stopped and made it home. There I tried every cleaning product and solvent we had with no help: both the Rain-X and Autodry had bonded with the glass. I got cerium oxide and used that for about half an hour, which made the car drivable in rain but left streaks of white madness around the edges of the windshield. It only went away when I replaced the windshield a year or two later. My recommendation - avoid Autodry or similar products like the plague.
    4
  103. I didn't believe about moisture getting into an open bottle of brake fluid (after all, I tightened the life out of the cap when I put it back on) until one winter when I moved a bottle of brake fluid one winter morning. I heard the little balls of ice rattling around in the bottom!
    4
  104. Looking at Autowit's website ( https://www.autowit.com/faq/ ) I see it can also charge from a USB power pack even if the car battery is stone cold dead. The faq indicates it takes 20-40 minutes to charge that way. The same faq indicates it will charge from a 12V power port ("lighter socket" for us old geezers.) I expect this product also eliminates the danger of connecting it backward if it is used the normal way, scavenging the unusable charge from the battery. If it is connected backward initially I doubt it will charge.
    4
  105. ...particularly in a vehicle that is known for depending on clean oil.
    4
  106. It will challenge even some of the experts, I know, but I have to take AMD's extensive hands on experience (and training) over even Pat Wong. There is a lot of truth in what actually happens.
    3
  107. When I was 14 years old I helped a friend repair a tube-type console radio. When I got there he had the chassis and the speaker on the counter. It was a field coil speaker (in those days permanent magnets were not good enough to use for speakers so they used electromagnets) and I knew the coil was used as a filter in the high voltage. What I didn't know was that for reasons unknown to Man one side of the coil was fastened to the speaker frame! The next mystery is why I had one hand resting on the grounded chassis and I slapped my hand down on the magnetic structure, making excellent contact with 300 volts DC. I felt like I had been hit in the back of the head with a 2X4, and everything got pretty dim for a few seconds, but I did not fall down. If it had been AC I would not be here to tell you about it; DC is not as lethal, volt for volt, as AC. Later, when I worked as an avionics tech in general aviation - small planes - I got 275 VDC between my fingers at least a dozen times... a quick yelp and a couple seconds of muttering curses. My brother and I also managed (long technical story) to get our bodies in series with each other across the 800 VDC plate supply in an amateur radio transmitter. Quite a jolt, and we were left with sterile pits in our fingers. That said, it is still hazardous. Will contact with battery voltage in one of these hybrid systems kill you? Think of it as being like falling off a roof. The odds are probably in your favor, but you really don't want to find out.
    3
  108. One of the attractions of the channel is that it is relevant to everybody who owns or is thinking of buying a Toyota of any sort. The higher the quality of the merchandise the more important it is to treat it right.
    3
  109.  @boilednuts  Some contact cleaners, like CRC, leave a lubricating film behind. Others are downright nasty! Back when I was a bench tech in the '70s we had a devil of a time finding the right cleaners for the plastic rotary switches one popular brand of radios had and one that left a proper film for volume controls. One important test we did for cleaners was to spray a styrofoam cup with it. A salesman came by with one to try and when I sprayed a cup it ate a hole in it. No, thanks! I agree - chlorinated makes me uneasy. I think it affects some plastics.
    3
  110. It isn't just a Toyota thing, either. 0W-16 is a brand new viscosity covered by ILSAC GF-6B. Consider it an entirely different lubricant; "GF-6B - The attributes of GF-6B include the following: Not backwards compatible with older engines" https://360.lubrizol.com/Specifications/ILSAC/ILSAC%20GF-6/ILSAC%20GF-6A%20and%20GF-6B Never substitute 0W-16 into an engine designed for any other viscosity, and if at all possible avoid substituting any other oil in engines designed for 0W-16 GF-6B. GF-6B provides better protection against low speed pre-ignition, a serious concern for advanced engines like the A25A engines. The mistake of thinking protection is proportional to viscosity is one that has been made for decades. Viscosity is about bearing clearances; protection is about film strength, a very different thing. When somebody tells you the recommended oil is not right for the engine you know they don't know oil. Oil pressure exists only to maintain oil flow through the potential wear areas, using higher viscosity oil reduces that flow. https://www.api.org/-/media/Files/Certification/Engine-Oil-Diesel/Publications/Motor%20Oil%20Guide%201020.pdf
    3
  111. The transmission is cooled by the inverter cooling loop, but the only source of heat is the pair of motor-generators (particularly MG2). There really is no place to put a transmission cooler because the fluid stays in the transaxle. Transmission coolers are a great idea on conventional automatic transmissions and CVTs. The torque converter - not used in the Toyota hybrids - generates a lot of heat when it is not locked up.
    3
  112. In Flagstaff some people pin large bubble wrap in one front door, put it across the windshield, and pin it in the other front door. I generally rely on Rain-X and a squeegee.
    3
  113. FWIW, I have never changed jack oil, but occasionally I have had to top it up. The jacks do not seem to last too long once they get to that stage, though.
    3
  114.  @jerryclleung  Shell is good, but all Top Tier gasolines work as well. Quite a few low price stations are Top Tier, including Speedway, Valero, Conoco, Sinclair, and QT. The deal with Top Tier is that the old standard from the days of carburetors was not good enough for EFI. The old standard is still EPA standard today - I have no idea why. Using anything less than Top Tier on GDI engines is crazy talk. I told my daughter to only use Top Tier brands in her 2008 Honda CR-V. One day she called me, asking what to do; her Honda was hard to start and barely ran. She admitted she had not been using Top Tier brands, so I directed her to add half a bottle of Techron to her tank and to sin no more. That did the trick. BTW: "Top Tier" was supposed to be renamed "World Standard" (WS) but I have yet to see any sign of it here in the SW USA.
    3
  115. On the other hand, it is hard to beat the reliability of Toyota's eCVT (hybrid transaxle). Even manual transmissions wear, making shifts balky and necessitating clutch replacements. My son had an Acura that needed a new clutch because the disk springs were popping out (a common Honda thing). I actually strained a muscle in my face holding the gearbox up while my son got the first bolt started. A year later the new pilot bearing seized, and we did it all over again. Toyota hybrid transaxles forever!
    3
  116. AMD confirmed what I had read on PriusChat: anything that makes a Toyota hybrid engine run even slightly rough makes the planetary gearset rattle. It makes sense: trying to eliminate lash in the gears would probably make it less reliable and less robust. A mechanic's stethoscope would probably tell the story: if it comes from the transaxle, it is just engine roughness.
    3
  117. In post-1993 cars the increasing evaporator problem was pinhole leaks. 1993 Volvo vehicles used R-134A, which was new at the time and not required until the end of the 1994 model year. They used a different alloy in the evaporators - I don't know why - but soon enough many other makes were having the same problem. Volvo's first approach was to put cabin filters to intercept the pollen that combined with water to make a corrosive paste (according to Volvo). As AMD points out, some makes (/models?) leave the evaporator fan on a while to dry out the evaporator.
    3
  118. I'm a (retired) techie, and even I am amazed at how finely tuned car design is. Now I consider, "what could happen if this part breaks or doesn't fit quite right or just does not perform within specs?" 20 years ago I would never have believed I would be buying filters or spark plugs at the dealer, but here we are.
    3
  119. The first gen Prius has a pair of bleeder valves for the inverter coolant. I have noticed it will not bleed the way the manual shows (pipes carrying the coolant back up to the reservoir) - it has to be done with tubing to siphon the coolant to somewhere below the valves.
    3
  120.  @chrisengle2315  In Sacramento County, California, it is now illegal to change your own oil or even to own special automotive tools (like oil filter wrench) for doing it. In Flagstaff, Arizona, I do my own oil changes with Mobil 1 0W-20 and a filter from the dealer.
    3
  121. We have a 1NZ-FXE with 210000 miles and no oil consumption. I think if you make it to 50K miles without oil consumption it will go to the end of the car's life without excessive oil consumption just caring for it the same way.
    3
  122. We never even give it a thought. As long as the maintenance has been kept up it won't care if you drive 24 hours a day forever.
    3
  123. I only got mine off with the Toyota tool. I sucked in quite a bit of air when they told me the price - about $100 - but it was very much worth it. (Things like channel-locks and vices don't work because they jam the threads on the two pieces together.) Now I know the jamming on is because of overtightening it. I understood about the o-ring sealing it but somehow still over-tightened them.
    3
  124. The Blue Diver has a different set of capabilities. It can't set features but it can display live data and freeze frame data (crucial when fighting a P0420 code: did it happen under low or high throttle and what were the flow rates and short term trim?) The Blue Driver also works with all the modules in the gen 1 Prius, which is really rare.
    3
  125. If the inverter cooling system fails the large motor-generator in the transaxle burns up. The transaxle gradually wears metal away if the fluid is not changed occasionally, even every 100k miles or so. The transaxle is a lot more tolerant of that than conventional automatic transmissions or CVTs are but no sense in stirring up evil spirits.
    3
  126. All car reliability depends on maintenance. The big complaint people commenting here (and me!) seem to have is the owner's books calling for 10K mile changes.
    3
  127. I really am in awe.
    3
  128.  @TheCarCareNut They are not all in one place, either. A card with the "what you need to know" would be very helpful. Small changes in operating behavior make a huge difference.
    3
  129.  @TheCarCareNut  I googled "Top Secret" to find a store and a pair of men in dark suits and even darker glasses came to my door. Then my house guest, Eugene Palmer, walked into the room. That was when things went horribly wrong. (jk) https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/eugene-palmer Your videos always lead to adventure!
    3
  130. Coming from 34 years with a major electric utility (heck - being retired 2 1/2 years I can name them: Arizona Public Service) I am confident electric infrastructure is the big limitation. The excessive photovoltaic solar from California will make it worse west of the Rockies unless people are able to charge their cars in the afternoon. I see it coming but don't know if I will live to see it. NERC estimated the North American (US and Canadian) infrastructure needed about half a trillion dollars in upgrades before EVs were a coming thing, and failing to build for the future is always a mistake. Since most of the infrastructure - at least in the US - is privately owned it will be ratepayers who foot the bill. As a political conservative I will still say this is a legitimate national issue; the five interties ("grids") in the continental US span multiple states (except Texas - theirs is mostly their own) and in Arizona we had a major blackout in 1996 from overheated lines sagging into trees in Washington and Oregon. Barely a month earlier much of the same area was hit because Idaho had too much load. It's time to make this a priority. For all that, I have never been afraid of the future and I'm not going to start now. It can all be worked out; it will just take ingenuity, sane government (okay, that's a tough one) and time. And money.
    3
  131. I second that! As AMD pointed out, It isn't a case of "if Pxxxx appears, replace the foobulator and everything will be great!" I don't think I have seen a video where a master mechanic explains what we should believe for various common codes. I used to be active in Yahoo! Answers and fielded a lot of desperate questions by people who had their catalytic converter replaced three times and P0420 still came back... quicker each time. I could only recommend finding a mechanic who did not believe that P0420 always meant the converter was bad. I'm sure there are a lot of similar booby traps.
    3
  132. My son now has my early-2002 Prius. In that era the hybrid ECU didn't allow much time for the engine to start and if the throttle body is not cleaned every summer the first cold autumn morning would often produce the Red Triangle of Death!!! (Sorry - it is such a cool name for an ordinary warning symbol.) The engine sounds like it is starting but it isn't - it is just being spun by MG1. Later in 2002 the hybrid (?) ECU was modified to increase the crank time, but without replacement (at $1600) the early one still complains. Simple solution: clean the throttle body every year. I presume the Miller cycle engine is responsible for much of the "dirt." I'm sure it burps traces of soot into the intake at the beginning of each compression stroke, as the intake valve is held open to tame the high mechanical compression ratio.
    3
  133.  @michelgarciag  It won't necessarily run more, but the system is extremely intolerant of a weak 12V battery - I believe ripple from the inverter on the 12V line is responsible. It can show up as low fuel economy or as all sorts of misbehaviors, then one day the system doesn't go ready and the dome light is very dim.... I feel the 12V battery should be checked annually because there is very little warning of it failing. In my 18 years of Prius experience the 12V battery is by far the most common failure. BTW, our 2014 is giving us an average of right around 50 mpg, closer to 60 mpg in our hilly town. Hilly terrain really brings out the best in Toyota hybrids.
    3
  134. There are a lot of things I would never known without him sharing his experience.
    3
  135. The hybrids don't work without them. Seriously, though I was talking about the reliability of the 2002 Prius I had bought with 102K miles on it and put another 100K miles on it before I retired and gave him the car I no longer needed. Where was I? Oh - at 210K miles we rebuilt the NiMH hybrid battery. It was the second actual repair we had ever done to the car. It needed an inverter coolant pump at 190K miles, tires, wiper blades, routine maintenance and that's all. We reflected how it was true that there are a lot more things to fail, but they don't often fail! After 19 years the interior is in terrific shape, the car does what cars are supposed to do, and it has never stranded any of us. Quite complex and very reliable. The bottom line is that since we bought our first 2002 Prius we have never even looked at anything else. The reliability is far beyond that of any car we have had in our 46 years together. Don't fear the hybrid battery.
    3
  136. My guess is the reminder light is at 5K miles but the paperwork says 10K miles. That is what my 2014 Prius has - I go by the oil change reminder and our favorite Car Care Nut.
    3
  137.  @LORD_OF_THE_ROOTS  "Don't care what a lab said." Absolutely! The lab results tell you what damage is being done. That leads to the acceptance of the smallest progressive damage, not the highest miles without damage.
    3
  138. I can answer part of that. The EGR is carefully controlled for control of NOx emissions; if it is too low it will throw a code (P0401) and can affect the engine in ways AMD could explain a lot better than I could. Excess EGR is a problem as well. Marwin Victolero (above) asks for a video on just these sorts of codes - the ones related to intake, exhaust, and the emission controls involved. I think it would be a winner.
    3
  139. I've noticed that when I use B mode to descend hills and then take it out of B, using brakes instead, the display shows much more regeneration using the brakes. Also (on my 3rd gen 2014) if I put it into B mode just driving around it won't go into ECO mode, at least with the type of driving I do.
    3
  140. Lacquer thinner is not all one thing. The desirable part is what the Brits call "white spirit" - any of a few related petroleum distillates. Klean Strip, according to the MSDS, is mostly acetone, with naphtha (okay stuff), toluene (good stuff that is sometimes used as an octane booster), methanol (bad stuff that corrodes aluminum), and five other things. The last on the list is venerable Stoddard Solvent... but the idea of putting those in the fuel tank of a modern car gives me the willies.
    3
  141. I found a solution: "stoichiometric" is actually pronounced "just right." Problem solved!
    3
  142. My son's 2002 Prius got its first brake work beyond inspection at 205K miles. The front brakes were about half worn and the rear brakes were not measurably worn. He replaced the front on general principles.
    3
  143. My only problem is finding a gauge I can trust. I have several bourdon tube (rotary pointer) gauges and none of them agree closely enough with the others.
    3
  144. It is possible, but not straightforward to give another car a jump start, The critical thing is to not have another car connected to the Prius battery when the system is in "ready." It is possible to get a decent amount of charge in a good battery of another car by connecting the two in parallel with both cars off, and let the two equalize. Disconnect the two, start the Prius for a few minutes to be sure there is enough juice for another start, and see if the recipient has enough juice to crank. If not, time to get somebody there who can help.
    3
  145.  @jacobs2309  Being a car guy is getting complicated these days.
    3
  146. The first generation Prius transaxles used type T-IV and have no dipstick. Even though the transaxle is very forgiving of wear, change the fluid every 50K miles. It does not burn but it picks up metal.
    3
  147. Same here. Our knowledge always has gaps, and this channel fills quite a few of them.
    3
  148. Same thing here: just about every time EV mode is available in my 2014 Prius the ECO mode will choose EV anyway.
    3
  149. On a whole different brand... When Volvo rolled out the 5 cylinder engines on the 850 model, the valve stem clearances were pretty close. It was very common for people who never went on the freeway to experience misfires, hard starting, and similar problems. (I had a Volvo at the time [shudder] and saw a lot of this on the Volvo forums.) An Italian tune-up would fix them right up.
    3
  150. My daughter had a 2002 Sienna that threw a P0420. I looked over the exhaust system upstream of the converter and fixed an exhaust leak... the P0420 disappeared.
    3
  151. He's also a straight shooter. If there are Toyota problems out there he has seen it, and he is very candid about it.
    3
  152. I don't know about nickel, but lithium has been in the news occasionally as a potential conflict mineral in South America. The lithium deposits apparently span several countries and, like oil, can be mined under foreign soil be slant drilling. (Lithium is mined by injecting water into deposits and bringing up the mineral in solution.)
    3
  153. Lifetime transmission fluids are a real thing. I guarantee if you don't change the fluid it will last as long as your transmission does. The same is true of engine oil; just top it up as needed and I guarantee the oil will still be there when the engine is at end of life... usually many months, possibly more than an entire year!
    3
  154.  @TheCarCareNut  Just as a reassurance for those who wonder how well Toyota hybrids do in very cold weather, our 2010 started and ran just fine when the temperature got down to -20F. For those who don't know, use only synthetic oil in very cold winter areas.
    3
  155. My daughter does not always listen to me. Last month she texted me, very worried because her Honda CR-V was stumbling and stalling, CEL on. An internet search showed all sorts of scary possibilities, and she was concerned about the catalytic converter being plugged up. When I asked if she had been putting top tier gas in it she asked if Sam's Club was top tier. I recommended she get a bottle of Techron and follow the instructions for the amount of gas in her car. No problems after that.
    3
  156.  @hamsterama  I haver to make time to change my Prius spark plugs... you can bet I am getting them from the dealer! IIRC the CCN has done a video about counterfeit plugs.
    3
  157. We lived in Phoenix for 25 years before moving to Flagstaff, so we know what you are talking about! Our Prius keeps cool beautifully in Phoenix summers (after all, the compressor has the same amount of power sitting with the engine off as it does on the freeway), but the extra vehicle volume of the Highlander could be more of a challenge. Honestly, I would want a test ride on a hot afternoon with four people in the car.
    3
  158.  @TheSuperBoyProject  The damage resulting from it was responsible for the rest of the cost.
    3
  159. The video at 1:06 mentions that the different modes don't involve moving parts. The same is true for all the eCVT operation. Nothing shifts at any time: there are no push belts, conical gears, synchros, bands, clutches, or anything like that. The Toyota eCVTs may be the most reliable transmission in any car anywhere. As with manual transmissions, the fluid should be changed occasionally because the lubrication and viscosity of the fluid still deteriorates. We have had two first generation Prius, both 2002 model years. My wife's suffered an eCVT failure because of a design weakness in the pre-2004 models. The inverter ran at battery voltage, which meant twice the current in the eCVT motor-generators. Twice the current means 4 times the heat, and MG2 (the bigger motor-generator) burned up. With the change in the inverter and hybrid transaxle voltages that is no longer an issue. The first generation Prius also had an earlier battery design. My son actually has my 2002 Prius now and it needs a hybrid battery at 19 years and 210K miles. The car is still very reliable (except for the battery) and is definitely worth the battery replacement.
    3
  160. In our 2014 Prius it comes on every 5K miles.
    3
  161. A whole lot of good info there! A lot of those, if allowed to go wrong, could be frustrating and expensive repairs. You have mentioned the folly of using anything other than 0W-16 in other videos, and I wonder how many problems you have seen with inadequate or wrong oil in other Toyotas. There has been some buzz about oil consumption in early 3rd gen Prius (particularly the 2010) and some sites saying it is because the piston oil control ring drain holes are too small. I wonder... too small or coked because conventional oil was used? We had a 2010 that got to about 120K before it was demolished, and we never had a bit of trouble with the oil - no noticeable consumption between 5K mile changes.
    3
  162.  @shayjohnson5830  You do realize it is his working garage that he makes videos in? If he stops making videos he will still use the garage as he is doing now.
    3
  163.  @TheCarCareNut  Thanks for the recommendation! I have been doing oil changes on our 2014 Prius when the 5K mile reminder tells me it's time, although our service fits the 10K mile comditions in the maintenance schedule. When I change the oil it is darker than new but I can still see light through it. I'll stick with the 5K mile changes.
    3
  164. I wouldn't have any other. We have had nothing but Prius in the family since 2002 - by far the most reliable cars we have had in our 47 years together. The 2002 Prius needed its first actual repair (besides 12V batteries, wiper blades, and tires) a couple years ago at 195K miles - the inverter cooling pump failed. $150 and a few hours fighting rusted hardware fixed it. I can name the worst car I have ever owned: a 1984 Dodge 600 with a Mitsubishi engine, the second car I ever bought new, but Prius is so much better than any of the others I don't even know what the second place would be.
    3
  165. The cylinders are splash lubricated so the oil just drains through, but I think you are focusing on one of the important areas. The drain holes are often blamed, and it makes me wonder how much that is sabotaged by poor oil maintenance or (probably worse) the wrong oil. Our 2010 made it well beyond 130K miles with no oil consumption before it was demolished by a driver who thought she could drive, even with uncontrolled seizures. It was replaced by a 2014 Prius now up to 120K mikes, no oil consumption. With 600 mile round trips an average of every month or two it gets a lot of exercise.
    3
  166. Great info! Our 2014 Prius will need plugs when the weather gets a bit warmer (well, it needs them now but my old bones are not ready!). I have had the cowl off before and will do it again. It really is not hard. In Priuschat a couple people mentioned that the Toyota hybrid transaxle will make a knocking sound - like a muted rod knock - if the plugs get too old. They say that the PSD rattles a bit at "idle" if the engine power is not smooth. I don't know if I'm convinced, but it sounds like a good reason to make sure the plugs are good before chasing a soft knock. First rule of troubleshooting: make everything right and see what problems remain.
    3
  167.  @TheCarCareNut  That's great to have expert confirmation. Thanks!
    3
  168. I often opine that Toyota's "eCVT" is the most reliable transmission available in a car today. I have replaced too many clutches (disk, throwout bearing, pilot bearing) to nominate manual transmissions, as if worn synchros are not bad enough. I personally sleep easier not having a starter or alternator waiting to fail.
    3
  169. I recall the early 21st century, and the 2007 Honda Accords that needed frequent rear brake pad replacements (Honda had reportedly changed the front/rear brake balance). Some reportedly needed rear brakes at each oil change, but I think that was hyperbole. When my son inherited my 2002 Prius around 200K miles the replaced the brakes (on general principles) for the first time ever.
    3
  170. Some details would be great; I bet AMD can work in your sort of problem as an example when the subject comes up.
    2
  171.  @TheCarCareNut  I have heard a lot about oil consumption in the Gen 3, with lots of fingers pointing to the small drain holes in the oil control ring seats and subsequent coking of the holes and rings. However, coking makes me think the owners are using conventional oil (which can't be 0W-20) and/or neglecting change intervals. Any light you can shed on that in a gen 3 video would be great!
    2
  172.  @raymathews7035  I agree with the view that they are long-lasting parts so the price per mile is low for such an important part. I'm from the days of copper plugs that lasted 15-20K miles and cost 89 cents apiece. On the other hand, I had several of those 89 cent plugs fail, usually by arcing internally. Champions were really bad about that - you could open the throttle just so much and the engine would misfire. And, of course, 15 gallons of gas in those days cost $4.80.
    2
  173. I know inferior parts are worse than original, but I don't often think about the consequences. It's just an oil filter, right? What can go wrong? It can be even worse than that. A Honda owner once posted pictures of his baby a month after he replaced a ball joint with an aftermarket one. The ball joint snapped after only three weeks. It is one of the few automotive failures that can be identified from a hundred yards away: the affected wheel flops on its side. So, no aftermarket or counterfeit parts for me.
    2
  174. In 50 years I have bought only 3 new cars. The 2002 Prius was the only one that was not a nightmare of unreliability. Tesla is out of the question; the nearest service facility is 130 miles away.
    2
  175. About the same for the classic Prius in recent years. You're right: we replace the oil and we replace the paper filter.
    2
  176. I fear throttle by wire is here to stay. It is the only way of limiting odd throttle movements that degrade emission control.
    2
  177. It's worth mentioning that lacquer thinner varies widely; some (like Klean Strip Lacquer Thinner) have significant amounts of methanol, which erodes aluminum. http://www.kleanstrip.com/uploads/documents/GML170_SDS-1605.48.pdf Our favorite Car Care Nut has mentioned the issue of P0420 codes is in the lineup for this series on DTCs. I know plenty are looking forward to it. I have a recommendation for a preliminary check - might help, can't hurt. Check for exhaust leaks, particularly ahead of the converter. My favorite way to look for leaks is to connect a shop vac to blow low pressure air into the exhaust with the engine off, giving it a moment to clear any debris out of the hose. Since we have a Toyota Master Mechanic watching out for us, it would be a good idea to get his blessing before blowing air into the exhaust.
    2
  178. In theory, the EGR does not affect mixture because the exhaust should have little excess O2 or HC.
    2
  179. Well, think about it. Why would it be good? No water in there because of the gasket, no sparking because the spark length would be too long to work. The boots might stick to the plugs, but apparently they don't. Progress changes another standard.
    2
  180. Good choices! We have bought nothing but Toyotas since 2001 and are much happier for it. We are on our third Prius (2014) after the first and second were damaged beyond repair when other cars hit them quite hard.
    2
  181. As a former Phoenician, I can bet you rely on AC all summer. The battery is cooled by the cabin air (which is then dumped into the Great Outdoors). For those who have not had the pleasure of Phoenix in summer, we should mention the only months that have not had 100F+ temperatures are November through February.
    2
  182. Nonsense! We have had nothing but Prius since 2002. I had to replace the inverter coolant pump ($150 and a couple hours getting rusted hardware loose to get to it) at 18 years and 198K miles in the 2002 Prius. My son and I replaced the hybrid battery in the same car (now his - I don't need a separate car while I'm retired) at 210K miles. We had a 2010 Prius that was destroyed when a driver had a seizure and ended up hitting it in a parking lot, and now we have a 2014 Prius. No repairs beyond tires, wiper blades, and 12V batteries on either one. Toyota hybrids are how you keep your money. They are by far the most reliable cars we have ever owned.
    2
  183. My own personal take on changing viscosity is that the original is probably best for the life of the engine (I know many people disagree- this is just my take on it.) Viscosity is selected to match bearing oil clearance; the new 0W-16 oil is really thin to flood the new tighter tolerance bearings. See https://blog.k1technologies.com/bearing-clearance-and-oil-viscosity-explained for an older range of clearances. There is a popular theory that the bearing clearances increase as the bearings wear, but I doubt that. I rebuilt an old Volvo engine with 190K miles on it and the clearances, according to Plastigage, were still in tolerance. All that said, the only difference in 0W-20 and 5W-20 is in cold viscosity, which is more of an issue in places where it gets really cold in winter. Once you get on the road it all becomes the same very rapidly.
    2
  184. Drivers we share the road with.
    2
  185. I'm dismayed by the information that comes with the car does not include servicing/replacing the hybrid air filter.
    2
  186. They were calling them eCVTs - electronic CVTs - in the Olden days. In Toyota technical literature the working part is just called a hybrid transaxle.
    2
  187. My daughter had a '93 Accord as well. She left it to her husband when she bought another used car, but her husband did not follow instructions to check the oil at least once a week. He added oil when the warning light came on... which went very badly when the warning light failed. He ran it dry on the freeway until it seized. My daughter said she needed it to run for another six months so I patched it up. There was about an ounce of bronze in the pan, but I bought new standard size rod bearings and they all plastigaged in spec. I flushed the engine with junk oil and filled it with synthetic, instructing the husband not to give it more than 2/3 throttle and top speed 65 mph. It made it the required six months, and that was all anybody could ask for.
    2
  188. That would be great. I know that the poor souls who have Ford Triton engines would gasp at us not using anti-seize. Their spark plugs often break or tear out threads when people try to remove them. Toyota or Ford, which to choose... Toyota hybrid transaxle or DSG6 dual clutch transmission... hmm.... "To be honest I could use a good ass-kicking." - Joe Pesci as Vincent Gambini in "My Cousin Vinny."
    2
  189. Lead acid batteries can survive being completely discharged for short times as it takes time for the lead sulfate to crystalize, becoming unrecoverable. Sadly, once the battery reaches the condition that this device is needed it has probably either been that low for hours or is already defective. When I worked in communications/IT field support for an electric utility we often encountered dead batteries in remote devices. By the time we got to them, usually a day or more later, they were history - especially if the temperature was below freezing. On the other hand, ones that were dead less than half the day just got bumped up a few months on our scheduled replacement list.
    2
  190. Lots of great explanations of all sorts of modern car technology - always worth watching.
    2
  191. Ditto with my son's 2002 Prius - 23 years old, traction ("main") battery rebuilt at 208k miles. We replaced the struts and shocks a few months ago... that just about wraps up the repair history on it. Do the routine maintenance and life is good.
    2
  192. Holy cow! It looks like you have a lot of company, and none of them are happy either. https://www.carcomplaints.com/Chevrolet/Equinox/2013/engine/excessive_oil_consumption.shtml With a typical repair cost of more than $3000 at about 70K miles, I am going to hug my Toyota and tell it how grateful I am.
    2
  193. Personally, I believe it is the most reliable transmission available in cars today. I have replaced enough clutches and sworn at enough worn second gear synchros to know the Toyota hybrids easily beat manual transmissions for reliability. The last manual I worked on had a seized pilot bearing that was a year old. Grr!
    2
  194.  @TheCarCareNut  I look forward to it! Most of the maintenance is easier than conventional cars; brakes need a lot less attention. There are a few items such as these that are different and, while simple, are important. We switched in 2002 for fuel efficiency and stayed because of the phenomenal reliability. In nearly 50 years we have never had a car that needed less repair in a year than our Prius have in 100,000 miles. (Sadly our 2010 seemed to have become magnetized, being hit in the sides three times over a 6 month period before it was totaled.)
    2
  195. Approximately 1.1% of the adults in the world - seems to be about the same everywhere - is schizophrenic. My mother was actually a borderline schizophrenic (she was slightly too capable of taking care of herself to qualify) so these stories are not entirely foreign to me. A mechanic probably works on 200-300 cars a year. So, what are the odds?
    2
  196. The fuel light is on... maybe you could reset it like you can reset the TPMS light. As for the brakes, I think Toyota has negligently designed brakes. The backing plates on the brake pads should be much thicker so they last longer. And here I thought Toyotas were well designed. I learned 1.1% of adults worldwide are schizophrenic (my mother was one). There are lots of forms of schizophrenia, and there are other common personality disorders. About 4% of adults suffer from bipolar disorder, and most are living mostly normal lives. That accounts for one out of 20 people among us. We are going to encounter lots of really odd people and all we can do is adjust to the strange situations that grow from them.
    2
  197. This clears up a lot for me!
    2
  198.  @brayanflores700  I am only familiar with the Honda incarnation around the turn of the century. That action progressively bent a fork in the transmission, requiring a teardown.
    2
  199.  @TheCarCareNut  Good to know! I would have gotten both questions wrong. I learned a lot of things that I thought I knew from this video. EDIT - I remember my father telling me about the spark plugs in Ford Model Ts (I think) that had just tapered seats on the plugs. I presume they were clamped in. Anyway, he said people would sometimes put them back in a hot engine and the plugs would never come out again.
    2
  200. ...and be sure to watch his video about replacing the hybrid battery air filter at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skSoXGcNpS4 It just occurred to me you may mean the 12 volt aux battery, though. That is in the back on the passenger side, underneath the "floor."
    2
  201. If it had a nail in the shoulder it is unrepairable. I don't know exactly why but I suspect the two-dimensional curve and the flexing while rolling has something to do with it.
    2
  202. Y'all come to Arizona, one of six states with mandatory zero-deductible windshield glass coverage in all auto insurance. In a state with so many rocks it is an important safety issue.
    2
  203. It shouldn't anyway. When it does the engine gets really ugly. I had a Ford F350SD work truck with the notorious 6.0L diesel. 12 miles from the pavement, in the soft sand (actually clay) of the Navajo reservation, the EGR jammed open. It would start and idle okay, but if I touched the throttle even lightly it would choke and die. Being a 4WD manual, I was able to feather the clutch and get it rolling, then actually pick up a gear so I could make it back to the road.
    2
  204. Of every 100 people in the US about 4 have bipolar disorder (3 of them severely), 4 have paranoid personality disorder, 1 is schizophrenic (my mother was one of them), and a variable number have all sorts of substance problems. Then there are all sorts of generally strange people. As AMD says most people are great, but lordy! the people who aren't are strange indeed.
    2
  205. Same here.
    2
  206. Something I hope you can address sometime is a situation that happened to our 2014 Prius. Discount Tire, in changing to winter tires, broke a front wheel hub when the stud seized in the nut. They had a local shop do the work to replace the hub (a real nightmare) and they paid for the whole thing. This year we removed the same wheel to replace the fender lining and had the same problem. I have put anti-seize on all the car's studs now, but I wonder what is going on.
    2
  207. All my kids are in their 40s now, but they all learned to drive a manual in their first year of driving. When I worked in the IT Field Services department of a Fortune 100 electric company - mountaintop comm sites in any weather, remote devices far from any actual road - it was assumed anybody applying for the job knew how to drive a manual. When one new guy had a throwout linkage failure (hydraulic or cable IDK) the rest of us were amazed he didn't know how to drive it with the clutch always engaged. It may be different in different areas, but for decades I hardly knew anybody who was unfamiliar with manual transmissions.
    2
  208. At least you know now.
    2
  209. I'm so glad you said dream car without the worries about cost, reliability, etc. I owned a 1969 Lotus Europa - a dream to drive and a nightmare to own. In real life I will never own an exotic again! In my dreams, though, a Lotus Elise waits for me. EDIT - BTW, a mini-split for my house also waits for me in my dreams.
    2
  210. I remember the 2001-2002 Prius had problems with some power steering racks oscillating if the car is backed up. Otherwise, the ones we have had have been remarkably reliable.
    2
  211. I see comments above that removing plugs in a warm engine is easier.
    2
  212. The Car Wizard mentioned that in one of his videos. Draining the oil and finding out the car was ready and just snoozing is no fun, I suppose.
    2
  213. This is one of the best "top five car myths" I have seen. I almost fainted when you mentioned overfilling the gas tank. "He's going to say it's a myth?!?" Then you said it's not a myth and I could breathe again. The #5 myth about premium fuel was very well done, but I'm hoping you will do one about the brand mattering. Back when I had hair and cars were rear wheel drive, that was probably true enough. In modern times with EFI I am adamant about using Top Tier (now World Standard?) gasoline. I hope there is a mention of that in the next video - if I'm wasting money, I want to know.
    2
  214. As an 18 year Prius owner (we have bought and wanted nothing else in that time) I thought this was the most useful information I have seen so far. There are others that go into more detail for individual things but this tells us how to avoid mistreating them. BTW, in all this time I have had to do one repair to our Priuses besides 12V batteries, tires, wiper blades, and windshields: the inverter pump died in our 2002 a couple of years ago, just short of 200K miles. It is a common problem in gen 1 and gen 2 Prius. It cost me $150 and a couple hours of my very slow labor, mostly wrestling with rusted hardware. I do my own routine maintenance. One thing I would add to this video's list: do not blow off the spark plug replacement at the 100K mile intervals. The system will run okay enough, but fuel economy will drop and the transaxle will make knocking sounds (intermittent at first) that sound like rod knock. Just follow the schedule and life will be good. EDIT - I forgot: ALWAYS use the recommended oil, and always synthetic. (0W-20 oil only comes in synthetic.) Especially in 2010 - 2014 engines, the wrong oil can block the piston oil drain holes with coke. I also recommend top tier gasoline brands (see https://www.toptiergas.com/licensed-brands/). The Atkinson engine burps soot into the intake; top tier gasolines reduce but do not eliminate that. Throttle body cleaning is not a bad idea, but actually trying to do it makes me wonder if it is worth the trouble. DO NOT spray throttle body cleaner in the intake, the engine hates that and is quite noisy about it.
    2
  215.  @TheCarCareNut  That sounds like a well-thought out plan. I'll be watching!
    2
  216.  @TheCarCareNut  I've seen too many videos by people who learned the hard way not to go aftermarket on ball joints. One broke within a month! If Rockauto has oem parts I go that way.
    2
  217. My daughter was married to a man who had no idea how to treat cars. He inherited her 1997 Honda Accord. It consumed oil but as long as it was topped up every week or so it stayed afloat. He got into the habit of adding oil when the warning light came on... until the light failed. He ran it out of oil on the freeway and I towed it home. My daughter was desperate for it to work another six months, so I dropped the pan and unfastened all the conn rods. There was an ounce or so of bronze in the pan, but when I miked the journals none of them were awful. I bought a set of crankshaft bearings and they all plastigaged okay! I assembled, flushed with a few quarts of cheap oil, and filled it. The compression was something like 95/45/95/60, making the firing order 95-95-60-45. I instructed top speed 65 mph, max throttle 2/3, and it made it for the needed six months before she could buy a car. Thankfully, her husband no longer drives.
    2
  218. On our Prius, Discount Tire replaces the sensors every time we get replacement tires or even change from summer to winter tires. The price is very low; something like $20 per tire. It saved us a tire last year when we picked up a screw on the freeway. The light came on and we changed the wheel, then repaired the one that was punctured.
    2
  219. Arizona is the Land of Flying Rocks. Windshields often last about as long as tires, but sometimes much less. When we took our first Prius back to the dealer for a cracked windshield, the service writer ran a ballpoint pen along the crack. It snagged partway through, indicating it was a crack that grew from a rock impact and was an insurance issue rather than warranty.
    2
  220. I don't think the rear main seal went out three weeks after you got it, but more likely about that long before it was traded in. A pre-purchase inspection probably would have picked it up. Ditto with the steering.
    2
  221. Generally, if tires are aired from a pressure tank (rather than an inflator right at the tire) it is already dry. The vapor pressure of the water has to compete with the air pressure, so in a tank that runs 50 psi or more the air is fairly dry. Ditto for air in a cold winter, regardless of whether it was just compressed or came from a tank.
    2
  222. They are real Toyota-like parts.
    2
  223. Yes! Speed shifting chews up the edges of the gears. It isn't a big deal to shift without the clutch by rev matching if the clutch linkage fails but these things must be done delicately or you hurt the spell.
    2
  224. Ahh - complaining! That is three demerits. When you accumulate twelve demerits we will look down our noses at you. Hmmph!
    2
  225. Of course, the problem is it is a relatively cool metal thing that relatively hot exhaust goes through. It is a formula for trouble.
    2
  226. Not yet, and maybe never. There is a proposal, but no law yet, for mandating MY2026 and later vehicles sold in the US to have a remote kill switch to allow law enforcement to shut down the car (and presumably others around it) in case of an incipient high speed chase. In response, Republicans have introduced H.R.6563 - "No Kill Switches in Cars Act." It is in the Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce since last December. Another outrageous bill, H.R.25 - FairTax Act of 2023, will eliminate all income tax and replace it with a 23% (adjustable) sales tax on all services and all new goods in the USA. Part of the bill will eliminate the IRS, but (according to the summary) "the bill terminates the national sales tax if the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution (authorizing an income tax) is not repealed within seven years after the enactment of this bill." Consider the Fairtax 2023 bill: all the money we have in savings will be taxed a second time. If you want to buy a new house you will have to come up with the 23% tax first, because taxes can't be financed. That problem will not exist with existing houses... you can imagine how that will affect homebuilding. If you need a doctor, lawyer, carpenter, maid... you will have to pay the 23% tax on their services. Medicines will be subject to the new tax. The good news: FairTax 2023 is in committee (Ways and Means) and has been for a year. Like many bills, we can hope it dies in Committee.
    2
  227. The same style filter for my 2014 Prius is a bit under $7 at the dealer, and I get the crush washer at the same time. None of the online uncertainties: when will it come ion? Is it OEM? Will it be undamaged?
    2
  228. The simple O2 sensors generally became sluggish; I suppose the A/F sensors are the same. However, the voltages are set by the chemistry and are stable. That doesn't mean the 14 year old sensor is in great shape, but if it is not giving you the "warm glow of the check engine light" I would not mess with it.
    2
  229.  @marbesky  I know in the days of narrow-band O2 sensors replacing the sensors when they got sluggish would improve fuel economy, but I honestly don't know if that applies to the wideband sensors. I sorta assume if the emissions is happy with it I probably am. On the narrow-band systems a sluggish O2 sensor could also push an aging catalytic converter over the edge to a P0420 code. The downstream sensor was looking for the way the cat handled the rich phase of the oscillation the CCN mentioned. The converter has cerium in it - better ones have more, cheaper ones have less - to "absorb" oxygen (actually, change to cerium oxide) during the lean phase and release it (change back to metallic cerium) during the rich phase. If the output of the cat showed too little oxygen in the rich phase the downstream O2 sensor would register its complaint and the ECM would report the dreaded P0420 code. It appears wideband sensors can become slow as they age, but I don't see anybody outright saying they can contribute to P0420 codes. I am with our host on this point: if it is not causing trouble, better to leave it alone.
    2
  230. Model and year will help.
    2
  231. Supra by BMW? Say it ain't so!
    2
  232. Here in Arizona broken windshields are more common than flat tires. Glass coverage on the auto insurance is usually very cheap.
    2
  233. Honda hybrids are very different. Your best bet is to find some Honda Hybrid forums and see who the experts there are.
    2
  234. The devil of it is the Sienna is a nice vehicle when horrible problems are not surfacing.
    2
  235. Our first gen Prius has the original belt-driven water pump at 20 years and 212K miles. The electric inverter cooling pump failed at 198K miles, though. It was the first actual repair the car needed (beyond 12V batteries and rubber parts, and a broken windshield.) Our 2014 Prius hasn't had cooling system problems yet.
    2
  236. If it were my car I would consider replacement of the steering rack when the budget allowed. My thinking is that such things will be needed at some interval, and doing it around the first sign of trouble rarely increases total cost over the life of the car. Similarly, trying to get the most miles out of something that is failing (and is not going to be the thing that ends the car's life) just gives us more miles of driving with the problem.
    2
  237. I saw a transaxle oil change on a 200K mile first gen Prius with T-IV. Not burned, of course, but a shocking amount of metal sludge. Change that stuff!
    2
  238. Yes! In the USA - the land of inscrutable lawgivers - there was a period in which the electronic speedometers did not read above 85 mph, because the speed limit was supposed to be 55 mph nationwide. We had a 1984 Dodge with one of those.
    2
  239. My car doesn't have a valet either, but if it did I don't think he would fit in the glove box. My glove box space is taken up by gloves... boxing gloves and snow gloves, and sometimes oven mitts or welding gloves. Yeah... that's the ticket!
    2
  240. I wish I had seen this years ago. I usually get the wiper blades off okay but spend a long time trying to figure out how it goes back together. Let's see... I push this hook up through here and. - no, I got something backward. I'll flip it over, and push the hook up through... aargg! I'll take your advice and get the original blades and do the inserts every Spring (after the ice) and Fall (before the snow and ice). I have also found rubber stands up to accidentally running the wipers over an iced windshield than silicone does. BTW, this afternoon I am replacing the cells in my son's 2002 Prius hybrid battery. The originals made it 19 years and 210K miles. In the old days I would have hefted the battery out by myself, but I'm 68 years old (and enough wiser) so I have a young buck helping me with it. I hope to do better than I have done with wiper blades!
    2
  241. Toyotas also have a hybrid battery cooling system. That is the one that has the filter the CCN told us about.
    2
  242. Very nice! I did the oil change on our 2014 Prius yesterday (d'oh!) Now I know about the filler cap gasket and the torque on the filter canister cap. Back when we still had the 2010 Prius I bought the Toyota tool for removing that cap because no plastic cap was going to do it. Now I know why, but at least I have a shiny filter cap tool to make me feel more special as I wallow around under the car. EDIT - I originally asked about that cool funnel but you answered it in another comment. Thanks!
    2
  243. Most cars require synthetic now. That may be part of it.
    2
  244. The terrible irony is that there is more money in counterfeiting high end items than in counterfeiting workaday items.
    2
  245.  @TheCarCareNut  I had no idea. I found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS1Zobxwbak - it seems to vary from vehicle to vehicle. Maybe if you look at the chart in the article it will point to a particular generation in the Toyota Smart Keys.
    2
  246.  @kimdavis5631  In February I helped my son rebuild the hybrid battery in his 2002 Prius around 208K miles. It was the second repair it ever needed; the first was the inverter coolant pump at 195K miles.
    2
  247.  @riceburner4747  Fobs can be bad news on Toyota hybrids when the car is serviced. The Car Wizard once told about a colleague who was doing an oil change on a Prius and had it on the lift with the drain plug out when the engine started up!!! The car was left in Ready and he had the fob near enough to the car to keep it active. He got it down in time but it was pretty scary.
    2
  248. I agree - lots and lots of conflicting "information" about alcohol in fuel. Most of the additive controversies are clear but ethanol is still a cipher.
    2
  249. For owners of early Prius (through about 2002) throttle body cleaning is an important annual ritual. The original ECUs (which can't be flashed in the generation) would crank the engine - it sounds exactly like idling - for a short period before giving up and turning on the Triangle Of Death... the scary name popularly used for the hybrid warning. The first time this happens you can get going and turn off the Scary Triangle by starting the system four times in a row. After that, you should get the throttle body cleaned. These symptoms show up when the weather begins turning cold. There were upgraded ECUS installed later but not all early Prius got those.
    2
  250. I have a confession to make about my experiences with R134a. I was pretty good at recharging R12 by ear (listening to the compressor cycle) or by gauge so I thought I could do the same with R134a. What a fool I was! Short result: I no longer touch my A/C refrigerant system. I did a lot of research to identify the best A/C shop in town and I take my cars there when the cooling gets weak. It is completely worth it.
    2
  251.  @gnawty4662  You're welcome! Those first years in the electric company with the possibility of a higher rate of brain cancers were spooky, though.
    2
  252. Our 2014 Prius reminds us to "perform service" every 5K miles while the maintenance schedule calls for it every 10K miles. I almost went to 10K mile intervals until CCN warned me away.
    2
  253. My son's 2002 Prius, which is much more primitive than even a 2004, is doing just fine under the hood. An interesting facet is that the engine is actually spun up to "idle" before it is fired up.
    2
  254.  @Blakecryderman7244  We had a 1985 Volvo 765T. It was a terrible car, needing repair work at least once a month. The Volvo version of PCV pumped oil mist into the rubber intake ducts, dissolving them after about 150K miles. The set was about $600. The same thing gooped up the throttle body and IAC valve, requiring cleaning every few months to prevent stalling. Those were just the standard recurring headaches. The outrage was in model years between 1984 and 1987, when Volvo decided to use French wiring with biodegradable insulation. The problem was that the wiring did not wait to biodegrade; every bit of 22 gauge wire insulation that was exposed to the elements shucked off long before its time. More? Ours had the standard fuel pickup failure: the inch or so of hose between the pre-pump in the tank tore (it had a bellows), causing intermittent stalling and/or refusal to start when the fuel dropped below 1/4 tank. The fuel hose from the main fuel pump to the engine developed a pinhole, draining the last 1/4 of a tank in less than 20 miles and destroying the pump. More standard problems: TDC sensor became intermittent, as did the fuel pump relay. The engine developed piston slap around the 200K mile mark. The 3/8 inch breather hose from the crankcase to the turbo inlet plugged up on the freeway, producing a large cloud of smoke and blowing 3 quarts of oil into the intake before we could get off the freeway. The wax pellet in the inlet air temperature control box failed, feeding hot air into the engine. Those are just the common failures seen in that Volvo. I don't think much of that list.
    2
  255.  @ahmadghosheh3104  Just a detail: California rules forbid anybody but an authorized smog check station to even read the codes! Midas shops will do it for free. I don't know if it applies to the other "CARB" states as well. Other states it is just as you say, and they are happy to do it. It sells parts.
    2
  256.  @TheCarCareNut  I took ChrisFix's advice and spent $100 for a BlueDriver. It is the only decent priced module that will look at the various modules in our first gen Prius. The BlueDriver module plugs onto the OBD2 port and communicates with Androids and Apples via bluetooth.
    2
  257. Remember, a seller on eBay is not necessarily who they claim to be. Quite a few Toyota dealers sell parts through their website.
    2
  258. Going from Flagstaff to Verde Valley fills it before we get halfway down.
    2
  259. You understand what seemingly few people do: the bearing tolerance ("oil clearance") dictates the viscosity. Of course the low viscosity reduces the energy it takes to pump it. https://www.enginebuildermag.com/2013/03/bearing-clearances/
    2
  260. Wix has a great reputation, but I will probably still get my oil filters from the dealer. Guaranteed suitable for that vehicle, low price. The dealer sells me the OEM filter and the drain plug washer for less than the price of the Wix filter alone on Amazon.
    2
  261. Scotty Kilmer wears me out. I didn't see his review and I don't expect to view it.
    2
  262. AMD convinced me to stay with 5K mile changes. The amount of varnish in the original block told me where this story was going.
    2
  263.  @marklintwo  Rant follows: I have soured on Hondas over the last 20 years or so. They seem pretty good for the last decade or more, so they have dropped off my "do not buy new" list. Toyota would never have let anything like the notorious fuel pump relays go for so many decades, or the automatic transmissions between 1998 and 2005 that earned the 2003 Accord the second worst record in carcomplaints.com 's database.
    2
  264.  @yousseflahbil679  I think many mechanics are jealous of women's small hands. I have small hands but I am still jealous every time I try to jam one in where I have to get fingertips on something. When I worked in aviation (small planes) my boss had really big hands. He tried for years to get a hand through an instrument hole in the panel and was so proud when he finally figured out how to do it. The next week he came out while I was working behind a panel and had both hands through one instrument hole. He walked away shaking his head.
    2
  265.  @bogdanmongol9518  Getting OT now... I recently saw a video saying Teslas have more of a problem with that than Toyotas do. They also have a 12V aux battery to boot it and access is no fun at all.
    2
  266. I don't have one of those engines but it is the sort of thing that interests me... and probably a lot of your subscribers. You are an "under the hood" type of presenter and attract trouble hounds like us.
    2
  267. There is no need to use those bad words!
    2
  268.  @charlesjackson1700  I'm in that boat, too. At 68 years old my capabilities and enthusiasm are dropping while engine complexity is rising. I think my engine teardown and assembly days are mostly done. Funny - I'm not sad about that!
    2
  269. Great advice! For hybrids, ChrisFix has a part of his video on replacing a 2nd gen Prius battery that addresses cleaning the hybrid battery cooling fan as well while the area is apart: https://youtu.be/Q3RCdrh666w?t=522
    2
  270.  @p6102zrfxe  FWIW, our non-burning Prius at 120K miles has a steady diet of top tier brands with 10% ethanol. I am a fanatic about top tier gas (soon to be replaced by Worldwide Fuel Charter, I suppose.) I became a believer when I had a Nissan (hiss-boo!) with horrible clutch judder. One day I realized the judder was a symptom at low speed, high load. I filled the tank with Texaco and within 100 miles the judder was gone.
    2
  271. ...or some random scammer impersonating the dealership. Unless somebody complains to the dealer about being scammed by their eBay namesake the dealer would never know. Then they can get eBay to kick the bum out, so the bum impersonates a different dealership. It's like killing ants with an icepick. We can call the dealer and ask if they have an eBay sales presence.
    2
  272. Just to add in - I would never ever ever ever have a tire replaced at Walmart. Check out "DIY Seized/Stopped Lug Nut Removal" at the South Main Auto channel https://youtu.be/0Oi_DU-r5Wc "For the record the customer bought the car this way. It was recently at the Walmart for service before he bought it..."
    2
  273. Nearly all brake shops offer a free visual inspection - it lets them estimate the cost of the brake job if needed. If a couple other shops say the same thing it is probably true. I don't understand about the scoring while there is still lining left on the pads unless it sees a lot of hard braking. I'm interested in CCN's take on it.
    2
  274. When he mentioned the coolant reservoir was empty I had a bad feeling. Neglect has many faces.
    2
  275.  @TheCarCareNut  Absolutely! "Here are the new standards. You guys figure out how to do it."
    2
  276. I don't think you can find the required 0W-20 oil in non-synthetic. Castrol says, "0W-20 oils are not conventional (or mineral) motor oils."
    2
  277. He did a video on this about a month ago: "Toyota EGR Diagnosis Tips and Repair Tips" https://youtu.be/lFVNaDJ6HOI I have a 2014 Prius and this cleared up a lot of the EGR rumors I had been hearing. I am dedicated to using Top Tier gasoline brands in my Prius cars because of my experiences with less sensitive cars. I don't know if the throttle body cares a lot but in my experience fuel injectors in almost all cars do. Then there is the matter of carboning valves.... The owner's manual says, "Toyota strongly recommends the use of Top Tier Detergent Gasoline. For more information on Top Tier Detergent Gasoline and a list of marketers, please go to the official website www.toptiergas.com."
    2
  278. We never know when counterfeits show up though. I think the suspicions are still rumors regarding water pumps but it is just a matter of time. AMD did a video about counterfeit parts for Toyotas - particularly spark plugs, cabin filters, and oil filters. All came in what look like Toyota boxes but are poorly made... as are the products inside the boxes. These counterfeits are even showing up in aftermarket parts stores. Check out his video, "Toyota Counterfeit parts EXPOSED!"
    2
  279. Every adult in my family can drive a manual, including my wife and my daughter. I have at least 500K miles on more than a dozen manual transmission vehicles, including five work trucks and a 1969 Lotus Europa. (Amazing fact: the Europa of that vintage [S2] uses a Renault 16 engine and transaxle; the transaxle would have four reverse gears and only one forward gear if left stock because the assembly is switched from front to rear mid engine. To modify the gearbox the differential cage is flipped over left/right.) What I like least about manuals on the trucks is that when struggling up forest roads in snow it is essentially impossible to shift from second to first gear; the truck gets out of downshift range in a fraction of a second, and truck trannies are not meant for rapid shifts. What I like second least off-road is creeping through a tricky patch of road - they don't creep well below a couple miles per hour.
    2
  280. https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_nickel_metal_hydride says: "The charge efficiency of nickel-based is close to 100 percent up to 70 percent charge. The pack remains cool but it begins to warm up with decreased efficiency towards full charge." That makes sense to me. IIRC Toyota uses only a conservative fraction of the battery capacity, keeping it well away from complete charge or discharge. I would think the NiMH battery pack would get very warm and overtax the cooling if the efficiency were low.
    2
  281.  @TaaviTuisk  I didn't either until I found that. It probably explains why NiMH is not so great for plug-in hybrids, where maximum charge is nice.
    2
  282. I've removed and installed a NiMH battery the low tech way. I got to thinking I should have rented an engine hoist.
    2
  283. Okay if I jump in? Work on the check engine light. Most (all?) modern Toyota vehicles will set the VSC and ABS lights if the MIL - check engine light - is lit. I don't know about AWD. Presumably VSC and ABS want to know the engine is behaving properly before they do their thing. My crystal ball tells me you might have a small evap system leak, but it often lies to me. If it actually is something like P0456 (Evaporative Emissions System Small Leak Detected) lots of people try replacing the gas cap as a cheap thing that might help, can't hurt. If it still happens, watch for the upcoming videos! (Watch for them anyway.)
    2
  284. If I learned one thing from Muppet Treasure Island it is that The Black Spot is a pirate's death sentence. Looks like it applies to engines, too.
    2
  285. "Couldn't hoit" reminds me my brother calls moly grease "molybolium" grease. A light heart makes working on troublemakers like cars easier. Now, just try to get "molybolium" out of your mind! Mine is still stuck there.
    2
  286. We have had nothing but Prius since 2002. Now my son has my wife's old 2002, and at 212K miles it needs a hybrid battery. The rebuild kit (ChrisFix has a video) is $1938 from a reputable source. That amounts to $102 a year or $0.28 per day. The first gen also had a number of problems including an unreliable inverter coolant pump; I spent $150 on that. Toyota says "For Toyota hybrid vehicles beginning with model year 2020, the hybrid (HV) battery is covered for 10 years from original date of first use or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first." https://www.toyota.com/owners/resources/warranty-owners-manuals/sienna/2020
    2
  287. He is right - I never heard of it before. I was working the sensor back and forth and getting frustrated.
    2
  288. Really important with diesels!
    2
  289. The engine is port injection - the 2ARFE engine, I think.
    2
  290. Well since my aux belt was not supposed to be glazed, I got the spare tire out and poured sugar syrup all over it and let it dry. I don't see what all the interest in glazed donuts is about. Hmmph.
    2
  291. To us, yes. To the sales manager... not so much.
    2
  292.  @kens805  I've been doing my own all the time. Next week we are rebuilding the hybrid battery in my son's 2002 Prius. At 210K miles and 19 years it gave up. In all honesty it is a simple job but after that we may have a front end rebuild on it. The worst I have had on recent cars was a Kia with t he back doors locked by child safety locks and both outside door latches had some link broken. 3 hours of fishing through the window slots got me nowhere. A few years ago I pulled a muscle in my face - I'm not kidding - trying to hold an Acura transaxle in place after replacing the clutch... then the new pilot bearing seized a year later!
    1
  293.  @kens805  Oh! Worst access I have ever experienced: 1984 Dodge 600 (same as Chrysler Lebaron) A/C compressor. The compressor bracket had to be unmounted to unmount the compressor, and the upper bolt was completely invisible. I had it out three times and each time it took 45 minutes to start that bolt. Needless to say each time it was in summer... in Phoenix. The third time I had to replace a hose and the compressor again because the hose drained the oil before it drained the freon. It was 119 degrees that day.
    1
  294. That makes even more sense than the pressure view of it. Both point to moly grease for the outer joint.
    1
  295.  @TheCarCareNut  You deserve a big Attaboy! for that save. Crypto88 could have bought himself a big headache.
    1
  296.  @riceburner4747  I agree, after 58 years of electronic maintenance in aircraft and commercial power systems. The cells that are still in specs are not undamaged, just not symptomatic. It's like trying to treat a measles epidemic by quarantining those who have rash. The seeds of trouble are already planted.
    1
  297. A lot of counterfeit iridium plugs don't even use iridium on the tips.
    1
  298. I think if you follow our Car Care Nut's recommendations you will have a happy life with it. Especially be sure to clean the hybrid battery air filter as shown in How To replace Hybrid Battery Fan Filter : 2019+ RAV4 hybrid, 2021+ Venza Hybrid and 2021 RAV4 PRIME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1l-JNGMTEs and do 5K mile oil changes. He has had a lot of videos that will apply to your Rav4. My wife and I have had nothing but Prius hybrids since we bought one new in 2020. Our previous one, a 2010, was going strong when it was smashed by a Nissan SUV. Our 2015 Prius is even better; it is a Package 5. The reliability is so much better than any other car we have ever owned that I don't even know what is in second place.
    1
  299. In every case, phone the dealer to verify they have an eBay presence. Counterfeit eBay accounts are probably as common as counterfeit parts.
    1
  300. A quick google reveals a lot of Yaris owners are complaining about it, and a leading suspect is a hardened o-ring on the tensioner. There are a couple of YouTube videos; I hope our host can shed some light on that. YT has been automatically deleting comments with external links for a while, so I will try the internal links in a separate reply.
    1
  301. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeEb5KvyURI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku49nFowC2Q
    1
  302. Now my nightmares may return.... My daughter had a 200something Sienna that had the more normal sliding door problems in that vintage, but far worse was something I may have triggered. I was doing some routine maintenance when I noticed the front passenger door had a loose strike plate. A few seconds with a screwdriver fixed it... and opened a door to the land of nightmares. The latch never disengaged again. I could never tell if the lock mechanism was involved, but it seemed not to be the big problem. Since it happened after I tightened the strike I figured it was the latch mechanism that was jammed up. Pushing the door inward didn't help, and fishing through the window slot didn't either. Comparing it with the driver door convinced me that removing the door panel (which would destroy it to get it off without the door being open) would still not be of much use with the door jammed closed. Drilling holes through the B pillar was dubious and would certainly compromise the pillar strength. My last resort would be to cut out the door skin around the latch, but that was also a poor candidate. When we traded it in for another used car the door was still permanently closed.
    1
  303. The symptoms sound like dry slide pins.
    1
  304. I rebuilt the NiMH battery in the 2002 Prius I bought in 2004 and gave to my son when I retired. The rebuild kit came from a place in southern California; there was a $400 core charge for the modules. That makes me think they are recycled. BTW, the car had about 201K miles on it in 19 years. If anybody does this on a first gen battery that underwent the sealant process, you will find it largely glued together with a brown cement. That can be softened with an oily solvent... I had Techron handy and it worked. Paint on, let sit a minute, score with a knife, repeat for an hour or two. Patience is critical.
    1
  305. ...keeping in mind the CCN's frequent admonition to change at 5K mile intervals, not 10K.
    1
  306. Sometimes it worked. Many of the radiator leaks I have seen were the solder seals on the tanks. They grew no matter what we did.
    1
  307. It took me over 60 years to learn the truth of what you recommended: replace the boot (or whatever you are dealing with) at the first sign of failure. What it took me so long to understand is this: we get the most value out of a repair when the repair is oldest when we sell or scrap the vehicle. In this case, at 200K miles it will need that axle replaced just this once. Why let it go any longer if you are going to have to do it just once? As soon as the problem is seen, schedule it for the earliest affordable time.
    1
  308. Most Toyota dealers will sell off the website; the eBay presence may be anybody masquerading as the dealer.
    1
  309. Good catch! It is theoretically possible to rev match in reverse if rolling backward but the gears are mighty unforgiving. I ignorantly tried it a couple times but the noise warned me off.
    1
  310. Consider: if the filter did not come through Toyota's supply chain rather than just Denso's, it is not genuine Toyota. It may be the same part or it may not.
    1
  311. Mostly for Europeans, I think, is "Lambda 1.0"
    1
  312. Sadly, I suspect you are right. Anger from minor frustration is very common in dementia, especially in the early stages. (Wife did elder care as a nurse for many years.)
    1
  313. We had a 1964 Dodge Coronet in California - rarely got below freezing. In the morning it was fond of staying in first gear for a few blocks.
    1
  314. I haven't driven one since I was about 63 - I first drove one when I was 18. I don't miss it, really.
    1
  315. Does the warm-up in cold weather apply to Toyota hybrid transmissions or to manual transmissions?
    1
  316. Our 2014 Prius appears to use regen braking as long as the cruise control is engaged, then does the "B" mode thing when the hybrid battery is full. That is not exactly common, but getting from Flagstaff to Phoenix we drop about 2000 feet coming off the Colorado Plateau so it isn't rare, either. In our 2002 Prius B mode and cruise control can be used together; CC does not limit speed. In our 2014 cruise control disengages if B is selected but limits speed.
    1
  317.  @danielbrettschneider770  It looks like about a third to a half of gas stations are not top tier. My favorite convenience store, Maverick, is not. Circle K used to be (they used 76 gasoline) but is not any more. Googling "top tier gasoline" will bring up sites with lists. I remember when only the majors were top tier. Why the US EPA does not update their standards for detergency in light of EFI, and especially GDI, baffles me.
    1
  318. I did that for years - probably helped, didn't hurt.
    1
  319.  @joeshmoe8952  You should ask them if they have an eBay site. Anybody can call themselves Bell Lexus North Scottsdale on eBay. They have a website where they sell parts to the public in addition to the usual dealership website functions. I can't imagine why they would have an eBay presence.
    1
  320. Remember: there can be a lot of reasons your cat doesn't purr. Bad injectors, wobbly fuel pressure, vacuum leaks, exhaust leaks ahead of the cat, or even a bad cat itself. Guessing gets really expensive! I'm really looking forward to the rest of this series.
    1
  321. A partial reply from a geezer who remembers "single circuit" brake systems: when dual braking systems and brake system warning lights became the standard, brake failure was considered to be a very remote prospect. Murphy's Law was still in force, though. I had a 1969 Lotus Europa... a British Leyland product. In the early '70s in America we could not bop down to the local car parts store and get foreign car parts; we had to go to foreign car parts stores. However, my local "normal" parts store had DOT 3 brake fluid, and the bottle said it was for all brake systems... cool! I bled my brake system with DOT 3, not being aware of the (can't remember the name) brakes. One morning soon afterward I got in the car, fired it up, rolled out to the road and the brake pedal went to the floor. Parking brake to the rescue! The fluid was on both sides of the seal between the chambers and destroyed it in a few days, then it ate away the primary seal and let the fluid out.
    1
  322.  @kiwiinterstates3190  Hmm... you spent some money then so you don't have to spend boxes of money now. It's crazy enough that it just might work.
    1
  323. The only way to stay sane is to think of it as part of the Grand Adventure.
    1
  324. 100% agree about Top Tier gasoline. I learned my lesson with a 1984 Nissan 300ZX, manual transmission. The clutch became grabby, then it got worse so I had to rev the engine and feather the clutch to get it rolling. One day it dawned on me: the engine ran okay except at low rpm with relatively high throttle. Maybe the injectors were dirty. For one of the first times in my life I filled up with Top Tier gasoline, and before the tank was low the clutch smoothed out. I've seen nearly every grabby clutch straighten out after a tank of Top Tier gas, although Techron or similar will do the same, just at higher cost.
    1
  325.  @Trex6767  That's the central issue - the cost times the likelihood. I haven't had a rear main seal problem in the 25 years I have been using synthetic oil... it can happen, but what are the chances? That is why I check carcomplaints.com for common problems and carsurvey.org for satisfaction for the model and year I am considering. They don't help much on newer cars but they flag the really bad stuff.
    1
  326. That seems to be what the PCV valve does! Seriously, though - where would the excess oil be drained to?
    1
  327. An awful lot of those CR-Vs with the same problem. Also, when a certain switch is rotated the headlights come on. Nobody seems to be able to fix it.
    1
  328. Well, kinda. The oil lubricates just fine without oil pressure because the critical factor is film strength, but not for long. The oil pressure exists to maintain the film of oil. The older Toyota hybrids are good examples; they start and stop sometimes a hundred or more times in a busy day. The motors spin it up, restoring oil pressure and flow, a short time before the fuel is injected again. Our 2002 Prius had the dirty intake problem that (in cold weather, usually the first cold snap of the year) made it sound like it started and idled for a few seconds and then shut down. Without fuel the engine is just an air pump.
    1
  329. Mostly we are waiting for them to be practical for us.
    1
  330.  @TheCarCareNut  I am certain that is true for the smart key for a 2010 Prius. I bought one on the net and it could not be programmed. If it is not stored in the key the key could be reused on another car.
    1
  331.  @nissanslut7870  That's the frustrating part: everything affects everything. I had a 1985 Volvo (pre-OBD) that ran horribly rich when the turbo kicked in. With no OBD it took me two years (!) to stumble across the cause: a bad connection on the ECT sensor.
    1
  332. The first gen was that way, too IIRC. The third gen has the splash guard across the bottom and it hinges the wrong way for me.
    1
  333. The first gen had a somewhat problematic eCVT; the low voltage DC system required a lot of current to do its job and the larger of the pair of electric motors (MG2) can burn up if we don't check the level of the inverter coolant often. It is practical, but not so cheap, to replace MG2. After two decades of Prius I would not hesitate to buy a newer one. My daughter now has a 2023 Prius and absolutely loves it.
    1
  334. Just my own preference: I carry an unopened bottle of Techron in the car in case we have to get gas where there are no top tier brands handy. Top Tier gasoline has enough detergency that you should never need fuel injector cleaner. Top Tier gasoline also reduces valve deposits a lot, except on GDI engines where the fuel does not contact the top of the valves. It would be good to see AMD doing an update on GDI and valves... it may be better now. Bottom line: if you don't have GDI and you use Top Tier gasoline brands, or detergent additives like Techron, regularly there should be no need for fuel injector or intake cleaning. Techron is an expensive approach, but it does the job just fine.
    1
  335. I promise not to throw things (except maybe flowers) at you! We are on our second used 3rd gen Prius. The 2010 was a great car until it seemed to become magnetized; in a handful of months it was sideswiped by a driver beside my wife swerved into the side of it because of another driver pulling in front of the other guy. Insurance paid for it, but a couple months later a deer ran from the forest and hit the driver door; insurance paid again. Then a young lady who thought she didn't really need her anti-seizure medication and ran into the passenger doors of of our parked car. Insurance totaled the car; it could still be driven but the passenger side doors and probably more were consigned to history. We bought a 2014 Prius and I maintained it according to the schedule in the glove box, except I changed the oil when the reminder said to: every 5K miles. Then I saw in the glove box info that the oil should be changed every 10K miles. We were up to about 7K when you said not to, and explained why. I immediately did an oil change and have followed the 5K reminder ever since. Short form of it: I am deeply thankful for your warning about the trap of 10K mile changes, especially since most of our driving is in town! At about 220K miles, our 2014 Prius is by far the most reliable car we have had in our half century together.
    1
  336.  @TheCarCareNut  That looks even worse alongside engines of the same model that don't consume oil at all. There is obviously a difference and I think you did a good job pinpointing it.
    1
  337.  @elusivellama  I looked up (not easy to do) about average vehicle life in the UK. 300K km is very rare there but is completely normal for well maintained Toyotas and a few other well-made makes in the US.
    1
  338.  @UsoundsGermany  The big change occurred around 1980, when there were demands for better fuel economy. Those changes demanded higher engine temperatures and that in turn challenged the oil a lot more. Now the US requirements for fuel economy have lead to lower piston ring tension and poorer oil control.
    1
  339. I buy almost exclusively used cars - in 51 years I have only had three new ones, and except for the 2002 Prius they were among the most troublesome cars I have owned. Anyway, when I look at a used car I have learned to make two checks most people don't do. I look at the oil dipstick above the full line for varnish (which indicates a steady diet of conventional oil or poor oil maintenance) and I verify the coolant is the right color at least and is not cloudy at all. That said, most coolant today is HOAT and usually has a replacement interval of 10 years. Fine for Fords and Chevys without coolant changes, but Toyotas generally last a lot more than ten years.
    1
  340.  @Tigerwarhawk  Be aware that convincing looking counterfeits are very common for Toyota branded parts. I doubt any retail outlet has genuine Toyota parts. See The CCN's video, "Toyota Counterfeit parts EXPOSED!"
    1
  341. I think the theory is that debris from the disintegration of the filter caused a blockage in the VVTi actuator path. Good pressure but restricted flow.
    1
  342.  @drwookiee1  Agree - but it may not have been 0W-20 either. 5W-30 is available in conventional and lots of quick lube places use it instead of the proper oil.
    1
  343. If it was working before the freeze, that could be why it was unhappy right now... but probably not the underlying reason. Actron has a free code lookup page at https://actron.com/code-lookup It says P041E is defined as "A/F Sensor Slow Response - Rich to Lean Bank2 Sensor1" In a six year old vehicle I would not be surprised if the sensor itself is failing, but heed the adage: "catalytic converters and O2 sensors don't die, they are murdered." It is not always true but is a good thing to remember: things like oil burning can affect the upstream (#1) sensors. The code suggests it is developing the required voltage when rich but is not reporting "lean" soon enough. From a beginning level DIY standpoint it would be good to reset the code and see if it comes back. If it does, I recommend a shop that specializes in emissions work or the dealer.
    1
  344.  @njsongwriter  The first giveaway was the sorry excuse for a hologram on the top of the counterfeit, as opposed to the impressive one on the Toyota box.
    1
  345. In fact, Ni-Cd is the only one that does. It has something to do with a 10% or so difference in anode and cathode efficiency.
    1
  346. Wow! Half a century ago, when I was a new driver, cars were fairly easy to understand. When you got started they were getting complicated but how could we foresee where the systems would go? We really needed this in so many ways.
    1
  347. It is the number 1 complaint about Prius drivers - driving too fast. Foolish drivers drive anything.
    1
  348. It's worth a try!
    1
  349.  @yggdrasil9039  That behavior is essentially mandated by the hybrid system design. It has never been a problem for us - we sit with our foot on the brake or we put it in park if we are going to be there a while. Trains (an everyday fact of life in Flagstaff) can go either way. If the train was passing when I got there I leave it in drive; if the gates stopped me as I approached I generally put it in park. No worries.
    1
  350. I would think it would be rare - how many ways are there to leave the fuel cap open, anyway - and is certainly not going to happen to anybody twice!
    1
  351. MB certainly exceeds most peoples' budgets for maintenance and repair!
    1
  352.  @RichW240  I don't think crush washers are made to be fully compressed. Maybe AMD can educate us.
    1
  353. They were replaced by "flow through" ventilation in the 1960s and early 70s. Why? Your guess is as good as mine, but here is mine: the air is still exchanged when the car is sitting still or creeping in traffic.
    1
  354. A note about brand name spark plugs - your "Toyota Counterfeit parts EXPOSED!" video last year https://youtu.be/FVA4RYql9KU addressed the problem of counterfeit sparkplugs at after market sources. The upshot is that getting spark plugs from the Toyota dealer is the only reliable way of being sure of not getting counterfeit plugs.
    1
  355. I've seen some videos on YT for our third generation Prius. I would be especially interested in how to prevent trouble, because it looks like a lot of trouble.
    1
  356.  @TheCarCareNut  I've never known of a piston breaking apart - lots of thrown rods but never heard of a thrown piston. I loved this video for all the new adventures in working on a modern tech Toyota engine.
    1
  357.  @captnjim44smith74  I remember the early days of synthetic oil; it was advertised as never needing to be changed. Then reality set in: oil is a detergent for the engine, collecting acids and carbon from everyday combustion. My underwear does not wear out rapidly, but I change and wash it on a daily basis. Same sort of thing with engine oil.
    1
  358.  @TheCarCareNut  I appreciate the info! I have not had a real answer to the question about break-in oil for today's cars. Not very long ago there was a recommendation not to use synthetic oil for break-in periods. It's hard to know what to believe.
    1
  359. Non-synthetic oil is rally bad news in very cold climates, especially if it is not changed on schedule. Check out this remarkable bit of video from Engineering Explained: https://youtu.be/tYkg0oDUXs8?t=331 This is very cold: -35F but it just exaggerates the differences. The real eyeopener shows how much the viscosity changes as the age on the oil increases.
    1
  360. Not knowingly, probably, but anybody can offer wholesale filters that fit whatever. if they come in with Toyota markings so much the better for sales.
    1
  361. For decades I was taught it was illegal (California and Arizona) but no explanation why.
    1
  362. He should get out more. Petro-Canada puts it clearly: "Synthetic oils: Have superior film strength at high temperatures, protecting your engine against wear under heavy loads." Not many new cars will take conventional oil, which bottoms out in viscosity around 5W-30. Most new cars use 0W-20 or lower for the fuel economy benefit and cold weather operation. Castrol says, "0W-20 motor oils require synthetic base oils and are either full synthetic or part synthetic (synthetic blend) motor oil; 0W-20 oils are not conventional (or mineral) motor oils." When looking at older used cars that should still be using synthetic oil, I look at the dipstick above the "full" line. If it is stained brown, it has been using conventional oil. That is a bad sign in the third decade of the 21st century. If it is untarnished it has been using synthetic. Worst of all are very low priced oils sold at low-end retail stores. Generally identified as "API SA" they are okay for keeping rust off of tools but should never ever be put into an engine. They have useless wear performance and generate sludge like crazy.
    1
  363.  @ЮрийПомаленкин  Anybody can teach us about cars, but it takes somebody special to make it part of our lives.
    1
  364. "Furnace Creek is a census-designated place (CDP) in Inyo County, California. The population was 24 at the 2010 census, down from 31 at the 2000 census. The elevation of the village is 190 feet (58 m) below sea level." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furnace_Creek,_California
    1
  365. Hi, AMD. I was surfing YouTube and came across this heartbreaking video of a mechanic trying to fix a P0420 code by replacing the converter (on a Chevy, not a Toyota). On his second replacement he got the code back within minutes. I could feel his frustration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPuURVDLNNc
    1
  366. They could be. There are unverified reports of NAPA selling fake NGK spark plugs. They have a lot of suppliers, and some of those may be providing bogus credentials. Think of retailers as being a flea market with a central checkout. The auto dealers, in contrast, are very limited in their choice of goods to resell.
    1
  367.  @connor3288  A peek at the tensioner will do that but the front cover has to be off to get to it.
    1
  368. In case you have a hybrid Toyota: the hybrid transaxle will knock under those conditions if the spark plugs are due for replacement. The Car Care Nut confirmed the popular explanation: the planetary gears rattle when the ICE power is uneven.
    1
  369. The 0W-20 oil the third gen Prius requires is only available in synthetic. This is a good time to mention that simple steps to minimize EGR problems include the proper oil and the proper fuel. Page 578 of the 2014 Prius owners manual says: "Toyota strongly recommends the use of Top Tier Detergent Gasoline. For more information on Top Tier Detergent Gasoline and a list of marketers, please go to the official website www.toptiergas.com." I learned about top tier gas when I had a Nissan 300ZX with a manual transmission. The clutch got grabbier and grabbier, to the point I had to give it a lot of gas just as the clutch was ready to bite. One day I realized the problem was low engine rpm with relatively high load as I let out the clutch. I had identical trouble with a 1970 Volvo with Kettering ignition when the points got ugly. I filled the tank with Texaco gas and within 100 miles the clutch smoothed right out. I became a believer!
    1
  370. They are good filters but, at least for my 2014 Prius, about twice the price of OEM. The only K&N filters I have are for our central HVAC - work great but the cleaner is spectacularly expensive: $22 for a quart, while the nearly identical "liquid TSP substitute" sells at at Home Depot for $7.
    1
  371. In general, cars with conventional starters do well with short battery cables to the starter. You're right, though: batteries don't do well in high temperature environments, especially when on charge or "float" voltage. Toyota hybrids have batteries in the back because there is no starter per se.
    1
  372. One of many reasons the first gen Prius is an enthusiast car I would not recommend to most people. We have a 2002 that needed a hybrid battery rebuild last year; it was one of those situations where the car may no longer be worth it but we weren't in a situation to replace the car.
    1
  373. Actually, aftermarket companies have survived some much larger scandals. There are always gamblers ready to roll the dice and dismiss the claims as rumors.
    1
  374. To expand on TCCN's answer, at 14.7:1 air/fuel ratio there is exactly enough oxygen to burn all the hydrocarbons in typical gasoline. Mazda is making engines (and apparently working on more) that use extremely lean mixtures with radical engine design. Check out https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15339942/mazdas-gasoline-skyactiv-x-spcci-engine-explained/
    1
  375.  @user-de4jk8vj4c  I have infinitely more faith in AMD's knowledge and experience than in Scotty's. I gave up on Scotty after a few videos; he started saying ridiculous stuff and I left. AMD has always steered me right.
    1
  376.  @MikeKayK  I just use the Toyota filter. Inexpensive (about $6 for our Prius) and undoubtably good for the car. If we change oil and filter on schedule I doubt there is much difference between one good filter and another. The worst stuff - acids and broken down oil - that accumulates in that short period won't be stopped by any filter. If we don't change the oil on schedule, the filter is the least of our problems.
    1
  377. Our Prius is the same way... the bumper never quite clears parking blocks. I should look into renting a plastic welder, which is the proper repair. It requires painting to make it look right though. I haven't had any success with duct tape - not strong enough or enough grip. There are several good YT videos showing how,.
    1
  378. Reliability is what has me hooked on Toyotas. I like the fuel economy and features, but I love the reliability.
    1
  379. Carburetors made me cry. So did the pre-OBD electronic systems like our old Volvo's. I love OBD2!
    1
  380. In the bigger picture, the car is 8 years old. In good condition it is worth about $21K now, so if it were sold or totaled in an accident or is stolen and not recovered at any point the value of the new engine is lost. It would make more sense to sell it for $13k as is and be shed of it.
    1
  381.  @12345.......  Don;t automatically rule out low cost stations. Speedway, Conoco and Quik Trip (QT) are all Top Tier. It will be a glorious day when the US EPA updates it gasoline detergency standards to those of the Top Tier consortium.
    1
  382. In a previous video he said it was important do do the Prius oil changes every 5K miles. Our 2014 does the oil change reminder at 5K even though the schedule says 10K miles.
    1
  383. You also had the sense to know when to cut your losses... a critical bit of sense I don't often have!
    1
  384. Just my experience: if an assembly (like a pump) starts leaking it is essentially at end of life. If you stop the leak the assembly is still on its way out. That leads to the real question: to fix the vehicle or to replace it. I think of it as the question of "crumbling" - things that have end-of-life problems in a part that should last about the life of the vehicle - means the vehicle will not work right for any length of time again without replacing a lot of the parts as each fails. How much do I want to spend on the vehicle before junking it?
    1
  385.  @babagandu  I hope you have more great mechanics there already. We were lucky to get him and his new shop is what the community needs.
    1
  386.  @TheCarCareNut  A friend fell into that trap. Had receipts for oil but nothing to demonstrate he used the oil in that car, or when.
    1
  387.  @bechtoea  Yes - only reverse. All the other gears are helically cut. I once knew why but that was half a century ago.
    1
  388. Cell phone makers are recommending the same: don't keep it on a charger and avoid fully charging on a regular basis. Apparently the batteries don't like it.
    1
  389.  @mrvang8077  Actually, the expansion/contraction with temperature is exactly the same for all gasses above the condensation point, governed by Boyle's Law in physics.
    1
  390. Sadly, the Nissan Leaf gained the opposite reputation. We all live, and ultimately learn at the expense of some of us.
    1
  391. Mostly we love the incredible reliability of our Prius cars. The previous one we had seemed to have become magnetized, suffering three "hit by" accidents in half a year, including a deer running into the driver's side at a full run.
    1
  392. I had no idea the clamps came in such precise sizes... 0.2mm between those two similar clamps. It makes sense, though.
    1
  393. Shorter lines.
    1
  394. As another commenter mentions, Subarus have a problem with the throwout bearing eating through the transmission housing if the driver rides the clutch. Many newer Ford models have concentric clutch slave cylinders; they work just fine but if the cylinder starts leaking - a common problem with all clutch master and slave cylinders - the transmission has to be removed to change the cylinder.
    1
  395. Shelf life... on a shelf? Should be longer than motor oil, which rapidly becomes obsolete through evolving specs. Be aware there are sulfur and non-sulfur forms.
    1
  396. "It was funnier in my head" - join the club. We should have jackets: "you don't get what?"
    1
  397. Having to shift on hills?
    1
  398. Shouldn't it be pink? Toyota changed from the red Long Life Coolant sometime before 2006 (The CCN will remember when.)
    1
  399. In that case nobody would ever learn to drive a stick. When my first partner at work was testing for his CDL the examiner had him stop uphill and make sure he used the parking brake method to get going. The point is that the parking brake method is more foolproof.
    1
  400. Besides the better detergent action, that cold viscosity (especially as miles are put on it) is one of the great qualities of synthetic engine oils. Engineering Explained has a great video, "Is Synthetic Motor Oil Better For Your Car?" that shows the differences in conventional and synthetic oil, at -35F around the 5 minute mark. Extreme, perhaps, but clear. My son had a valve problem on his 1994 Acura Integra, so we removed it for repair. My son had used synthetic in it for a few years by then, and when we got the head wiped down it looked like new. No varnish anywhere. That was pretty amazing.
    1
  401. Generally they are copper, brass, or bronze. Steel washers don't seal well in this application. and reused washers are not reliable... they could be distorted. I would get the parts from the dealer and make sure it was torqued to spec.
    1
  402. The Ford system is also famously secure (unlike the GM Passlock that could be overridden and even reprogrammed by leaving the key in the run for at least 10 minutes exactly).
    1
  403.  @TheCarCareNut  I didn't know that about the rear brakes. Thanks! Although there is no visible wear at 120K miles on our 2014.
    1
  404.  @TheCarCareNut  We had a 2010 for several years before it apparently became magnetized, being hit in the sides by a swerving pickup truck, a deer, and a driver who thought her seizure meds were not important all within a six month period!. It did not consume a quart between oil changes, and neither does our 2014. I use Mobil 1 at the prescribed interval (5K miles for our third gens.)
    1
  405.  @albeklik8055  More specifically, to control formation of NOx. If the EGR is jammed shut the engine will usually run okay but have much higher NOx emissions.
    1
  406. At least, all the cells at once. The labor is significant, and weak cells will lead us back down that same road.
    1
  407. I don't think the required 0W-20 oil is available in anything besides synthetic.
    1
  408.  @pepeshopping  Especially see if the value of the car limits what will be done. If Blue Book is $2000 on your very well maintained Camry and it needs a $2500 repair (that you could do yourself for $800 plus a bunch of hours of your own labor) the warranty may be worthless.
    1
  409. The reasoning that made the most sense is that the muffler competed with the fuel tank for space.
    1
  410. They are probably unaware the parts are counterfeit. They buy spark plugs" or "oil filters" from vendors who submit bids. They are even more likely to buy counterfeits than we informed (by way of this channel) customers are. Counterfeit iridium plugs (many not iridium at all), with Toyota packaging, have been reported on store shelves of several major chains.
    1
  411. Many modern cars are not self-bleeding. One of the generations of Subaru engines a couple decades ago had problems with this and many enthusiasts blamed failure to purge air as being responsible for most of the head gasket failures. My daughter had a 1993 Honda that would surge at idle if the cooling system was not properly bled. At normal idle the hot coolant would not reach the Fast Idle Thermo Valve (a Honda thing of that era) so the FITV would increase the idle speed. That caused the hot coolant to hit the FITV, which returned the idle to normal.. and the cycle repeated.
    1
  412. First rule of troubleshooting: make everything right (at least the things you can see) and see what problems remain.
    1
  413. I always just thought of it as a dimmer, though.
    1
  414. Historically, "myths" have been popular stories that may or may not be true. After all, a lot of what we know to be true or false now may be found to be the other sometime in the future. There is a surprising number of myths people still believe to be false, notably the existence of narwhals. In the early 1800s if you believed in gorillas you were a fool; in the late 1800s if you believed gorillas didn't exist you were a fool.
    1
  415.  @N1withaskillet  Our 2014 Prius is getting near 230K miles. Not a sign of trouble, although the shocks/struts are getting old....
    1
  416.  @1stfrompuertorico568  Good to know! You should not have the CARB rules there.
    1
  417. I had a 1985 Volvo 765T with an engine that was notorious for developing piston slap. Ours got really bad about 250K miles but it was worse at idle than under power. I don't recall if it was better when warm, but I would expect it to be.
    1
  418.  @jeffreymcdonald8267  But wait - there's more! CV (Constant Velocity) joints are used on steered axles because they, well, maintain constant rotational velocity throughout the rotation when the wheels are steered. U-joints "whip" through the rotation when the axle is not in line. For old school drive shafts that was pretty minor but when the angle gets above 20 degrees or so it creates a lot of vibration. The inner ones don't have much of that to deal with - mostly small vertical angles - but the outer ones make contact within a spherical shell midway in the angle between the axle and the wheel.
    1
  419.  @albundy3929  Yet he is a straight shooter. ChrisFix is very similar; I'm sure he makes good money from YT but is a great mechanic and mentor in his own right. The world would be a poorer place if either of them left YouTube.
    1
  420. I did that once for almost a thousand miles over a three week period after a clutch cable broke hundreds of miles from home and on the other side of a mountain range. My take on it is that if you are getting the gears to slip in and not using more than gentle pressure you are going to be okay. Just don't play the game too long.
    1
  421. Our Car Care Nut has done some videos in which he has stressed and illustrated the importance of 5K mile oil changes. I'm sure 6K is okay enough. I was about to change the interval for our 2014 Prius from the 5K reminder interval to the 10K mile called for in the service schedule. I did a quick about face, and when I saw his videos showing the irreparable cylinder wall damage caused by 10K mile intervals I was glad I was watching.
    1
  422. The first generation (2001-2003) Prius does not; I'm pretty sure all the other Toyota hybrids have electric compressors rather than mechanical.
    1
  423. Well timed! One of my "kids" has a 2008 Honda CR-V that is still safe, but the rate of failures has increased in the past 5 years. It has a new A/C compressor, P/S pump, drive axles.... The problem I see is the intervals between significant repairs decreasing - what I call "crumbling." She has her eyes on a later model Corolla hybrid. Now I have to get her to have it inspected.
    1
  424.  @shiftfocus1  Since 1996, knock sensors became mandatory to control NOx emissions. Detonation makes NOx like crazy, besides doing bad things to valves and piston rings pistons and such.
    1
  425. There is a school of thought that the door should be on the passenger side, so if we have to put gas in the car when it ran out on a freeway the filler was away from the traffic.
    1
  426. Yes indeed - lots of videos on YT about the throwout bearing eating through the transmission case in WRXs.
    1
  427. A question that I would like to see an expert answer (CCN would be great!) - does air filter restriction affect mixture in modern fuel injected engines the way it did in carbureted engines? I wouldn't think so.
    1
  428. The last time I changed oil I had to look all over town. I found one "gallon" of 0W-20 at an O'Reilleys. Lots of empty shelves.
    1
  429. ChrisFix has the most subscribers - 9.79M - in the automotive field and I think he has earned it. Not the depth of The Car Care Nut but loads of useful and detailed videos.
    1
  430.  @stevec3526  Good info about Costco - thanks!
    1
  431. Really, underfilling is below the "fill" mark. A lot of engines don't mind being a bit over "full" but I remember on Priuschat there were warnings about overfilling the first gen Prius. It seems the engines don't like it but I don't recall exactly why. Boxer engines also do very poorly with levels above "full."
    1
  432.  @drticzon  eBay is the Wild West - the seller could be some fly-by-night guy who is using the name and the dealer doesn't know that scammer exists. I just go to the dealer a couple miles away and pay the $8 for a filter and drain plug washer. If I had a proper storage space I would buy a handful and a few jugs of Mobil 1 to keep in stock. Several Toyota dealers have internet sites where we can buy parts - much more likely to actually be the dealer rather than an imposter.
    1
  433. Another excellent, down to Earth video by our Car Care Nut. My son and I replaced the cells (all of them) in his 2002 (first gen) Prius by following the YouTube presentation by ChrisFix. At 208K miles it got a $2000 set of cells and I don't regret it a bit I 100% agree about the cooling, and I suggest the most important look-over item when buying a Toyota hybrid is to pull out the hybrid filter and get a good look at it. If you can hold it to the sun and still keep your eyes open, move on! This next bit is something that I hesitate to say: DC is less dangerous than the equivalent AC voltage. When I was 14 years old I got very solid contact, hand to hand (palm to palm), with 300V DC while helping a friend with a 1940s console tube type radio. It felt like I was hit in the back of the head very hard, and I confess that much more luck than intelligence was involved. Don't touch the battery internals without the proper respect. One final takeaway from your video: if looking at a used Toyota hybrid we might want to buy, we should definitely consider the condition of the hybrid filter. If it has not been serviced recently, thank the seller for their time.
    1
  434. At 5:24 our CCN warns, "the only source of good Toyota oil filters is the dealership." The filters at various retail outlets may come from anywhere and be as bad as any from eBay. It is almost certain they are not OE, regardless of packaging. He covers the dark world of counterfeits in his video, "Toyota Counterfeit parts EXPOSED!" The counterfeiters go to great lengths to look like the real item, and selling them in the US is not illegal. Walmart has no responsibility to investigate authenticity. The same applies to eBay; vendors of trash can use names like those of real or imaginary Toyota dealerships, and still sell the worst sort of trash. You can often get genuine Toyota OEM parts at a modest discount (as CCN commented, 10-15%) at dealer websites on line.
    1
  435.  @TheCarCareNut  A few years ago I bought a Run-Rite Intake Snake and a tube of Snake Heads. They worked great - a detergent rather than a solvent and I could leave the TB undisturbed. Now it is a professional only tool, with Snake Heads available only in quantity. Other Toyota techs have recommended the wipe down method of cleaning as well.
    1
  436. The CCN addresses those in other comments. The block drain (I have never worked on one) apparently is a devil to get to and drains very little, and since there is no heater valve it doesn't matter whether the heater is on or off.
    1
  437.  @TheCarCareNut  I agree 100%. Vibration that is throttle sensitive and speed sensitive is so often a bad CV joint that I've decided to replace both axles if they are more than 6-8 years old just on suspicion. The axles are not likely to last the full life of the car, so I figure replacing them when they are under suspicion isn't costing me any extra. EDIT - my daughter recently bought a Honda that shook badly under acceleration around 30-45 mph. We found one of the inner CV joints had been overextended when the brakes were done, and nothing we could do while it was on the car would reseat it. New axles in the 8 year old car were just what it needed.
    1
  438. It cost you in the past but will not cost you in the future: that is the goal! My life is all about a brighter future.
    1
  439.  @TheCarCareNut  I went to the link and noticed it said that one was not for Prius - farther down in the questions and answers they explained the hood does not give enough clearance. I looked at mine and I see the cowl cover is in the way. Sigh....
    1
  440. Ooh - that sounds nice!
    1
  441. I learned a few years ago to ignore Carfax entirely. Shockingly high errors, particularly in non-reported events but also in events that never occurred. Maybe they have cleaned up their act, but even at that I can say every car I have had would show a failure to change oil. I have done my own services for everything besides those that require special skills and/or equipment. Carfax settled a class action suit (Davis, et al. v. Carfax, Inc., et al.) in 2013, and they may well be doing better recently. On the other hand, our cars won't show any maintenance history because I never report it. I'm more interested in keeping our cars in proper working order.
    1
  442.  @jwg9338  There is nothing wrong with Amsoil unless extended change intervals are involved. It is not magic. One cold, hard truth about extended service intervals is that the effective life of motor oils is determined not by breakdown of the oil but by contamination, particularly nitrous/nitric acid from burning hydrocarbons (gasoline) at high pressure in a nitrogen rich atmosphere (air.) Synthetics resist breakdown well, but they become acidic as the miles rack up.
    1
  443. Well, it might. but it might also jolt and stumble if you don't. ""Those who eat fugu soup are stupid. But those who don't eat fugu soup are also stupid."
    1
  444.  @TheCarCareNut  That was the feeling I had when trying t rock them out. Too often it felt like I was losing ground. To think the solution was so simple!
    1
  445. From the beginning Prius have had low precision gas gauges; in the first gen Prius it was frequently called a "guess gauge." We had two 2002 Prius; one would hang at three bars for days, then nosedive. The other would behave sensibly. One important feature, designed to stabilize the information, is that adding less than about 3 gallons of gas generally makes no difference to the display or miles to go. Toyota apparently decided they didn't want the display increasing when going up or down hills more than they wanted to display the most optimistic miles to go. In addition, the system appears to use information from the previous fill to decide how many miles the new, conservative reading is. Filling the tank completely when it is below half a tank and avoiding adding gas when above 2/3 tank will stop most of that nonsense, but sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do.
    1
  446. You made one terrible mistake - there is no car in there yet, which leaves it open to be taken over by Nissans or Kias. Oh, woe is you! Congratulations on the new digs!
    1
  447.  @metzmatu8409  Be aware the red coolant is OAT instead of HOAT. Half the life - change every five years. The red coolant is for support of the early models (before 2004, IIRC) that came with red coolant in their systems. I do not know for sure if it is okay to replace all red coolant with pink, but I would not replace pink with red. That said, the red coolant is intended to be mixed 50/50 with purified or distilled water. Instructions are on the jug.
    1
  448.  @TheCarCareNut  I wondered if this was in response to the disconnection to see how the throttle body is doing. In that case, of course you don't want the power kept on.
    1
  449. They probably just have packaging that looks like Toyota packaging. Amazon is having this problem. They are very reasonably priced at the dealer, and you can buy from most dealers at a small discount - 10% or 15% - online at their website.
    1
  450. 0W-20 is only available in synthetic.
    1