My artisticly talented 19 year old daughter decided to purchase a vehicle two years ago. A 2004 Toyota Prius Hybrid. The dealership that sold it to her did replace the large battery when she bought it, but since we were not on speaking terms at the time. I did not get the chance to give the car the once over. I doubt I would have found anything, other than the bad rear wheel bearing on the drivers side. She loved the little car and when it was showing a warning light I told her to take it to a parts store and they could tell her what it meant. Apparently what ever store it was hires morons because they told her the low radiator light was no big deal and she could keep driving it. Well that only lasted half a day before the head gasket gave up. She was quoted $3000 to get it fixed which is basically what she paid for the vehicle. I ended up offering to fix it once we patched up our differences. So a couple of weeks ago I put it in the shop and took on another Project.
I have spent about 4 hours so far watching people replace head gaskets on various different generations of prius. Turns out this is an Achilles heel for the engine, the head gasket was not designed to handle as many heat cycles that occur with an engine that is turning on an off so often. Luckily Felpro makes one that can handle the abuse, so I order that and new head bolts, upper engine gaskets, new timing chain and tensioners, and a new water pump. All of it got delivered before I had a chance to even start removing parts. First things first I disconnect both batteries. I have no plans on touching something mistakenly and killing myself.
I then started with removal of all the windshield wipers arms, armature motor, and the tray they sit in just to have enough space to reach the back of the engine. I removed the intake manifold the bolts on the exhaust manifold, the fuel rail and injectors, the coil packs and the spark plugs. Then i removed the cup full of water out of the radiator, and drained most of the milkshake out of the oil pan. At that point I took a break.
About a month later, yesterday, I managed to get the rest done, removing the water pump, the motor mount and the timing cover. After that the cams, and the head itself. I took a break there and plan to get back out to the shop tonight for some cleaning action
