Hey guys! Well, I just bought a Gen.1 Prius (with the help of Brad Horton) and it is a 2001 dark green that had the engine replaced with a new engine 8000 miles ago, so the engine is pretty new. I was wondering though, if I had to watch out for anything. We got the car over Ebay, and it was $4,999 and the paint was awesome, and it runs great (so says the man who is selling it.) The engine was also replaced by a professional mechanic, so this is a plus, right?
How many miles on it? I'm also very curious - this is the first mention of getting an engine replaced I've seen on a Prius. Not only around here, but my friend the toyota mechanic says he has never once seen an engine problem on a Prius of any year model. Did it have a coolant leak? Maybe somebody never changed the oil? Since your's is green, it probably looks a lot like mine: Anyway, obvious issues these first-gen models can have: Dead HV Battery Power Steering Rack - You'll notice a shudder on the steering wheel at low speeds. ABS Actuators - Will leak, eventually messing up the brakes. Those are the 3 main issues to look out for. Anything else that can go wrong is typically something trivial.
Well, the new engine only has 8,000 miles on it. The body has 140,000, and yes, it does look like yours! Whats weird too lol, is that you have an Insight too, my boyfriend says he wants to get me one for Christmas. But I posted pics of the car for you.
No, not Toyota. But he owns a big nice shop, and he fixes cars for a living. This is about the 5th Prius he has sold. So he know what he's doing. And he said that this one is getting the same mileage that the other ones got. It can't be such a big replacement, right? All he had to do was put a new engine it, and couple it to the power split device. I was just asking around because I know there are people on here that are whizzes at this stuff and would give me a heads up.
Well, we bought it off Ebay, witch states that if there is something clearly wrong with the car when we get it, if the repair doesn't exceed $50,000 (LMAO) then were good.
If it has not been done recently, I'd suggest changing the transaxle fluid. It would be interesting to know why the gas engine needed replacing, That is quite rare in Prius.
