In a month I'm buying a new car well new to me. I'm going to buy a used Prius and am wondering what I should be looking for and checking to make sure it's a good buy. I've bought plenty of normal vehicles so I'm familiar what to look for there but have no clue as to what to check on a Prius. SPH-L710 ?
you should run carfax reports and similar. you want to know about # of owners, maintenance, accidents and etc. take a new one for a test drive so you'll have a frame of reference and become familiar with the controls. learn how to reset the average mpg's so you can see what the one you're buying is getting. take a good long test drive, watch the mpg's and the battery meter. the meter should register 5-6 bars generally, with some instances where it may or may not go down to 2 bars and/or upto full bars. think back to how the new one you drove compares as you test drive. and kick the tyres!
Let me disrupt your search with a post about who should not own a Prius (it is biased to Gen 2 2004 to 2009) considering a Prius | PriusChat
If you look at a Gen 2, do a quick engine water pump check to make sure it's not leaking. That's the only repair I've had to do so far. Under the hood, look down the left side of the engine, near the bottom for a large, black pulley--that's the water pump. Look inside the pulley for pink crusty buildup that indicates coolant leakage. It sometimes also forms a pink line on the underside of the hood. A leaking engine water pump costs about $100 to replace at home, or about $390 at the dealership service department. All the water pumps on the Gen 3 are electric and haven't been showing the leaking issues. As the others mentioned, a thorough test-drive and crawl-around are good ideas, as always. Check for leaks, uneven tire wear, condition of the fluids, etc.
I've only had the car a couple days but have had the cruise control kick off twice without me touching the switch or the brake or gas. Any ideas? SPH-L710 ?
1. Intermittent connection in the wiring harness leading to the cruise control switch. 2. Brake pedal switch needs to be adjusted.
I believe activation of the VSC (vehicle stability control) will boot you out of cruise also. This is usually preceded by the VSC yellow dash light blinking. This could be caused by traction problems with the road surface, uneven tire diameters, low tire pressure, or faulty wheel sensors. There may or may not be some DTC's to check.
