Replacing coolant parts as a safe measure

I have a 2016 that I’ve never done any maintenance to other than oil change and changing the converter and engine coolant once and replaced front break pads recently. It’s got 171k miles on it. I’d like to change coolant again and due to mileage should I have them go ahead and replace the converter water pump even though it’s currently working ok? And is there anything else I should go ahead and replace while I’m at it concerning the coolant systems? Economy being what it is I want to drive it long as I can before having to buy another. With its age I’m going to need to do a lot of upcoming maintenance, shocks, struts, rear brakes. But for now I’m concerned about the coolant systems as it can ruin the hybrid battery if the water pump goes out. I’m elderly and don’t want to get stranded. Sometimes I hear a wamp wamp noise like a bad tire which can be the water pump noise but hubby keeps telling me it’s different road pavements. Also what about caring for the generator? Also my dealership has never had anyone trained to check the viscosity of my brake fluid and they aren’t equipped to change that either. It’s terrible but I have to use independent mechanics as very few Toyota dealers are trained on the Priuses. I don’t u derstand this because there are lots of them on the road but no one seems to want to work on them. The dealer told me to leave my brake fluid alone that if it’s not leaking to not touch it. They don’t have the pressure equipment to change it. I realize this is a lot of questions in one post. But my car has been neglected. I plant to do the converter and engine fluid first. Then rear brakes, then shocks then maybe see about this brake fluid issue and then whatever else y’all suggest. My husband is elderly in bad health so we won’t be doing out own repairs. Not unless a cave man could do it.

 

I haven’t asked how much to replace the inverter pump yet. But I googled how to do it and YouTube says on my 2016 that you just take the front bumper off and it’s right behind the headlight. So it shouldn’t be too bad. That’s why I was thinking about doing it. So I should probably replace the engine coolant pump and the inverter pump both as I have 171,000 miles.

I did change the plugs. I worry because I’m elderly and drive 4 hours round trip to my doctors. I live in very rural area with no family and most friends have died off. I worry about breakdowns between cell towers. Then again ai sti ex replacement parts aren’t as good as original parts and messing with stuff could be asking for trouble. I’d rather head something off rather than get stranded. But then I might be better off keeping my money and just saving up for a new Prius. Just trying to make the wisest safety and also economic choices. Iused an independent mechanic to change my inverter and engine coolant before since the dealership doesn’t do any of this stuff. I live in a very backwards southern state area and it’s had to find dealerships that keep reliable mechanic staff. This independent shop has been good but I’ve only had the coolant changed they and nothing else. They are mainly Honda and Acura specialists. The work on Prius some but not a lot.

I’m the original owner, only have done front brakes, changed oil, changed spark plugs, changed inverter coolant and engine coolant once at 75k miles I think. I accidently changed the coolant early I think. Other than that nothing ever has been done to it. Runs like a charm. Still getting great gas mileage at 171k. I live my old car. Wish it could last forever. Hate what they’ve done to chop down the body of the new models, removing spare and all that, blind spots etc.

I read somewhere that the braking generator that generates hybrid battery electricity is extremely expensive to replace and was wondering if there was any maintenance requirement to that specifically.

I live in mid to NW Mississippi so you understand. Jackson might have a decent dealer repair shop but I haven’t tried them. For coolant change I used Ridgeland shop called Car Shop. They are honest and don’t try to sell me a lot of stuff. They are bad about not wanting to use OEM coolant fluid and parts. But then my own dealership doesn’t use oem parts either. The dealer refuses to replace just the shocks and gets the whole Monroe strut and shock system! It’s labor intensive to replace only the shocks as it needs a special compression tool. But in spite of lack of mechanics I love my car and have avoided repair shops so far. Mississippi sucks for labor, untrained or no mechanics at all and twice the repair costs as other states. Mostly they have high mechanic turnover at dealerships. They don’t invest in a lot of basic maintenance equipment. No one seems to specialize in Prius. I guess because most people trade them before they need anything. I love mine to death and can’t imagine driving anything else. I just hate U.S.A. cars have not caught up to this good of technology.

 

I also read that brake fluid should be tested for moisture content every 20,000 miles and flush the brake lines if they get moisture in hem. My dealership doesn’t perform this test. They don’t have the equipment to do a brake line flush. They said with 171k miles now that if I had someone flush it that it would probably cause brake line leaks.

 

I don’t bother with the litmus test. That is not the issue with a Prius. With Prius the scheduled coolant replacement has to be done because one the first one is done it can loosen debris. This debris causes blockage issues later so the first one must be done at 150k mikes I think. I did mine at 190k. The second one and from then on must be done every 50k to help keep some of that debris out. Otherwise the whole system will clog up and there will be multiple components clogged which will cause all kinds of gaskets to blow and will be way expensive. If the water pump blows without enough warning, and sometimes the gauge doesn’t warn then it will ruin the hybrid battery. So that’s why I’m asking all these questions with a car with age and a whole lot of wear. At the time ai bought it I wasn’t aware of lack of mechanics. There seemed to be more mechanics at the time. But in Mississippi I’ve been scammed at dealerships on was powered cars too. Chrysler on my jeep told me they replaced gaskets and truth is they couldn’t get one parts and they Cali ed they did t use after market so they did something worse. They kept it for weeks on end claiming g they were waiting for oem part and then just squirted silicone where it needed the gasket on the engine leak. many U.S.A. cars need multiple repairs way before a Prius does. I’ve been very happy to have 171k so far and not turn a single wrench yet. That being said our economy is so upside down right now that even maintenance is extremely expensive shock and strut replacement is $2,500 for example. Just doing maintenance and binging everything up to top notch could cost me half the price of a new car. These repair prices are for any car. Labor is insanely stupid. The original struts are very heavy duty. After market struts are weaker. But no one wants to preserve the original struts because it’s labor intensive to only replace the shocks and requires a special tool. I may read the Google reviews and check with a dealership in Jackson. Perhaps they are keeping trained mechanics, There are at least two. One has bad Google reviews and I think the other didn’t. I don’t trust dealerships most of all in Mississippi. They could care less about care after the sale and are only all about the sale it seems.

 

My big fear about the water pumps blowing is damage to the hybrid battery or other extensive repairs should that happen. I’m having anxiety about that. But then also understand causing more problems by having people jack with something that is still working, coarse of replacing all the coolant is $400. Not sure how much coolant is lost either when one blows. It one jug not a big deal. I’m kind of trying to not get into retirement and save that for saving toward my next new Prius with tariffs etc. and trying to budget repairs with social security fixed income. We don’t have uber or any public transportation. We don’t even have taxi service. So if I take my car two hours away for repairs and they have to keep it I’ll need to rent a car.

 

I’m going to run all this by the head hybrid specialist at Car Shop in writing in Jackson and just express my concerns. They don’t push additional work and seem to strive helping me save money by always saying this a like this can wait and that can wait. While they don’t specialize in Prius they do work on another Asian model hybrids with some similar technologies. If they aren’t comfortable doing a particular repair they will tell me and I’m going to ask which dealership in Jackson it the trustworthy one if any of them are or if they have other recommendations of where to take my model. It’s terrible that things are this bad in my state but they are. Worst scenario is my Prius dies a hard death and I have to buy a recent but used car. I haven’t owned a car with this many miles in a very long time. When I worked I traded every 3 to 5 years simply because I was single without family close and didn’t want fears of dishonest mechanics or dangers of breakdowns. Now I’m in my senior years with the same anxieties but without my working income, healthcare what that is etc etc. But I appreciate all yalls input and welcome anymore ideas and I’ll run that by Car Shop and maybe one other dealership in Jackson. My dealership here does have a Toyota specialist, but not one trained on Prius. So they won’t touch it without their mechanic getting all his scheduled training. Would y’all trust this local dealership if the person did eventually get the training knowing ai might be his first Prius to work on. I don’t understand this because I see tons of Prius’ on the road daily in my area. Where the heck do they take their car? Far as I know they simply aren’t breaking down. A lady at a grocery store near me drives one and I know she’s not doing anything to hers. She did have to have someone drain her fuel system from getting bad gas once though. I knew one guy that used a local shade tree guy but now he won’t talk to me about how that’s going. Ha!

 

One thing I like about Car Shop, an independent mechanic is they are great about answering questions. When I go into Toyota they refuse to let me speak to the mechanic. They no Ionger allow that and the girl taking repair request is not knowledgeable about mechanics and can’t answer anything. Sometimes I can get her to relay back and forth but things get lost in translation and they try to refuse to ask too much. There is no need for us to suffer as Prius owners because if you watch YouTube videos in repairs they seem to be very simple to work on. If they are so simply and wonderfully designed why in heck doesn’t anyone work on them? I didn’t realize how bad things were until ai asked about testing the brake fluid and found out they don’t actually do routine maintenance. That was a huge shocker! Routine maintenance? They didn’t say they don’t do routine maintenance they just said they don’t test the brake fluid. Well my manual says that’s an every 20k test. Some people tell me a lot of those manual recommendations aren’t needed. This confuses me.