Just wanted to write this cautionary thread for people looking used. Bought a 2015 Prius V Five with the technology package and 180k miles used off Facebook Marketplace. During test drives it drove great. During the pre purchase inspection it drove fine but after a couple of days of ownership the morning death rattle reared it's ugly head with the knocking happening even after only stopping at red lights with the knock going away quicker if I pushed harder on the gas. Took it to a local shop which diagnosed a bad head gasket likely caused by a bad water pump. Wanting to learn more about cr maintenance I was down for the challenge. The second surprise that I discovered was when I pulled it into the garage then noticed zip ties around one of the coil packs and noticed the pack was loose to the touch. After removing the cowl and cutting the zip tie I found my second surprise so far. They had snapped the bolt in the head and zip tied the coil pack down. Removing the coil pack revealed a rusty body when compared to a properly secured one. Still in the process of removing the bolt just thought to post this in the hopes it may help someone. Will update as I make progress on the car and any more surprised I may find.
No one is insured against this. But on the Gen3 and Prius V generations, it is necessary to know about the vehicle's mileage and the cylinder head gasket expiration dates. And it is critical when buying a car on the secondary market.
Some budding mechanic likely read the inch/pound torque spec as foot/pound, got out the the 1/2” drive torque wrench and dispatched the bolt-head, lol. Drill a pilot hole (carefully) and try a reverse thread extractor bit. The absurdity: it’s a wee locator bolt, torquing to “spec” is complete overkill. with those miles head gasket failure is inevitable. If you stick with it clean the EGR system, and repeat every 50k miles max, thereafter. more info in my signature (on a phone turn it landscape to see signatures).
Gosh, hope you didn't pay too much but those issues aren't a difficult fix. You could look for a good valve cover replacement at an automotive junkyard (pull and pay) or spend around $350 to buy a new one from Toyota. OR, you could use a tap and die set (for aluminum) and make that stripped screw hole one size larger to secure it. Those ignitor screws only need like 7 ft/lbs torque so not much. Our oldest Hybrid is a 2017 Prius and she's been flawless, so far.
If considering new valve cover purchase, also check out item 11201 on this page too, see what it works out to for your location: Cylinder head for Toyota Prius ZVW30L - Genuine parts - Amayama Shipping for this is "to be determined": in such cases they recommend to start the buy process, and you will have a chance to bail when they let you know the shipping. I've found them almost always significantly cheaper, and never any extras, other than item cost and shipping (no taxes or duties). At least with purchases around $100 CDN. Still, definitely try to get that bolt out first. And food for thought: even with nothing holding down that coil, it's very firmly pushed onto the spark plug, unlikely to come loose. Which is why that bolt is mostly along for the ride; crazy that someone would torque the head off it.
Geez Chap, you should know what "inevitable" means. Ok, I'll bite, akin to bound-to-happen, death-and-taxes, wombats-pooping-cubes...
I've always thought the meaning of 'inevitable' was in some way incompatible with people driving around it hasn't happened to.
