I have a coolant leak that appears on the outside of the transmission. The Toyota dealer tells me it is an O ring between the transmission and the engine, and this part is not individually replaceable. The dealer says there is a lot of rust in the transmission, which is what caused the problem, and they want $1800 to replace the transmission with a used (125K miles) one. The Prius is a 2004 model with 100K miles on it. This whole thing sounds fishy to me. Is this problem real and I have to replace the entire transmission because of an O ring? I don't know if the car is worth this much to fix. Any suggestions?
1. Do you see rust in the inverter coolant reservoir? 2. What is the magnitude of the leak? 3. What would happen if you just periodically refill the inverter coolant reservoir? 4. Can you post photos of the leak area, one which shows perspective and another zoomed in close? 5. Coolant is not exchanged between the engine and transaxle, so the problem is not an O-ring leak.
