I need a transaxle for a 2001 Prius. Apparently this part rarely fails, but (1) the car has 118K miles, and (2) I bought her second-hand and it always hummed loudly at highway speeds. I have no way of knowing if the trans fluid was changed regularly. Toyota has not made the parts available to rebuild the transaxle. The 2001-2003 are the same part. If anyone has or knows of a source for a salvage part (ideally from a pristine low-mileage traffic wreck of course), please respond or contact me by PM, ASAP. Thanks!
There's a thread over in the prius_technical_stuff yahoogroup on exactly the same subject, unless you're that same person. The group hasn't managed to pin down what the problem is because the description of the "hum" is sort of sketchy, but one thing that's emerged is Bob Wilson's transaxle-oil study indicating that it really should have been changed in the Classics every 15000-20000 miles. I don't think the Toyota maint schedule for '01-03 specified that often, but studies are indicating that the stuff loses its lubricating qualities fairly quickly. One option for longer life is to replace it with the type WS stuff used in the 3rd-gens, which [in the '04+] is thought to be good for about 50000 miles despite being referred to as "lifetime". . http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/pri_toil.html . _H*
I ended up getting a used transaxle via <www.car-part.com> from an LKQ affiliate. Seems to work fine, just had to replace the oil seal. Thanks.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jbieler @ Sep 29 2006, 12:47 PM) [snapback]325713[/snapback]</div> just curious what kinda $$ did you have to cough up?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Frank Hudon @ Sep 29 2006, 04:21 PM) [snapback]325731[/snapback]</div> Frank, I did a search on the website he mentioned and for the gen I it was between 400$ and 2500$. It was similar pricing for the genII prius transmission. This did not include any shipping. I am sure they want you to come and get this particular part.
