Red Phoenix - Resurrecting a long parked, high mileage car

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by NedBEVfan, Jul 5, 2024.

  1. NedBEVfan

    NedBEVfan New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 5, 2024
    2
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    Location:
    Virginia
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Hey folks,
    I have a 2010 which has been idle for several years. I bought it originally in 2016 or so, and used it as an independent courier work vehicle. My ex used it when I moved on to a younger Cmax, but when the car developed problems I took the simple way out and swapped the Cmax for the 2010 and parked it. I have No idea what she had done to it, so I'm about to try and get it running again. It has been sitting for at Least 4 year at this point, so I"m basically dealing with a 'barn find' level of getting it going.
    It has about 185,000 miles on it IIRC, and has the expected level of wear and tear on it. I recently had an increase in my commute from 5 miles to about an hour round trip, and while I like my SUV, it gets 20 mpg downhill with a tail wind, and the Prius of course got about 45-50 or so back in the day.
    I"m Certain the aux battery needs replacement, and if I can get it running I'm going to have a local garage do a full fluids change after I limp it the mile from the house to their shop.

    It will probably need new pads/rotors, and new rubber all around before I'd trust it to commute duty. I'm a trucker, and this is going to be my 'leave at the terminal' car. It needs to be reliable enough to get me to work. I'm going to look for a 'younger' driver's seat and/or put a pair of seat covers on the front seats. The rear won't matter, as it will just be me in it 99% of the time.
    this car is my third Prius, I had a company gen 2 for a few years, then another gen 2 which this car replaced. the gen 2 developed the red triangle of death on the Hybrid battery, and put a remanufactured pack from Greentec in it. My son drove it for another 30,000 miles before he lost an argument with a snow bank and it got totalled with nearly 250,000 on it.
    I've gone on to own another Cmax and a gen 2 Volt since I parked it, but they gave way to a Jeep a couple of years ago.
    Thanks for looking, will post updates as I hopefully get it up and going. -Ned