11-03-2022, 03:44 PM
Could have posted this on Chariots of Doom, but chose to post here, because I'm here.
A little more on the Prius. It's 17 years old now, so I was very worried about the battery. They typically last 5 years with heavy use, 10 years with little old lady driving. I'm the latter. 17 years is ... just out there.
So, like I said, the Check Engine Light came on with 3 hours to go, but I told LCF to drive onward. We made it.
I tried to order an OBD reader to get the trouble code, but blundered and got a Ford-specific one. So we bit the bullet and took it to a Toyota shop. For $200 bucks they read it as a bad air fuel sensor. It would cost $900 bucks to replace, but they said we could probably nurse it home. We opted to nurse it home. But we did get an oil change.
A couple hours into the drive home, the Check Engine Light went out. It has not shown up since. I bought the right OBD reader, but haven't found out how to get a history of past codes. Seems like that should be possible. Then I used a Dr. Prius app to load-test the battery. The gas engine always starts well before the battery test completes, invalidating the results, and I get a message of a bad block. So I think the battery is on its last legs--though it still performs well and is mostly symptomless. When I bought the Prius, I was getting 47 MPG city driving. We had the Prius loaded down with heavy stuff on the drive home, and we drove 75 MPH most of the time, but we still got just over 40 MPG. So it still seems to perform well. But I don't trust it and feel lucky on this past trip.
If I was smart, we'd buy a newer used Prius for about 17K. But this one has brand new tires ($600+) on it and a new oil change, and I'm tempted to have a new battery installed for $2500-3000 (you can get reconditioned ones a lot cheaper, but careful reading shows that they're a very short-term patch). Still, more than the battery will likely need fixing (the clock and other meters are starting to act up). Trying to decide which way to go.
Oh. One more thing. The Prius has lost its new car smell. So the matter is especially urgent.
Okay, after a couple of days of research, I'm leaning towards getting a new car and going full EV. The leading candidate is a Nissan Leaf. There's a lot of choices out there, but so expensive and always deal-breaker shortcomings. Seems best to go minimal until things settle down and there are better deals.
A little more on the Prius. It's 17 years old now, so I was very worried about the battery. They typically last 5 years with heavy use, 10 years with little old lady driving. I'm the latter. 17 years is ... just out there.
So, like I said, the Check Engine Light came on with 3 hours to go, but I told LCF to drive onward. We made it.
I tried to order an OBD reader to get the trouble code, but blundered and got a Ford-specific one. So we bit the bullet and took it to a Toyota shop. For $200 bucks they read it as a bad air fuel sensor. It would cost $900 bucks to replace, but they said we could probably nurse it home. We opted to nurse it home. But we did get an oil change.
A couple hours into the drive home, the Check Engine Light went out. It has not shown up since. I bought the right OBD reader, but haven't found out how to get a history of past codes. Seems like that should be possible. Then I used a Dr. Prius app to load-test the battery. The gas engine always starts well before the battery test completes, invalidating the results, and I get a message of a bad block. So I think the battery is on its last legs--though it still performs well and is mostly symptomless. When I bought the Prius, I was getting 47 MPG city driving. We had the Prius loaded down with heavy stuff on the drive home, and we drove 75 MPH most of the time, but we still got just over 40 MPG. So it still seems to perform well. But I don't trust it and feel lucky on this past trip.
If I was smart, we'd buy a newer used Prius for about 17K. But this one has brand new tires ($600+) on it and a new oil change, and I'm tempted to have a new battery installed for $2500-3000 (you can get reconditioned ones a lot cheaper, but careful reading shows that they're a very short-term patch). Still, more than the battery will likely need fixing (the clock and other meters are starting to act up). Trying to decide which way to go.
Oh. One more thing. The Prius has lost its new car smell. So the matter is especially urgent.
Okay, after a couple of days of research, I'm leaning towards getting a new car and going full EV. The leading candidate is a Nissan Leaf. There's a lot of choices out there, but so expensive and always deal-breaker shortcomings. Seems best to go minimal until things settle down and there are better deals.
I'm nobody's pony.