Seems to be abbreviating car names isn’t new. I remember Dad talking about Leo’s 56 Merc, Uncle Fred bought a 68 Bonny station wagon, Rudy bought a big Caddy, and some uncle somewhere used to call his Dodge station wagon a Dogie.
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Thanks @davesmopar for those videos, very complete and informative. The first time I’ve seen the ‘don’t change fluid if it hasn’t been done on a 100k+ mile transmission’ opinion explained in an understandable manner by someone with lots of experience. And he puts his money where his mouth is, refusing to work on those high-mile un-serviced transmissions.
One thing to note - he occasionally calls the ‘fill plug’ the ‘drain plug’ when saying you have to remove the fill plug first to make sure you don’t end up with a drained transmission you can’t fill.
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He didn’t address the Toyota hybrids tho’ which don’t have valve bodies and shift solenoids and clutches and whatnot. Mechanically, they’re actually very simple little gear boxes.
And very durable as well. I read a study some time ago that found the long term reliability of the Prius was better than the Corolla.
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Yes he did, in the 1st Hybrid video I posted at the 1:00 mark, he said no issues changing the fluid at 150K, even if never serviced…
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I thought I had explained it pretty well on here a few times as well… lol
But yeah, I have been saying the same thing for 30 years…
Yeah, the hybrid power splitter is much simpler than any regular AT or CVT (no clutches, no belts, just constantly-meshed planetary gears), so his 30k/60k guidelines for those don’t apply.
Changing the ATF in a hybrid transmission/transaxle is about like changing the gear oil in a diff or the whatever fluid in a typical manual transmission/transaxle…
Ah. Missed that. Thanks again.
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I bought my last used car from a dealer. Off lease vehicle with all the records and many k dollars less than used dealers. Brake vibration after 500 mile drive 1 year later, rear rotors had rusted bubbles on the edge. They split the cost for net out of pocket for new brake pads and rotors $180.
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I did much the same in the late '80s, and also saw the previous owner had religiously taken the car to the dealer for all preventive maintenance checks.
Paid a little more, but that Camry was bullet proof and ran another 200K miles by DIL and DIL’s mother.
Later on I read the reasoning behind buying a used car at a dealer. He doesn’t want to sell a reputation-damaging car, so keeps the good ones on the lot and sends the bad ones to independent dealers or an auction house.
My current car is a 2011 Toyota Venza, bought at a dealer in 2016 and never giving me a major problem.
What’s interesting about that comment is that I actually bought the car without having actually seen or driven it. (Well, but I “saw” it in the plenty of online photos, and I had driven a Gen 3 Prius before). The sales guy asked about seeing it, and I basically said something like a Toyota dealer isn’t going to put it on their lot as a “certified” vehicles if they don’t have confidence in it. It’s not in their best long-term interest, and if it was at all questionable, it would go to auction. He then went on to explain (and I think I believed him) that most trades do not go on the lot.
The typical roadside, independent, unbranded used car peddlers buying from those auctions are a different story, of course. I once checked out a minivan at a spot like that, and they weren’t even smart enough to hide the numerous “mechanic-in-a-bottle” products hanging around. Those places are more like “fine, take me to small claims court.”
Anyway, I think that the only weak spot is likely the 13 yr old hybrid battery pack. There’s no way around that. batteries are what they are. But I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. And I’m perfectly capable of replacing it myself.
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So back to my last question at hand…Especially since I have 5 qts of the Toyota spec’d trans fluid on hand, I don’t see any reason not to change it.
But I’m also thinking of getting a magnetic drain plug. The Gen 1 & 2 Prius had a magnetic plug, but it was discontinued on Gen 3. Why? I don’t know. But I think I’d rather be able to remove whatever metal dust that’s in there with a fluid change. It’s probably overkill/overthinking, but if it can’t do any harm (even if it won’t make that much difference to anything) I’m thinking why not? They’re cheap. It’s just an M18x1.5 plug but with a magnet on the end.
Any thoughts one way or another? (Yes, I’m overthinking).
I bought my last used Trailblazer from a Subaru dealer. It was a trade-in. Company vehicle and religiously maintained at the dealer. The Subaru dealer was super low pressure (no sales commissions) and offered a lifetime power train warranty on this, at the time, 10 year old truck. It was very reasonably priced and no shenanigans during the sale process.
Magnet in the oil pan? Can’t hurt but what’s magnetic anymore that is going to wear away? Plus, the engine already has a fine particulate filter that should trap it- not like a screen in the transmission…
I think he talking about the transmission drain plug.
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This forum and others have had posts about Certified Preowned vehicles being not as good as they were said to be . As someone said CPO only means it was certified to be a used vehicle.
I feel ya sir, I overthink everything that concerns my bank account… lol
I say go for it..
As far as the drain plug goes, I think you are way past the break in metal shavings period that would show up (lol), and at this point when you pull the plug the next time, if you see much metal on it then you are pretty much screwed anyway… imo
For your TMI viewing pleasure, here is a (seems to be a complete) teaching/deep dive video, I have watched a couple of his videos, guy is pretty sharp…
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Oops, thanks for the correction. Must’ve had a brain cramp. Old age is racing up on me 
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It means a lot more than that on a Toyota lot. You can look it up if you like. And, as noted above, this car got 4 new TPMS sensors, a new timing cover gasket, among other things like new brake pads even though they would have technically passed VA state inspection. But that’s a fraction of what is inspected.
Wow. I’ll have to watch that one in parts. I generally don’t feel like I have time to watch 1+ hours of a YouTube vid. But I did watch the first 15 or so, so far. They apparently have a magnet in the case. It’s just no accessible to clean when you do a fluid change. But I’m sure it does more than a little button on the end of a drain plug can do.
I will watch it in parts. I have only a general understanding of these transaxles, but a deep dive is up my alley. I do like to know how my own machines work, even if I never plan to take one apart and re-assemble.
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