I don't know that there is any reason to do that, but thanks for the suggestion. I've seen the inside of my Volvo after 250K and there was no reason for concern.
Toyota Dealer Recommends Oil Flush???
- Thread starter Astro_Guy
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- Dec 28, 2014
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- 2,370
Every dealer is different, they carry different products, they have different philosophies to make money. Use your best judgement, do your research and make a decision. And coming here probably helps.
An engine flush? Skip it or do it yourself. BG has been, and continues to be the money making product scheme at dealers for a long long time. One dealer used to give TV’s away based off the number of BG products you sold. You’d get these BG tokens and you’d save them up to get the TV. It was like a fundraiser for your kid’s football team or something...the more boxes of cookies your kid sells, the more clock radios and windbreakers your kid gets. I knew a guy who used to collect these BG tokens and toss the BG product in the bottom of his tool box. When he got fired (eventually) we moved his tool box out and it weighed a million pounds!! All that BG product weighed sooo much. Probably be very useful to hold down things in a hurricane...but for your engine?? Yeah, not so sure.
An engine flush? Skip it or do it yourself. BG has been, and continues to be the money making product scheme at dealers for a long long time. One dealer used to give TV’s away based off the number of BG products you sold. You’d get these BG tokens and you’d save them up to get the TV. It was like a fundraiser for your kid’s football team or something...the more boxes of cookies your kid sells, the more clock radios and windbreakers your kid gets. I knew a guy who used to collect these BG tokens and toss the BG product in the bottom of his tool box. When he got fired (eventually) we moved his tool box out and it weighed a million pounds!! All that BG product weighed sooo much. Probably be very useful to hold down things in a hurricane...but for your engine?? Yeah, not so sure.
Ditto
If you do your own changes just use liquimoly pro line engine flush
Give those filthy primus rings a good cleaning.
Astro_Guy,
Thanks for posting and please help us out here;
1. You said you’ve had 10k OCIs performed so ASSUMING a quality full syn was used, why would you need a “motor flush?”
2. During your ownership of this ride when did you have a coolant flush and an “inverter coolant flush” completed?
3. How do they define “tune-up?” Points, plugs, carb rebuild, new fuel filter?
WAIT! I’m joking BITOGers. But, I’d love to know the price of that “tune-up.”
Thanks for posting and please help us out here;
1. You said you’ve had 10k OCIs performed so ASSUMING a quality full syn was used, why would you need a “motor flush?”
2. During your ownership of this ride when did you have a coolant flush and an “inverter coolant flush” completed?
3. How do they define “tune-up?” Points, plugs, carb rebuild, new fuel filter?
WAIT! I’m joking BITOGers. But, I’d love to know the price of that “tune-up.”
Hermann
Site Donor 2023
Considering it is a very efficient hybrid, there is probably only 6000 engine miles on the oil every 10K.
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3. Clean the battery terminals?
This is all being said in sarcasm........you know "the dealer knockers" on this forum.
In all fairness Toyota might have a TSB and a "Flush" to clean the rings in problem oil consumers. However I've never heard of a Manufacturer recommending it's use proactively.
This vehicle has always been serviced by the dealer. A couple of oil changes were included in the sale, so the car started off life with a 5-6K OCI. After joining both Priuschat and BITOG I let that slip more towards 10K, but never more. I will give the dealer the benefit of the doubt and assume that they always used 0w-20 synthetic oil.
Both the coolant flushes and a tune up were performed at 100K. I believe that is the recommended interval for these procedures. The latest invoice quoted these services at $175 for each coolant flush and $225 for the tune up. For those of you not familiar with the 3rd generation Prius, you need to remove the windshield wiper arms and the panel below them in order to gain access to the spark plugs. $225 seems reasonable under the circumstances.
You may not realize it, but a Prius actually has a standard 12 volt battery tucked away in the back with the spare tire. It isn't used to start the engine but all of onboard 12 volt systems rely on it. The hybrid battery and one of the two motors start the car, but the 12 volt battery is needed to run the computer that starts the car. I found this out the hard way when the first battery died. Unlike a conventional vehicle there are no warning signs (weak starts) to alert you to the problem.
A battery test was on the checklist for the last service, but they don't supply the actual CCA of the battery. Maybe this is just a headlight load test performed via the OBD-II system?
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I approve this post.
Back in the day when I still maintain my vehicle in dealer, they always say they did battery test and everything's good- until my battery fail during covid lockdown and throw all kind of scary hybrid system error. Now I just get a battery test when getting parts from auto store once several months.
This thread reminded me of something my brother sent to me 30 years (?) ago. Why just flush the engine. Flush everything! 
This is part of a 4-page newspaper-like info (carnival flier).
This is part of a 4-page newspaper-like info (carnival flier).
