Major car dilemma -- need advice urgently!

Even if the thing is in fact totally buggered it'll be worth at least half of the "generous offer" as it stands (note, at least given it's a prius).

Tell them to get stuffed, get it home, get someone trustworthy to look at it then if they believe it to be knackered too stick it on ebay with an exact description of the problem(s)

Then go about buying something you actually want, financed whichever way you choose and taking your time about it.
 
paradigm said:
Hang on, so you don't even know what (if anything) is majorly broken?

:confused:
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Not really, because they would need to go into the transmission to find that out and that's a big job because it's not a standard transmission. It's a hybrid engine.

That said, I do at least know where the leak is coming from, which is the transmission, which is the worst possible place for it to be.

So I'm thinking I will just take the car home with me tonight and at least sleep on it. I would like to get a second opinion but I don't know where to go. How would I go about finding a good Toyota mechanic in Birmingham who would know what they're doing with a hybrid engine?
 
My bets on a hose split.

2nd opinion is absolutely necessary. Generally if it's something like a transmission you'd simply replace it rather than spending 8 hours opening it up to find the problem. It won't simply leak out without there being a hole, it's a sealed unit.
 
These gearboxes can't be that special and the car seriously can't be that difficult to work on to justify the sort of costs you are talking about here, second hand gearboxes for them seem to range from £300 to about £1000 on ebay. There is also a shed load of them on there.

Don't be fooled into thinking that because its a prius that it needs some special kind of workshop to be able to work on it, its nuts and bolts like any other car. Get a second opinion from any small independent garage.
 
Dr Who said:
Why would the transmission leak coolant? If it is the transmission they are @£500 s/h as well.
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The prius gearbox has a couple of external cooling pipes, see to the right hand side of this image:



My money is on one of those pipes getting contaminated by oil and swelling/splitting and that is running down the box making it look much worse than it is.

edit: That is of course assuming everything else is working and we are just talking what appears to be a coolant leak.
 
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Well the good news is I didn't end up committing to anything at the dealership. I just went in and explained that I couldn't possibly commit to buying a £10,000 car (even more with the interest) without at least being able to sleep on it and, surprise, surprise, the 'you've got to decide today' stipulation was relaxed a bit. They said the offer would still be good until Friday providing I could drive the car in (it seemed to hold up fine on the way home).

Vince and acemaster, what you say is interesting and I hope you're right because if it is just a burst hose that would probably be economical to fix (like you both say, the transmission is sealed so it shouldn't leak -- could just be fluid coming from a leak elsewhere). I called a family member who knows a good mechanic and hopefully they are going to be able to look at it tomorrow. I'll find out later tonight. If they don't work with Toyotas I will just Google somewhere.

If I can get it fixed for <£1000 I will probably just pay up and keep it. I really don't like the idea of buying a car on credit, especially at that rate of interest.
 
p1RATE said:
Also if the prius they have offered is 10k and they are offering 1k off for your current car, 225 sound wrong for a 5 year deal. A loan at 5% would be about 170 a month for 9k.
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a £9000 loan over 5 years @ 5% is £187.50/month.
 
A gearbox is a gearbox is a gearbox pretty much, any mechanic will be able to change one.

I'd take it to an indy mechanic and ask them to diagnose it, then if it's more than a split hose and the gearbox is indeed borked get a replacement (either yourself off ebay or let them get it as long as you know how much they're paying for it) i can't imagine it being any more than £1500 worst case including a new clutch as you're in there anyway.
 
Going to see my family member's mechanic tomorrow morning so hopefully that pans out well.

I also Google'd 'leaking coolant transmission Prius' to see if it was a common problem. I could only find one case:

http://www.greenhybrid.com/forums/f49/transmission-coolant-leak-26815/

The guy was in warranty and ended up getting the replacement done for free by Toyota and someone else in the thread mentioned that it would be theoretically possible to avoid the need for a replacement by simply repairing the transaxle:

'I don't think small amount of coolant leaking into transaxle would create major problems, if caught early. Coolant shouldn't be too corrosive and if the car was out of warranty, just repairing the leak by taking apart and resealing transaxle should fix the problem for less money. Of course dealer won't do it, since all they do is replace whole part, but there are some independent shops that could do it.'

Then again they it was also mentioned that if the transaxle needs replacing and you're out of warranty the cost is astronomical. Fingers crossed it's good news.

Dr Who said:
Why would the transmission leak coolant? If it is the transmission they are @£500 s/h as well.
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Can I ask where you've seen one for £500. I can't find any (at any price) on eBay (I searched 'Prius transaxle' and 'Prius transmission').
 
Do not be pressured into a 5 year deal over a £2500 Prius, that is some OTT pressure selling employed by the dealer. The faulty components will be in the hundreds on ebay and cost peanuts to replace by an indy specialist in comparison to chucking away circa £200 a month for 5 years!
 
Don't be a plum. Get it fixed cheaply by an indie... If you are clever with how you go about it it should cost next to nothing to sort if it is just a hose, and no more than £800 if the entire gearbox needs replacing.

Also, you're a muppet for buying a Prius, they are pointless.
 
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Vince said:
These gearboxes can't be that special and the car seriously can't be that difficult to work on to justify the sort of costs you are talking about here, second hand gearboxes for them seem to range from £300 to about £1000 on ebay. There is also a shed load of them on there.

Don't be fooled into thinking that because its a prius that it needs some special kind of workshop to be able to work on it, its nuts and bolts like any other car. Get a second opinion from any small independent garage.
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And high voltage batteries with massive magnets and stators on the gearbox... Pretty unique really
 
Jonnycoupe said:
And high voltage batteries with massive magnets and stators on the gearbox... Pretty unique really
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I appreciate that they are unique and extra measures might need to be taken beyond disconnecting the battery and getting the spanners out, they have also been around for a long time and seem to be everywhere on the roads so any decent independent should have come across a couple by now.

Besides it can't be rocket science, some of the people on ebay selling these gearboxes can barely tell me what they are selling. :D
 
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