Prius underside rust?

The One Doctor

Hi all,

I have just inspected a 2006 Prius T4 with about 233k miles on the clock with a view to buying it. Overall the car is fine, including the hybrid system, but two things are niggling at me. The first is that there's some underside rust, including some fairly severe rust along the anti-roll bar. Or at least that's what I think it is. (The car in the pic isn't the car I inspected, it's just to show what part I'm talking about.)



The bar just below the exhaust has another bar within it and that is severely pitted. This car comes from Donegal and was probably used in the North, so salt may have done its work too. There is some also some rust on the underside of the spare wheel well, and also some surface rust beside the aux battery in the boot. It could be that the aux battery leaked at some point and the rust wasn't cleaned up afterwards or it may have been a water leak, but it only showed up around the battery.)

Apart from that the car drives and handles well with no unusual noises and the MPG is excellent. Does anyone have any opinions how much the bar might cost to replace or is it a minor thing?

biko

The sway bar aka anti-roll bar can be changed for another. Not too expensive.
Although my first option would be to take rusty pieces off, sand all the rust off and inspect them, then put some anti-rust on and replace as needed..

visual

Walk away no run away
there is enough problem to deal with without rust

mgbgt1978

What Biko said, as far as the anti-roll bar is concerned. They are meant to flex slightly so any paint will always flake off eventually and a certain amount of surface rust will appear. Waxoil is the answer here. It never really sets and the NCT guys won't touch it as it's too gooey for them.

Mileage is a bit high. Are there no others around with lower mileage for about the same money?
TBH I wouldn't worry too much about high mileage on a Prius affecting it's reliability. But everything else (from suspension to the interior) will be showing wear.

edit:
Is it this car....
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/06-toyota-prius-nct-03-16/7221454
....?
232,500km, rather than miles.
Also not an import so possibly not used too much on the salted roads of N.I.
Have a good look underneath for leaks around the transmission driveshafts....passenger side not an issue (the D/shaft seal often leaks around 80k or so), but drivers side usually indicates a major transmission issue.

Bigus

Look above the axle beam to the rear chassis legs/ mounts,

I got a fright when I inspected one recently, bad structural rot I hadn't seen in 30 years.

Get it up on a ramp,for a closer look, also NCT may fail for corroded brake pipes.

Bigus

visual wrote: »

Walk away no run away
there is enough problem to deal with without rust

What problems ?

visual

Bigus wrote: »

What problems ?

Do you really believe these cars are fault free and dont have service replaceable parts ?

Add in rust and it will be up on those ramp alot

darragh o meara

Its be a brave man who'd go welding one of those. The battery packs wouldn't like it I'd imagine.

Bigus

visual wrote: »

Do you really believe these cars are fault free and dont have service replaceable parts ?

Add in rust and it will be up on those ramp alot

Google million km Prius , they give feck all trouble in MY experience too( 10years ) many examples

JohnBoy26

These can rust, just like anything that's exposed to salt can. Id avoid that car tbh, there are better rust free examples out there.

The One Doctor

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

Is it this car....
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/06-toyota-prius-nct-03-16/7221454
....?
232,500km, rather than miles.
Also not an import so possibly not used too much on the salted roads of N.I.
Have a good look underneath for leaks around the transmission driveshafts....passenger side not an issue (the D/shaft seal often leaks around 80k or so), but drivers side usually indicates a major transmission issue.

Yeah that was the car, didn't go for it in the end as I found an 05 with the same spec and mileage (and less rust) for 25% less. Getting 55mpg without trying so far, happy with that. Not bothered about the mileage as long as the car is in good condition.

mgbgt1978

Good luck with the Prius. Probably one of the most reliable cars of the last 10 years or so.
Just take a look at how many taxi drivers are moving away from diesel and into Prius's.
Google 'canada prius taxi mileage' and see what these are capable of.
Also 'prius chat' is a great forum. Although it's an American site there is loads of advice there.

Change oil regularly (use correct grade) and you should be fine.