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Toyota Prius Bentley Repair Manual

March 18/09

I bought a new Toyota Prius in 2008. All was fine until about the 9,000 mile mark when the check engine light came on. I know pretty well how these things work so I knew right away that there would be a trouble code stored in the vehicle's memory. I own a ScanGauge II so I was able to read the diagnostic trouble code (DTC), which was a P0031. If you do a quick search on p0031 in your favorite search engine you'll see a P0031 is Oxygen (Air/Fuel) Sensor Heater Control Circuit Low (Bank 1, Sensor 1). For more information on that code, check out this great article - https://www.obd-codes.com/p0031

I'm a DIYer (do-it-yourselfer), I like doing minor repairs and maintenance items on vehicles myself. I'm not a mechanic but sometimes I pretend I am, LOL! So I got under my vehicle, was able to locate both O2 sensors, and boy oh boy was the front O2 (A/F Ratio) sensor up in a tight spot! Since I don't have a heated garage and this was February I decided I'd just let the dealer do the proper diagnosis and repair. I took it in, the repair was covered under warranty. The dealer replaced that front air/fuel ratio sensor and everything was good.

As a result of the trouble code and not being overly familiar with hybrid systems, I decided it was time to get a decent repair manual for my car. I hadn't owned a Prius or hybrid car before and so I only had a limited knowledge of how the systems worked. I discovered factory Prius shop manuals can be had for anywhere between $500 and $1,000. As soon as I saw the cost, I decided that was probably more info that I'd need. After all the car is still under warranty for another 2+ years and even if it was out of warranty there would probably be some jobs too big for me to tackle!

That's when I discovered the Bentley Publishers 2004-2008 Toyota Prius Repair and Maintenance Shop Manual. At a retail price of $69, it sounded like a more reasonable price ;-) I did some searches on the net to see what others were saying about the manual. I had came across one forum thread at PriusChat.com which mentioned the manual but nobody had any real review of it. Some folks had previously bought a Bentley Publishers manual and were pleased, so I decided to buy one. I checked the usual places for the manual - eBay, Amazon.com, etc. I live in Canada so I found it on sale at Amazon.ca for just $55 CDN with free shipping. That was the best price I could find so I bought one. At the time of writing this article, the manual is available for $44 US from Amazon.com, the lowest price I've seen yet.

The manual arrived in about a week or so. It's a good hardcover book, I didn't read the Amazon listing all that closely but I was just expecting a paperback manual for that price. So as soon as I could get it out of the box and the plastic off, I opened it up and started reading.

The first three chapters (96 pages) of this book include oodles of full color photos. I was surprised to see so many color pictures. In all, there are 830 photos, illustrations, and diagrams. I was able to look up where that connector was for the A/F ratio sensor that failed. In fact, they even had a full listing of DTC codes, although you can find the codes online easily for free.

Although I haven't read the entire book, I can tell you that this manual is a great choice for DIYers and Prius owners who want to learn more about thier car. It gives you plenty of detailed information from regular maintenance items to full repair information. Here is a list of what's in each chapter, I typed out the table of contents:

Other Resources

If you're a Toyota Prius owner or a DIYer, you may want to check out these helpful links: