Checked a friends Auris and had a little drive. Cleaned EGR pipe.

[Konrad C]

This week a friend called me, as her 61 plate Auris Hybrid was running roughly. I checked this forum and leant about the EGR pipe, and yesterday went to see the car. I cleaned the EGR pipe and gave the car a once over. There was some soot in the pipe, but not much even to cause a blockage. I plugged in my Launch Creader and checked for any stored codes, and the car was clear. I reassembled everything, but forgot to reconnect the MAF sensor. This illuminated the EML, and even though I reconnected the MAF, the EML still stayed on. When we got back from the test drive, I got my netbook out and ran Techstream to delete the two codes relating the the MAF. The EML then turned off and all was well. The car ran well, being similar to the load Yaris I drove last month.
The car itself has done 60,670 miles, but has some body damage. Just say the car needs some care to bring is back to its prime. Due to my friend doing lots off local journeys, the car showed just over 40 mpg, which is low considering my Avensis 1.8 petrol can show up to 38 mpg! This car should be at least 50 mpg, unless there is something wrong. I would service the car myself, doing oil filters, sparkplugs, the EV Battery cooling filter. and the bodywork. The other minus for me is the boot is small for my needs. I am not keen on the gear selector and park button setup. I prefer the conventional gear selector in the Yaris. 
My friend was happy I checked her car for her, and the advice I gave her. I told her to call me if the car runs rough again.

[Gerg]

I have spare Auris hybrid EGR cooler, reportedly removed from a ~ 50,000 mile car.  There was very little build up of soot inside that, and certainly not enough to cause any sort of restriction, I cleaned this off anyway just to see how easily the crud was removed.  It did take a while. 

If you hadn't already seen it, this post about a hybrid misfire may be of some use:-

You get used to the gear lever after a while, then end up liking it.  And when you turn the car off on the start/stop button it effectively puts the car in 'N' and puts the parking brake on for you, so you don't have to do anything apart from apply the handbrake.

Some preventative maintenance on the centre exhaust mounts is useful as, just sometimes, they part company from the silencer they are welded to - the welds rust out.  I am experimenting with just putting some copper grease over the weld.  I'll see what happens to it.  The silencer is £1200 + vat + fitting.