1.8L starting rattle, knock, events

When it first happened to me I think it was also just before a very long trip

 

Ours did the same thing. Sounded like piston slap upon startup.

Loose heat shield. Dealer tightened and all was good. 20k miles later and it hasnt come back.

 

Hopefully it corrected the rattling shield but I'm all but positive that the issues we're reporting have nothing to do with a heat shield.

 

Did you see the video of this occurrence? If this is really what you experienced it has nothing to do with a loose heat shield. It seems to be a rare occurrence considering it has happened to me once in 26,000 miles so the fact that it stopped after they "tightened" the heat shield has nothing to do with tightening the heat shield. This is a rough, terrible shake of the engine with loud knocking. Like someone else said it seems like the engine is disintegrating in front of our eyes(or ears).

The best theory I saw is that it has something to do with the variable valve timing being off. Toyota should have come out with a fix for this by now but with all the other recalls I think they are holding out. Either that or this is something not so simple as a software upgrade that would cost them tons of money.

 

Has anybody actually bothered calling Toyota and gotten anything out of them? I admit I'm guilty as the rest of you for just preferring to go on about it online instead of finding a phone number and reporting it.

 

I have not seen the video, but I had heard some nasty rattling. I only read the first couple pages of this thread and remembered what we heard at around 5k miles. Maybe theres some confusion as well as to how many are hearing rattling only vs hard shaking...as that sounds like a different issue entirely.

 

I'm going to call the dealer tomorrow but I doubt they will know anything. Who else can I call? I can't wait until I can get oil analysis results.

 

My car actually did this about a week ago. I started it up in the Garage and all the sudden it sounded like something was being thrown around by a belt under the hood. Same noise everyone has mentioned on the site.

I did watch the YouTube video posted and it is the same noise that my car made. It is about 3 months old with 2600 miles on it. I had moved the car in and out of the garage briefly the night before to get my lawn mower in and out of the garage. I am in the belief that it has to do with the MG's and the alignment of everything when shutdown during these small moves.

I'll be watching to see if it happens again, but so far so good.

 

I had the occurrence this Monday morning. Car had sat overnight for 10 hours. Temp in the mid 60's. 2010 Prius V w/18500 miles.
Started up and the rattle, vibration and sounds were so bad I considered having the car towed to the dealer. Something is very wrong when this occurs. The sound was metal on metal; like damage is occurring.

I have owned 10 cars in my lifetime, and have never heard anything like this. I'll be adding this to the list for my upcoming 20k service, along with multiple NAV/Audio system freeze-ups, irritating "bridge" rattles, arm rest creak, and clank from front brake calipers. Unfortunately, I haven't found what I consider confidence-inspiring mechanics at the dealership. Nearly every question I ask is answered with: "We've never heard of that." or "...we couldn't duplicate the problem."

After my last service, the oil filter couldn't be loosened, and my tire pressures were 45, 38, 42 and 31 p.s.i. Confidence inspiring eh?

 

Tell me about it. I went to the dealership and showed the video I took of this problem to their "Prius expert" mechanic and his jaw just dropped. He said he never heard of this problem before and that it sounded like a cylinder was mis-firing. He asked if there were any engine lights on and I told him no. He was flabbergasted and didn't even have another theory besides a mis-firing cylinder. Not very reassuring.

 

Just had the 20k service done at the dealer. They noted the engine rattle, but of course "never heard of it and couldn't replicate it." As for the dealer's previous over-inflation of my tires, they (can you believe this?) referred me to the door sticker regarding proper inflation pressures. I reminded them that the tech had written on the work order the pressures the tech had set my tires at, so what are you referring me to the door sticker for? They couldn't replicate the bridge squeaks/rattles either. As for the NAV/FM reception issues, they will be "replacing the radio" which I would assume is the entire head unit.
At first they denied there being any TSB on this, but I had printed and showed the service writer a copy of a TSB I found through PRIUSchat. The response to that was, "that's just something floating around on the web." Huh?

I would happily switch dealerships, but I have only heard worse about any of them within reasonable driving distance. Again, not confidence-inspiring at all.

 

You should've responded with, "And to think that was proof enough for the usurper's BC." (sorry for going there, but it's an issue that will not simply go away much to the chagrin of the power elite)
:rofl:eep:

 

Well, it happened again this morning...the dreaded engine knock on startup. Car had sat for about 24 hours. This time, I called Toyota directly and asked them if they were familiar with this complaint. The customer service rep. put me on hold, and later told me that he had not found any notes about such a complaint, and would "open a case" with regard to my issue. He noted that the dealer had made notes on my 20k service paperwork regarding the engine knock, and next time "bring it to the dealer when it happens." Good idea, if I didn't need to get to work, and an even better idea if I would be able to reproduce this in front of a tech!
My primary concern is that these events get noted and documented to protect me in the event of a future out-of-warranty engine damage claim.

Has anyone here gleaned any insight as to what is going on with these power systems in the 2010 Prius?

 

Below are two best theories I have found.

1) MG1 is not allowing the gasoline engine to idle, which would imply a hybrid vehicle ECU firmware issue, or 2) the engine is misfiring due to an ignition timing issue or a problem with the VVT-i intake valve timing.

I wish Toyota would address this issue.

 

So do I! Very disconcerting to have spent over 30K for a car that has a mystery problem.

 

How long was your drive the day before? I assume short; maybe you moved it briefly or similar?

I'm at 23k now and haven't had it in many thousands of miles. Documenting it for potential warranty issues as you're doing is a good idea. However, I strongly doubt that will ever come into play as a necessary piece of documentation.

Still love this car. I'd own two if the prices on them weren't stupid right now.

 

2600 mi.2 months,no noise,other than some road,great car.

 

Wait until the next winter time and hear that horrendous knocking / rattle in the engine you will not be happily headbanging believe me!

 

Hi Pixel I had some of those rattles / knocking events in the past. Called Toyota got a CASE# then when to dealer several times nothing rattle is still there ONLY in winter time if the car sits for long periods of times, If I see I'm going to have a business trip I tell my wife to turn the engine every couple of days and let the engine stop before turning the car off.

It has been several people here claiming that cutting the warm up cycle of the ICE generates the knocking next start up!

It's amazing that Toyota says they haven't hear about it when you can search in YouTube like 10 videos of people recording the event.

I just don't know how they can get away with it playing stupid until the end!

 

My first event was July in NY and car had not sat long at all, less than a day. It occurred after an interrupted warm up event I believe and in any case the huge majority of complaints for these are not after a long sit but rather after an interrupted warm up. That is the key variable in my estimation, not how long the car has been sitting.