Weird ticking sound, please help *video*

I took the service advisor for a spin after he had mentioned that the techs couldnt hear anything. He heard itand understood the problem. Only issue is that the techs ended up saying its my aftermarket suspension. The sound on my car has gotten quite noticeable now whenever I brake from 25 down to 0mph.
I'm hoping a dealership other than Tustin Toyota has fixed this issue on someone else's car so that I can take it there.

 

At first, my dealer told me that there was a TSB for a clip and replaced the driver side. When I picked up my car, there was blue masking tape around the driver front corner window but the noise was still there.
The noise is not caused by the aftermarket suspension. I am all stock and both sides of my axle needed replacement. I would call Toyota and complain that the dealer refuse to do warranty repair due to aftermarket springs. Tell them that the noise is audible before you replaced the springs.

 

I walked into a dealer yesterday and armed with my PC insight, straight up said I would like my drivers side drive shaft replaced. The service manager listened to what I had to say and agreed it makes sense. They'll troubleshoot more and if it's agreed to be the culprit, replace it for $700.. Really hope that's it


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thanks for the info!

i'm still battling my stealership right now and so is Josh (jlprius)

the relation shows that we're all lowered, one way or another

the way we can prove that it's not suspension related is that when we brake in neutral, the same sound still occurs

my stealership denoted that i have 'aftermarket' suspension, but i still have my stock TRD springs and struts in the garage ready if they were to dare challenge that

 

I'm still a little nervous about dropping that money but I can't think of anything else it could be after reading the couple related threads, even with a few different circumstances..
My CV boots are clean so I doubt it's the joints. It only happens when braking in D. It goes away in N and doesn't care if I'm turning or going straight. I almost wish I could just trade the car in but the noise is too obvious ;-)

I have to call Monday morning to make an appointment and will definitely post my outcome, see how it compares to the others.


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Isn't it covered by warranty?

 

Didn't buy extended one, car has almost 68k on it and there's no recall or TSB that they could find on this issue.


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If no warranty, I would just keep on driving. Is it very loud?

 

Yap, doing mods while under warranty is giving excuses to get warranty voided. Is it fair? No, but this is how it is.

 

i bought the extended warranty.. im planning on cancelling soon if this isnt covered. i can get it prorated

 

It is loud and getting progressively worse. Annoys the crap out of me. If a $700 bill to replace the shaft cures it, then I should be all set and hope the car should last a couple more years. Bought the Toyota for reliability and hope this is just a single issue for us. Going in tomorrow, hoping it'll be done with.


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I went in to Big Two Toyota here in Gilbert, AZ yesterday and had the car looked at. As I mentioned earlier, I made the appointment to have the driver's side drive shaft replaced based on this thread...but the Service Mgr wanted to have it looked into some more. As it turns out, he didn't order the shaft yet and had his resident Prius guru look at it. This tech was amazing; he teaches hybrid drive systems at a local college and has worked on Toyotas for 37 years. We went for a ride and he listened and explained Regenerative braking and why he thought it's NOT the shaft; mainly because it only makes noise when in regenerative braking or AC converting scenarios. We found that it clicks from about 25 down to 5 mph. He had me slow slowly and explained with Regeneration that the noise will stop below 5 mph because then we only use the brakes/pads, and he was right. This makes sense to us who find no noise when we stop in N. He also showed me (and I had missed this), that the noise is also heard a little when we started moving as well.

I nearly died when he gave his theory - my aftermarket stereo is introducing noise into the hybrid system that is appearing somewhere unknown! He thinks it's too large a strain on the inverter and electrical system. He recommended that I go home and disconnect the + and - lines into my system and then go for a ride. I did this for grins today and imagine, the noise is still there. The system is only about 500W peak and was off when we test drove it. I see his logic but I explained this started 2 months ago and the stereo has been in 2 years.

I'm still believing based on cproaudio's input, that the drive shaft sounds like the issue. I agree that it's because the most strain on the joints is starting from a stop and stopping the motion, coincidental to all the hybrid workings. The CV's aren't fully bad yet, but no longer good (if that makes sense) Unfortunately I'm anxious to spend the $700 quoted to replace it in case that isn't it for this car. I'll get back to him tomorrow and see what he says.

I may say screw it and trade the car back for a conventional one, especially if Toyota fails to find an issue on their own. I had about 600k miles combined on 2 Corollas, a Camry and Sienna with zero mechanical issues and am disappointed that the most expensive car I buy just blew the warranty and has a problem. My faith is getting lost.
On a good note, the dealer did my software recall as well so didn't bill the troubleshooting time.

 

Which side are you replacing? It's a shame that you had to pay for what could have been easily covered under
normal warranty.

Not sure if this played a role of my problem. I had Enginer plugin converted from Dec 2010 to Aug 2011. During that time, I took residential streets to stay in EV. I would make left, right turns every 1-4 blocks for 10-12 miles everyday to and from work.

My problem started at the end of 2011. At the time, the car had around 17K. The noise is soft and I could barely hear it when making a right turn. No noise when making left. I dismissed it as the weather got warmer around spring of 12 and the noise went away. Around fall of 12, the noise came back and got a little louder. At the time it had about 30K. The noise even got louder and I was approaching 36K. I procrastinated til a few miles before 36K, Mar 2013 before I took the car to the dealer. I told them to note the problem before 36K and they did. On the 3rd time, they decided to replace the axle. After that, the noise went away completely so I know they fixed the problem.

Winter of 13, the noise came back at 46K. Again, the noise was barely noticeable. I didn't take any chances and took the car back to the dealer hoping that they would cover it under warranty. I had a whole speed made out in case they deny my warranty claim. As it turned out, the same adviser recognized me. By the look on his face, he had a guilty conscience. Before I said anything, he asked if the noise came back. I told him yeah. He said I'll take care of it. Didn't even have to use my speech.

Just to note, my ticking is not 1 tick per wheel RPM like a rock stuck on a thread. It sounded like several ticks per wheel RPM and only while turning. No noise when braking in straight line.
Since your dealer refuse to cover the issue under warranty, I have 2 suggestions. Call Toyota consistently and see if they would cover the issue under warranty. If that fails, I would suggest to wait until the weather gets warmer and see if the noise softens up like mine. This way we can tell for sure if your problem is exactly the same as mine. The axle is going to hold. It's not like the wheel's gonna fall off and roll through the intersection as you're turning right like in the cartoons.

 

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I have scary visions of the wheel falling off or worse. It's the driver side.

I guess if it pans out to be a hybrid system issue then it's still on warranty for awhile. I didn't read earlier posts fully I think... This car doesn't care if I'm turning or not but yep, also a couple ticks per rev. Maybe we do have different issues and yeah, I think pinging Toyota is a great idea.
I'm in Phoenix and it's been in the 80's. But it does take a couple miles to get the noise nice and loud... like something has I warm up a bit.


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I have a new theory on why the tick happens the way it happens - regen brake only and not neutral braking or 5-0 braking, turning makes it worst.

During regen brake, the energy is transferred from the wheel to the motor through the axle. There's a a lot of torque placed on the axle to slow down the car. When you turn, the torque also puts a lot of strain on the CV joint. When you brake while in neutral and from 5-0, you're using mechanical brake which the brake disc resides right at the wheel. The axle has no torque applied to it during mechanical brake.

I asked myself if there's a lot of torque placed on the axle to slow down the car then why doesn't accelerating, which also puts a lot of torque on the axle, create the ticking noise? I think that the torque during acceleration comes from the motor side while regen braking, the torque comes from the tire side. If the axles are interchangeable between the left and right, swapping the axles from left to right will fix the ticking problem during regen braking and create a new ticking problem during acceleration because the torque direction is reversed. This is what i think the tick only happens during regen braking and nothing else.

 

I'm going to take this theory to my dealer's Prius guru i wrote about. It's a perfectly logical explanation and makes complete sense. This is the detail I just couldn't explain properly when I went looking for the drive shaft outright.

I wonder if the idea of the Prius being so technologically advanced makes the techs forget that it's still a car with mechanical parts ;-)


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What a bunch of BS. And this is from the brightest Toyota mechanic [facepalm]?

What about some of us who have OEM radio?

 

I'm confused here. Axle replacement didn't fix the noise? What what the second fix?

 

my mistake as I have spread my info in several posts. In march 2013, (first time) I went to Toyota for the problem, they couldn't find the problem. They didn't fix anything and tried to explain it away as normal regen characteristic. Next day, I took the car back (second time) and test drove it with service adviser. They did the fender clip service. That didn't fix the problem. The next day (third time) I took it back and test drove it with the adviser and the technician and duplicated the problem. They fixed it by replacing the driver side axle. Problem solved. Later on toward the end of that year. The problem came back but very faint and barely audible. I took it back to Toyota and they replaced the Passenger side axle. The receipt I posted earlier was from replacing the passenger side axle.