2007 Gen II, 196,000 mi, loud racket. Engine bearings? Replace engine vs ??

If it's an engine issue, you can just replace it with another used engine. They are fairly inexpensive to buy, just add the going rate for labor in your area. Should run well into the 4 digit repair area.

If you have the original HV battery in your car, then you may want to consider selling the car. Because when the battery fails, it'll be another big 4 digit repair.

So maybe consider the almost 200k miles a good run and get another one?

 

Is your HV "new" or "rebuilt"? A new battery can go another 10 years, a "rebuilt" one can quit at any time.

The labor for an engine install will be approximately 10-15 hours. But some other's that have actually done this will probably be more exact.

The engine, for the part only, will cost close to $400 and will be readily available from engine suppliers/junkyards.

 

If you both like the car, why not just get a proper diagnosis? Crazy noises can come from crazy things, not always a failed engine. Even an ignition miss/bad plug/plug wire/coil pack can sound like a rod knock. Would hate to dump a good car for what may be a cheap and easy fix.

Check engine light on? Any codes?

 

My daughter had this most up hills load bad sound ended up being the cam sensor filter was dirty not adjusting cam cleaned the wire screen on filter behind a bolt/ and replaced coils cheap one of ebay mpg jumped to 50mpg from 34mpg sounds gone. You can look up my post for details

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Generally speaking, higher pitched ticks are valve related, lower pitched knocks are rod/bearing related.

 

That sounds like a lifter to me. But it could be anything within the valve train area.

 

Here's a thought..............get the codes read. Quit dicking around with the guessing. Find out what the car is trying to tell you and go from there. There are many things that can cause noises. The car OBD system is TRYING to tell you where to look, if you would just listen to it.....

If you want to guess, then just start swapping parts out until you get it or go broke. Or, just junk the thing.

 

That's the sound my daughter car had going under load

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

There is no DTC for a failed rod bearing, or most other MECHANICAL problems. Geez

That's high pitched, Lucious has reported a number of transaxle bearing failures that result in "ticking" noises. I am wondering.....

Around here, you can pick up a GOOD low-mileage used Prius engine for your car in the range of $200-$300, labor would add another $500 or so. The transaxle is about double that for parts and same labor. FWIW.

 

I never said there was a DTC for a bearing.
From OP:
All the warning lights, including the red triangle of death, came on when I ran it for about 3 minutes for this video.

This statement tells me there IS a code (or more) waiting to be read.

I have another 2007 fully loaded Prius that I just purchased a month ago for $800. Seller insisted it had a rod knock. It sounded like rod knock, but guess what? Ignition issue. Thank you, seller, for great deal on a top shelf 2007. OP stated a SUDDEN ONSET of noise. I've had engines with failed bearings. It's never been sudden, but instead a gradually increasing level of knock.

I stand by my assessment of getting a proper diagnosis instead of a bunch of keyboard warriors like us guessing.

 

yeah they do make god awful noises when one of the cops fails but it would be throwing a misfire code.

 

There is no DTC for failed mechanical parts. The warning lights do indicate codes, that is separate from the mechanical noises. Suggesting that the only proper way to diagnose something is with some form of scan tool is silly, in fact worse... DEAD WRONG. We are not yet to the StarTrek / Enterprise world were running a scan will detect almost any problem. Many Stealerships earn that designation by ignoring basic mechanical or electrical understanding and simply "read codes".

If it had a misfire code, the exclamation mark would be FLASHING, I did not see that he reported that.

 

Did you happen to note the RPM of the engine when making that video?

The cams turn at ½ the RPM of the crank. You can estimate the number of those taps per second (or load your audio into, say, Audacity and measure), to get another strong clue on whether it is top or bottom end.

Sure does sound valve-trainy to me, but what do I know?

-Chap

 

This is absolutely ridiculous. The car is trying to provide information. In ANY troubleshooting scenario, you check your outputs/symptoms/etc. You verify your inputs. You evaluate the information provided to obtain a starting point. If you have a bad input, fix that first. With my recent 2007, guess who told that seller he had a bad connecting rod bearing? A certified mechanic at a repair facility in Atlanta. Seller told me the guy knew what was wrong with it before he even opened the hood, just by listening to the engine. That's how good of a mechanic he was. The seller's words, not mine. That's why he was so insistent it had to be a rod bearing, because that guy was such a knowledgeable mechanic, and I'm just some DF. If you can't see that a proper diagnosis should be a first step toward repair, instead of a bunch of guessing based off a video, then I don't know what else to say. I'm just a DF.

My wife has a 2003 Santa Fe with a 3.5L V6. She came home one day almost crying because of the racket the engine was making and running like crap. She thought for sure it was destroyed. Bad plug wire for the rear middle cylinder. Yes, I read the codes and it told me it was a misfire. Six new plugs, an ignition wire kit and I knocked out the timing belt while I was at it since the car was around 120k miles at the time. .

Couple years later, she calls me at work freaking out again, saying it's making the same exact noise. Said it was driving ok and was only a couple miles from the house. I told her to just drive it home and I'd check it when I got home. To me, sounded much more mechanical and was loud as heck. 100% sounded like a worst case, impending catastrophic failure, rod knock but it didn't make sense since the engine was well taken care of and had no previous noise and oil was still perfect. Popped the pan off to be certain and they were all tight. Ended up being a screw had fallen out of one of the 6 butterfly valves in the intake manifold and stuck to the top of a piston. Yeah, that was unusual, but was a bit obvious when I pulled the throttle body off and looked into the manifold plenum and only saw 4 butterflies instead of 6. Found the two butterfly plates stuck in the bottom half of the two piece manifold. Got a complete, super clean low mileage manifold from the local Pull-a-Part for 30 bucks. Worked the screw loose from the piston and the engine is still going fine today, just uses about a quart of oil between changes. Many things sound similar to each other, but when codes exist, common sense should say do the obvious first and just check them. That's why they're there. That's part of proper diagnosis.

Regardless, I'm interested to see how this resolves.

 

In a passive non-adversarial way, I would just say, before I decided on doing anything, getting a proper, confirmed diagnosis of what is going on is important.

I am NOT a good enough mechanic to offer an opinion as to what it is, based on sound from a youtube video.
But even if I thought I was? I still wouldn't want you to believe me. I'd want the OP to confirm with a proper hands on diagnosis.

Once you know? Then you can make a decision.

Based on mileage alone, if it is anything at all serious, or approaching or reaching needing a new engine, I think I would lean towards simply selling it. BUT...
What really changes the potential dynamic is the fact you say you've already replaced the Hybrid Battery a year ago.

You get into that mercurial grey zone of when is throwing good money after bad happening? But giving up, after having just invested into a new Hybrid Battery is also bad.

I don't know if you are talking refurbished "new" hybrid battery, or new OEM replacement, but the other aspect is once you've replaced the Hybrid Battery and then conceivably replaced the engine, you have covered two of the biggest expensive area's of potential failure.

So I guess my answer is Sell or Invest neither is really wrong. But selling or investing into repair without knowing exactly what is wrong, is wrong.

 

I have a 2007 prius that sounded the same way, I was driving a couple of weeks ago and it got alittle louder and sluggish, the the gas engine shut off, the electric kept going until the battery got to low, After that it would not start back, I pulled the plugs and one of them was completely smashed on the bottom, I got an inspection camera and it looks like the piston is busted, I was able to run the camera from the top of the engine all the way down to the oil pan, there was broke metal pieces everywhere, I have. Taken it apart yet, I will let you know what all I find

 

Just to chime in here. I've been a mechanic for going on thirty years, so take it for what it's worth. I can tell you plenty of stories of VERY sudden bearing and rod knocks. Often they would show up after a cold start, first thing in the morning. No/low oil pressure on start up can be the straw the breaks the camels back as they say. Other time people would notice it at idle, maybe after getting off the freeway, after pulling a long hill, or coming off the racetrack. They can also start small, maybe only when it's cold but go away when the engine warms up. Until they day it doesn't, then it gets louder from there. To say that it can't happen suddenly is bad information. Maybe you just got lucky.

A lot of things can certainly SOUND like a bearing has failed. ( I found a socket leftover from valve adjustment in the valve cover of a Dodge engine once.) Read your codes, clear them and try and determine why they show up. Also maybe check your oil pressure, do a compression check. Pull the oil pan and see if you have play in the rods, maybe plastigauge the rod journals if your feeling brave. It's a two piece pan, but you can usually do it in the car. Get all the information you can before junking it or throwing random parts at it. Do all your plugs look uniform? If it's misfiring on one cylinder, start swapping coil packs and injectors and see if the problem moves. You can do a lot of diagnostic for free on your own.