Rough engine start

Seemed the video wasn't as severe as what I thought other people were describing, didn't see much shaking, but as I have not experienced it, I have no basis of comparison.
Neat thing is, with a Video, it should be hard for someone to dismiss. Did sound like pre-ignition, like in a 70's era car after you shut it off didn't it?

 

I could see the comparison to pre-ignition. While the video doesn't show the shaking (iPhone 3GS couldn't pick it up) the knocking is clearly there and undeniable.

I spoke with the dealership and while they have not experienced the knocking and shaking they are sharing my video with the northwest area rep for Toyota out of Oregon. I'll let everyone know what the rep has to say when I hear back.

 

Thank You for the follow up and we look forward to hearing what they may suggest or find.

 

I would be interested in knowing the highest mileage that this has occurred at. I noticed it 3 times, as I recall, last fall when I had about 6K or 7K miles on the car. It has not reoccurred since then and I'm over 11K now. May be just a coincidence or maybe it "fixes itself" as it wears in a little more?

 

I just had this occur this morning for the first time. Parked overnight outside. Starting temp was about 40 degrees. About 6500 miles on the car.

-Sebastian
Shoreline, WA

 

Definitely sounds like the transaxle to me (thus presumably MG1).

Has anyone on here done an Engine Cranking Active Test (for mechanical compression test)?
A very similar sound is produced during this test. The first time I heard it I was very surprised. (performed using dealer scantool)
(The cranking active test I did was on a Camry HV)

I ~believe~ that Auto Engunity supports this active test as "Cranking Request".

Edit to add:
I personally wouldn't be worried about mechanical reliability/durability over this.

 

I have a 2010 prius and this has now happened to me twice. Once last week and once the week prior. Both times the car was left in my driveway overnight, cranked the next morning about 8am in 27-33 degrees.

The video in this tread is exactly what my car did. Violent knocking for 25-30 seconds then it goes away and doesn't come back.

My car has 18K miles. I took it into the dealership, they said they have never heard of the problem nor had Toyota. They kept the car overnight and tried to replicate the problem with no luck.

My only concern is that it could be a major problem and I don't want the warranty to run out before it is fixed.

Any suggestions?

 

Like the other guy did... record it for them. Keep a video cam of some sort near by.

 

Unlike everyone else here.. This happend to me after a long drive (about 35 miles) I was driving to a job I was applying for and when i got there i just hit the park button and filled out an application with the A/C blasting (Im in Miami and it was hot that day..around low 90's high humidity) half way through my application the whole car began to shake horribly and it really did feel like the engine was gonna snap an engine mount or something. It was horrible. I didnt know what to do so i hit the gas a lil to see if the ICE would rev up a lil to sabelize the shaking with no reseults. It suddently just stopped as soon as the ICE shut off again.. But happened once again when the ICE kicked back in (literally) It only happend twice that day and has never happened again. Another thing ive noticed is whenever the car is "ready" or even when im driving and i pull up to a light if the radio is off i can hear a sort of pulsing/humming noise comming from behind the speedo..Anyone ever heard that?

 

Have had this happen 3 times in the last month with 2010 IV ... any updates would be appreciated ... always happens on cold start - lasts 3-5 seconds

 

This has never happened to our Prius V. It currently has 2,100 miles. I wonder how widespread the rough start behavior is?

Rumple

 

This rough start happened to me this morning on the Prius III. The car was kept in the garage overnight in about 20 Degrees Fahrenheit temps. The car has around 13,200 miles on it.

I would like to add though, that before parking the car in the garage overnight, the car was parked in the driveway. So the engine really only ran for 10 seconds before I parked it for the night. I attributed the hard knocking this morning from leftover cold fuel in the combustion chamber. Guess this hard knocking is more common than I thought.

 

This happened to me for the first time this morning, and lasted my entire 20 minute commute - sounded almost as if the muffler had been torn off! Guess this counts as more than a Rough Engine Start, though. I called the dealership and, of course, they have "Never heard of such a thing!" Went out at noon, today and everything is fine. Over the last three weeks, the daytime temperature has not gotten over 0 F, and my 2010 started and ran amazingly well (mileage has dropped from 51 to mid 40's), but today it was 6 above at 6:00 AM! I have 7600 miles on it.

 

I had a rough engine start when I left the car for almost 2 weeks while away on vacation. The weather got cold while I was gone and the car was parked on a slanted driveway with the nose facing up. A few days later, after I did not drive the car for a day also parked on a slanted driveway with the nose up, it happened again: rough start that normalizes after a few seconds. I normally park nose down and have never had a problem when starting then.

Could the thin oil be draining to a location where it does not get into circulation as quickly in that orientation?

 

Hi from Oslo, Norway.
The very same phenomenon happened to me on sunday jan 10th, after returning from a holiday trip to Tenerife. My car was parked in a parkinghouse at the airport close to Oslo, but ambient temp. had been very cold during my 10 days absence. Between minus 15 and 20 centigrades (+ 5 to -4 F ) and same temp. when I returned. Before parking, I had been driving approx. 50 km in normal higway speed, and engine temp was between 70-80 degrees (C) when I parked. The hybrid system started normally but the ICE kicked very quickly in, and the VERY strong noise and vibration started. I felt as if my car would fall apart and all panels inside the cabin vibrated loudly.
I was so confused by this that I unfortunately didn`t think of using my video camera, but engine noise sounded much like the Prius 2010 in the You Tube video. But the vibration inside cabin was awful!! I started to drive home, and noise was gone when pushing the acc. pedal, but returned when releasing the pedal and ICE was back to low RPM ( 1200-1400 ) according to SG II . This continued for about 10-15 minutes when driving and then slowly decreased.
I have not experienced this during the last three days, but my car is parked in a garage, and I use it every day for work commuting.
Anyway, I have been speaking to a friend of mine who is working as a technician / instructor at Toyota Distributor headoffice in Norway close to Oslo, and he admitted that they some days before did a video of a similar problem when visiting a dealership. Also during this trip it was very cold in the dealership area ( -15 to -20 C)
They now would investigate further and send this video to Toyota in Japan, hoping for some feedback in due time.
However, based upon the many similar cases only in this forum, I believe this should be a priority issue for Toyote in Japan. Maybe some ECU software upgrade ??

 

Let's hope so!

 

OMG ! This just happened to me on my wife's 2010.

It happened just after the first oil change I did, so I thought I'd made some multi-thousand dollar error !

The engine and car were shaking, so it seemed as if something REALLY bad had happened to the ICE. Now I'm concerned it's some Toyota manufacturing error that will hopefully be a warranty issue, but such violent shaking can't be good for the ICE.

I changed the oil last night and ran the ICE for maybe 45 seconds to ensure no leaks etc. Today I added a bit more oil and started the ICE twice, each time for 3-5 seconds while the ICE shook.

After reading this thread, I got the courage to start it again, but backed out of the garage, and moved forward a bit and no more shaking, even after a 4 minute drive.

When checking the oil level after shaking it APPEARED way too high, presumably because the oil was being thrown around violently during the shaking.

 

Off the subject, but three thoughts......
If its done it from the beginning, they may not have braced it properly and every bump and vibration of the car interrupts the laser forcing it to draw from the buffer... once the buffer is depleted you get an interruption of sound.

Second thought... you have bad memory or corrupted memory in your buffer in the player.

3rd thought...... extremely scratched CD's will have the same issues as mentions in first scenario.. It can't read from the smudges or scratches and runs the buffer out and you get an interruption.
Furniture polish to the scratched read surface of the CD will often correct it... if so, I would burn a new copy while you still can!


At any given moment, you are not listening to what the laser is doing, but there is a lag... as the laser reads, that info keeps the tail end of the buffer full... while you are reading the front end that actually got read several seconds prior.

Very similar to watching a youtube video online.

 

This is consistent with the pattern reported by others:
Short period of engine running (in your case 45 seconds), followed by a time period of rest (in your case overnight), and then followed by rough starting.

 

Has anyone else reported high oil levels after the event?

Based on the description of it sounding like a plug missing its not low oil or too thin oil in the cold but I could maybe see how too full oil could be getting into the wrong place until it drains well from sitting.

Otherwise it almost sounds like a hot/cold vaporlock thing with the gas.
The high ethanol we use can do funny things.