1.8L starting rattle, knock, events

just for all !!

I just got my Prius back after 2 weeks in the Toyota dealer, they replaced all 4 of the fuel injectors saying that was a small leak on the piston heads due to leaky injectors?
They also told me were able to replicate the same knocking sound leaving some gasoline inside the pistons chambers...

Well I don't know if psicological or not but the car seems to start less agresive than before, less jumpy, still the high pitched electrical/cracking noise is there wich I didn't have the first 5 months. I need to adress that again with them.

Also they fix the front speaker covers!! those were driving me bananas! the were loose and rattling bad! Looks like they updated software too..

I will post back if something new happens!

 

I wasn't clear on this until it happened to me, but this issue is not simply a "rough start" or vibration, or a matter of "hearing" the engine right at start up and before you are moving. It is not an unbalanced wheel or anything like that. I was standing next to my car listening to it.

This is a very distinct and startling rattle/knocking that lasts only a few seconds.

I had this happen for the first time the other day.

Car had sat in the cold (10 F ±) and snow for 24 hours. I started it up and moved it, no problem. Car was not left running or allowed to warm up, just a quick in and move it back 15 feet to clear snow.

About 2 hours later when I came out to go out to the store and started it up I got a very loud clatter (seemingly) from the driver's side of the engine.

• It lasted about 4-5 seconds.
• It sounded like a diesel
• First time it's ever happened (2800 miles)
• Was followed by very heavy gas fumes in and around the car.
• No check engine lights or anything.
• I have always used regular gas, and our crap winter mix has 10% ethanol

After reading all the posts, and with my own experience, it seems clear that this is not simply a "cold start" issue. It's a matter of a cold re-start after a very brief cold start and cold shut down.

I've owned cars that were very finicky about not being warmed up and generally avoid this but with the low temps I was not able to use just EV mode to move the car. I purposely didn't let it sit and warm up as that kills my per-tank MPG average. I should have just let it warm up.

I'll be bringing it up at my first service visit, I want it noted in the official record. Thanks to everyone for the info in this thread!

 

So guys the consensus of all of our experiences is:

DO NOT INTERRUPT THE WARM UP CYCLE ! ! !

I feel better this way instead of thinking could be other reasons get the rattle / knocking !

If some one have the problem without the idea above PLEASE REPORT BACK!

 

Agreed. Early this week, it did it to me again. On Tuesday, I started it briefly to move the vehicle six-feet under the carport to better protect it from the approaching ice storm. On re-startup Thursday morning, it was shake, rattle, and roll all over again.

I immediately stopped the engine - placed my left foot on the brake petal - depressed the accelerator to the floor - and pressed the start button.

VOILA! - It really works!:rockon:

 

But obviously not anything unique to the Prius as it's happened to a BMW and a Jaguar.

 

I'm not about to take the calming words of some poster who hasn't even experienced this problem in his own 2010 Prius.

Sheesh!

I'll go with the learned statements made by the OP for this thread, thank you!

 

Too bad this poll was crafted with a closing date. This finally happened to me at 6600+ miles (built in Feb. 2010)...I'd moved it around a little over a week prior in advance of a week-long trip (I very well may have turned it off before the ICE completed its warm-up cycle...I can't remember because I power cycled it 2 or 3 times total) that I took with a rental. I actually moved it multiple times and was half-expecting it to happen during these multiple power cycles, but I evaded it at the time. After a week of sitting dormant in temps as low as 8F, I came back, started it and it underwent the aforementioned violent shaking/knocking episode between 5 and 10 secs before stopping. You can add me to the list of those who have suffered through it.

 

MY PRIUS KNOCKS ALSO!
Add my 2010 Prius V to the list, Just purchased with 12,500 miles and does the same thing for 3 to 6 seconds! The day i picked it up from the dealer it did it to the sales guy and when i questioned him he said it was nothing and could not reproduce it. Now after over a week it has done about four times in the morning only. I will try and video this also and post it. the more people post it the better chance Toyota looks into it.


This is my first Toyota but i have to say I'm disappointed, I'm a huge Ford & Subaru guy and i absolutely wanted to love this Prius but i might just trade it in for a Focus EV now. It not only has an engine knock it also rattles inside like a cheap econobox, this is a $32,000 Prius V?

 

Not necessarily. we've had this twice. The first time my wife heard it, turned the car off, then back on and it didn't recur. This without pressing the gas.

I still cannot really imagine how flooring it makes a difference. The fly by wire system combined with this car's unique unwillingness to rev the engine unless in gear (try it; put it in Park and floor it and watch nothing happen) tells me that it's simply coincidence that flooring it seems to stop this when in fact it would probably stop by itself anyway within a few seconds.

 

In reference to the knocking sound at engine start up, I've heard it one time. Cold temps--15 degrees. It sounded like bearing knock to me and my first thought was the light oil(0 w 20) draining over night to the crankcase leaving some metal parts less protected. It lasted about 5 seconds.

 

Sounds exactly like my case, I mentioned to the dealership yesterday when I took my vehicle in for the first service. They said they had another one in the shop that was doing the same thing. They did not know what was causing it.

 

I'm due for my first oil change and will be making them note my 1 event in the records... just to cover myself.

 

Add my 2010 Prius (build 7/2009 odometer 24K) to the list of cars that have experienced the horrible knocking start. It occurred after returning from 2 weeks of vacation. It was 40F degrees and raining during the event. I thought it may have lost oil and immediately shut it off. I found the the oil level to be correct and restarted. It knocked for another 3 seconds before going quiet. I'm reporting it to the dealer tomorrow. Seems like this is a widespread defect after reading several threads reporting the same problem.

Rick

 

Add me to the list too. I moved the car out of the garage to put some boxes into the attic. After I was done I put the car back in to the garage. The next morning it knocked for a few seconds and stopped. I hope it blows up around 80,000 miles and Toyota has to give me a new engine. I am just under 40,000 miles now so there is time. Maybe, buying the extended warranty may pay off.

 

Place I got mine from gives lifetime warranties on power train (dealership takes over when Toyota is over), though I really doubt these knocking issues will cause a warranty type event ever. But who knows.

 

I'm at 12,000 miles and it has never happened.

I expect that it is piston slap before the oil gets going. I had this in several previous Toyota's and my Corvettes.

Nothing to worry about. Just be sure that the oil level is full and use the 0-20 synthetic oil.

 

Wrong. This is definitely something to worry about.

This just happened to my Prius yesterday for the first time in 26,000 miles. Oil is full and the right kind; it happened a day after a normal 10 mile trip in 70 degree weather. The next day it was also 70 degrees and when I turned it on I heard and felt the terrible shake/knock.

My first reaction was to turn the car off immediately. I popped the hood to video tape this for documentation. Sure enough it started loud knocking/shaking for 20 seconds before returning to the smooth, normal idle. My wife and I also noticed a worse smell than usual coming from the exhaust.

I am going to do an oil analysis to see if it shows anything unusual in the oil. Something like this should never happen in a new car and I know Toyota knows what it is but I don't see them responding to it. A Toyota engineer can look at the video one time and know exactly what is going on. It shouldn't ever happen and it is definitely causing damage, just how much I don't know.

I saw one poster say she took a video of this happening to her own car to the dealership and they said it was the engine mounts, which is ludicrous. I can see it doing damage to the engine mounts but is certainly not caused by them.

 

No way it's engine mounts.

you're one of the few to have this after parking a fully warmed vehicle, though. Also, 20 seconds is strange, it's normally just a handful of seconds.

 

Just happened to me. 6k miles. Moved it in the driveway the evening before and the ICE started up briefly. Next morning, I loaded up the family and luggage for a quick 850+mile mini-cation. Upon powering up the car, it sounded like a combination of dieseling and mistiming. Temps during both starts were in the upper 70's.

If it weren't for being informed of this occurrence here on PC, I can't even begin to image my stress level upon hearing what sounds like a motor self destructing right before a trip. Would I have taken it? No. I would called a tow and taken our other car less suitable travel car.