ICE stalls on vehicle start after 3 days of inactivity

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by jackc04, Dec 2, 2013.

  1. jackc04

    jackc04 Junior Member

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    I have a 2013 Prius with 15k miles, and this happened to me recently for the first time:

    - Drove 40 miles
    - 24 hours of inactivity
    - Drove a very short distance, maybe for 60 seconds, just enough for the ICE to start
    - 48 hours inactivity
    - Start car, ICE starts, but sputters and sounds like an old, sick lawnmower, and dies after 3-4 seconds. The "check hybrid system" warning is displayed, and I read a P3191 DTC
    - Turn off car, repeat three more times, and by the third time, the warning lights went away, and the ICE runs fine again now.

    I took the car to a Toyota dealer, and they told me that they didn't see any problems. A friend of mine had the exact same problem with a 2012 Prius, after the same scenario (3 days inactivity with a 60 second trip in the middle of the inactive period).

    Has anyone out here experienced this issue? Thanks
     
    #1 jackc04, Dec 2, 2013
  2. jdk2

    jdk2 Active Member

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    Never experienced that but maybe you just got a bad tank of gas.
     
    #2 jdk2, Dec 2, 2013
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    sounds like a cold soak. when the ice starts, try to let it run until it shuts down. when you interupt the warm up cycle, unburned fuel can remain in the manifold.
     
    #3 bisco, Dec 2, 2013
  4. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    Sound like this?

     
    #4 fotomoto, Dec 2, 2013
  5. car compulsive

    car compulsive Active Member

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    The ICE is fussy about warming up before being turned off. Whenever I have to move the car in my driveway when the engine is cold, I leave it running for about 5 minutes or whenever it turns the ICE off by itself. Then I return and hit the off button. As long as I do this, I never have a rough cold start when I start the car the next day. I consider this to be just another quirk of owning a car that gets such great mileage.
     
    #5 car compulsive, Dec 3, 2013
  6. jackc04

    jackc04 Junior Member

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    fotomoto, that's EXACTLY what it sounds like! After making this post, I decided to not be lazy, and actually search the forum, and it appears that lots of people have this issue, and that the workaround is exactly as you (and others who were kind enough to respond to my post) have stated. I've also been trying to find some kind of TSB, or solution, and it looks like there is none. I'm going to take that good advice, and just let the ICE warm up before shutting it off (or try to get the short moves done before the ICE turns on). I love my 2013 Prius, but its lame IMO that there is no fix for this. I agree with your sentiment that its just one of those things that I'll have to deal with, for an otherwise awesome car. Still holding out hope for a fix though :)
     
    #6 jackc04, Dec 4, 2013
  7. ny_rob

    ny_rob Senior Member

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    There is a TSB for engine knock at startup- it's the very first pinned post in this forum section.
    But it's for 2010-11 cars....
    Supposedly the 2012+ cars have the new style intake manifold, but there are scattered reports of startup knock in those models too under certain conditions. Obviously, it's never been fixed 100% by Toyota.
     
    #7 ny_rob, Dec 4, 2013
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