I Have noticed this for awhile. Just thought to bring it up to see if anyone else noticed it if you live in a hilly area. When accelerating up a steep grade the engine will ping(rattling metallic sound) when reaching a certain RPM, but stop pinging as i continue to push the accelerator down and increase the RPM. Should I be concerned? Could it be something else, loose exhaust heat shield or something? Or is this normal behavior for a gasoline engine? My old Honda Fit never had engine ping/knock that i can recall in its 200,000km of service running the same 87 octane gas.
I haven't noticed pinging in any driving situation I encounter. How many miles do you have? Is the pinging severe or very light? Have you taken it in for service lately?
Its got close to 71,000km. has been serviced on schedule by toyota dealership since new. I notice now if i hold it at a certain rpm going up a hill it will rattle continuously until i let off or push harder to change the RPM/load. I'll mention it at my 72,000km service see what they say. It could very well be a loose bolt or something. Its not really loud, never had a passenger notice it, only me as i've become attuned to every little noise my car makes.
Maybe you got a bad tank of gas!! Try adding Berryman B-12 Chemtool fuel treatment. It cleans injectors,intake valves and removes moisture from bad fuel.
I make a point of only filling up at "Top Tier" Gas stations. Usually Chevron; sometimes Shell or Esso. Then again, being I live at and daily drive near sea level and lots of hills(sea level to 950 feet above sea level on a daily basis), my ICE using 87 octane may be more sensitive to "bad gas". Perhaps I'll try your suggestion after my next service. I intend to start commuting to work by bicycle next week so i'll be using my car only for weekend trips. I'll keep this thread updated as to any changes in ICE performance.
Well the easiest thing to do would be to first fill it up next with a higher octane gas. If it still happens it most likely isn't engine knock (which I doubt it is anyway.) The Prius engine is not high compression, nor would I expect the ICU to allow it to ping/knock even with bad gas. You can google Atkinson cycle to see what is done. Basically, the intake valves are held open on the compression stroke a bit so that the effective compression ratio is lowered. The advantage is that upon ignition the expansion ratio can be made quite high to extract more energy from the combustion products. The Prius has an effective compression ratio of about 8:1, which isn't going to ping pretty much ever, and the expansion ratio is about 13:1. The downside of the Atkinson cycle is that the power produce for a given engine size (as in displacement) is lowered. The upside is that you can use regular gas and achieve very high efficiencies. It sounds to me like something is resonating. A heat shield come loose is not a bad guess.
In my 2012 Prius v(wagon), I notice a noise (that sounded like my Lexux RX300 pinging on lower octane fuel) coming from behind the glove compartment. I think my noise is outside temp triggered. It happens for me in the spring as we heat up for summer and only at a very narrow MPG band. The noise seems to lessen over 2.5 years. I will pay more attention to the sound this summer and see if I can detect a decrease in the pinging-like, outside temp sensitive, RPM range limited noise. It feels like the noise is getter much better after 25,000 miles driven\worn in, but without metrics to track I can't be sure.
hey im getting this pinging noise aswell on hard acceleration and up hills its not gas I have tried 3 different fill ups with different gas etc so its not gas . mine has now done 109k miles . just wondered if you have solve the problem???
I feel like my pinging-like noise is lessening over my 2.5 years. I remember having to listen for the noise last summer and it showed as I was giving up on it. Seems like I only heard it for (less than 10?) days last summer as opposed to weeks first summer. I will try to remember to report back when/if I hear the noise now it is getting hotter.
I still notice it occasionally. It does seem to be temperature related. Hot days (above 20*c) I hear it consistently at specific rpm, low speed, climbing hills. My next service is a ways off. Just filled up again at chevron(87 octane) on the weekend, my next fill up will likely be in a month or 2.
Just dropped her off for 72,000km oil change service. I mentioned the engine noise, they said it might be loose bolts on the exhaust. Will see what they say tomorrow. On a side note i was surprised they recommended to change the transmission fluid, which i agreed to have done. They told me the prius taxis have it changed every 80,000km. They also convinced me to pay for the fuel additive(snake oil?) which is supposed to clean the injectors or something, maybe that will fix the engine noise?
You really need to stop listening to commissioned service people and read the manual for scheduled maintenance.
hmm, well i never have received a recall notice for anything ever since 2 years owning my v. Maybe not enough owner complaints in Canada for them to issue a recall vs the much larger customer base in the US? Regarding the engine noise, the service guy said nothing about the engine noise issue after the service, maybe he forgot to have them check it or he did and neglected to tell me. Regardless , i was tired when i picked up the car at the end of the day and didn't feel like pressing the issue. But, after 90 kilometers of aggressive highway/city driving today i never noticed any engine ping, maybe the snake oil injector cleaner really worked.
I could have sworn I saw some sort of TSB about pinging. It's not a recall, but maybe something you have to complain about before they'll fix it. SCH-R530M ?
