Hello All, I have a 2007 Prius with 136,500 miles on it. Love this car. Getting 53.3mpg currently. A while ago I started noticing a strange sound coming from the passenger side of the car where the engine is. Recently the sound has become more pronounced and it has me stumped. I'm hoping someone might recognize the noise. The noise occurs upon acceleration, but not all of the time. If the battery is at 2 purple bars and I accelerate, the noise is very noticeable. But once I get to cruise speed it goes away. Again, this is sometimes and not all the time. Hopefully it's nothing, but I figured I would post this incase something is on the verge of failing so I may catch it in time. I recorded this on my phone: clyp.it/uwmq2cwh You can really hear the noise good around the 10 second mark. I was accelerating out of a roundabout to about 50mph. Thanks for your responses in advance. Mike
I listened to the audio three times, I don't recognize much difference at the 10 second mark. Unusual engine noises might include excessive valve noise, a slipping serpentine drive belt, a squeal from a failing bearing, or misfiring. I don't hear any of those noises.
Thanks for listening to the clip Patrick. I'm familiar with all of the noises you mentioned and you're right it's none of those. Around the 10 second mark you can hear like a metallic rattling. The sound is really pronounced (sometimes) when the battery is at 2 purple bars and I'm accelerating from a stop and the engine has to really work. I'll try to get the battery down using the AC and see if I can't get a better recording of the sound.
check that heat shield. the muffler heat shield is so thin and poorly attached, they seem to all break at the body mounting stud and rattle. I used a torch to heat up the nut so I could get it off without breaking the stud, and then used 2 stainless steel fender washers-- 1 on top and 1 under the shield. this should work for a couple years before it breaks again. thinkin I'm just gonna remove it completely when I replace the muffler.
