My girlfriends 2010 Prius made a rather alarming knocking or rattle earlier today, the car had already ran for a 15min drive... We stopped and the motor turned on and made the noise for a few seconds then went away. The oil level is fine, and fresh.. what would cause this?
98k, owned it since about 62k miles. Only noticed it one other time, and that's after Walmart did an oil and tire change and the Check Hybrid System and traingle of doom came on. No lights, no strange activity. Just did it once, turned it off, turned it back on and did it again. Oil level is fine. Everything looks good.
That's the most recent recall. What @bisco is talking about I believe is the egr valve TSB, but for that to apply, it has to throw the P0401 code. So no codes for your Prius when it does the shake and rattle? So a previous oil change threw the "check hybrid system" alert? What was the battery level at on the HSI display? And it just went away when you powered down then powered back up? How long between today's occurrence and this occurrence? What maintenance work has been done to your Prius? Just what was in the manual? PCV valve? Looked in the egr pipe (there is a thread of videos on how to do that)? How cold was it in your neck of the woods today? Keep us posted.
No, We had to have it towed to a Toyota dealership to have the Hybrid computer read, But when they pulled it into the bay - The Check Hybrid system light was off, and it was just throwing a CEL... The codes they pulled were: PCM Fault #2 Hybrid control - Fault #1 ABS/VSC/TRC Fault #1 Entry & start fault #1 We were able to drive it, and after a short distance of driving, we shut it off, let it set than started it back up and the CEL was off. Car ran great. Then it had a collision with a deer, Check Hybrid system came on again, But this was because it lost all it's inverter coolant. Car was repaired and fixed, Been driving since then.
Sounds like your Prius has lived an eventful life. How long ago was the dear strike and where did it hit? Drivers from and just hit the pump behind the headlight assembly or go into the engine side and potentially get the egr system? Who did the repair and what did they replace? Any possibility they might have not gotten it all and missed something? Or pics are worth a thousand words if you have them. We'll get to the middle of the onion eventually .
A Lithia Dodge Bodyshop did it. (They are part of the Lithia Toyota dealership) It hit the driver side, far driver side. Only body damage was part of the hood, fender, headlight and bumper... It didn't do it this morning, and it was -6*F outside.
It did it again this morning, It started up fine and didn't make it at all, Drove it 14miles, Stopped and when I got out of the car and the ICE turned on, it made that knocking again... It doesn't really sound like an internal rattle, sounds more like something knocking on the driver side of the car on the outside of the engine.
Can you take a video of the sound? How loud is it? Could you hear it in the car, or only when outside? If this happened after a drive, this does not sound like the rattle on startup issue. If it sounds more metallic, it could be a motor mount, or something that has worked its way loose. Could be when the car was reassembled after repairs something may have not been torqued down correctly. Hope that helps.
Only outside, it sounds more like a metallic than anything... but it's so few and far between. I read somewhere that sometime they make a weird knocking / rattling because the motor / gen is trying to find the best polarity. But I don't know.. It doesn't sound internal engine though.
Have you done the transmission drain and refill? If so, how long ago? If not, might be a good idea to do if you suspect something with the MG's. If the sound only appears when the ICE is running, have you pulled the egr pipe and what does the deposit level look like? Depending on the quality of gas run, you might have some buildup in there. Keep us posted.
Nope, It hasn't had the transmission drain and refill, Something we'll have to get done... the MPGs are decent, hovering around 40 + / - at 80+ mph highway speeds. Nope, Haven't messed with it - The girlfriend only wants Toyota to do work from now on, so I can't do much...
I see you haven't been back on the forum for a while. There is a recall that deals with engine stumbling and knocking at start up. It is something that the dealer needs to hear to confirm the problem. I think it has something to do with the intake manifold.
The problem with it is, It's so hit or miss when it does it, It's hard to know when it does or will...
I experienced some rattling/knocking sound before and it took me a few weeks to find out the type of petrol used: of different octane level. I suggest to use a higher octane fuel. I don't experience ever since I use premium fuel (higher octane).
It's just so completely intermittent that it's extremely difficult to diagnose... if it ever gets worse, or more frequently then we'll look into it. Maybe it'll throw a code.
We have two Prius', both 2010's. Both have the dreaded engine knock once in a while. It appears that when stored for a long period of time (in our case six months) it sometimes knocks on the initial start up. Also, if the ICE starts but is turned off before it automatically turns off (such as moving the vehicle a short distance), the engine will sometimes knock on the next start up.
Dear Slicer89, Yaesu has a perfect reply I think. "We have two Prius', both 2010's. Both have the dreaded engine knock once in a while. It appears that when stored for a long period of time (in our case six months) it sometimes knocks on the initial start up. Also, if the ICE starts but is turned off before it automatically turns off (such as moving the vehicle a short distance), the engine will sometimes knock on the next start up." I have noted the same thing with my 2010. I can typically reproduce the knock at startup consistently by letting the ICE start after the vehicle has been sitting for at least a couple of hours, move the vehicle a short distance(in my case back out of the garage), then turn off the car before the ICE turns off automatically. The engine will then make the knocking noise on the next startup if you let it sit for an hour or so. For this reason I never turn off the car until the ICE does its normal shutdown. Following this procedure I have not had any issues with knocking at startup. My understanding is the issue is related to condensation in the EGR system getting sucked into the engine causing a small amount of hydrolocking. There is a TSB out for a re-designed of the intake manifold. I am at 200K miles so well out of warranty. Since I know what I need to do to prevent the issue, I am not concerned with living with the issue.
