Chilly Bay Area nights and an engine rattle at starts

You can just drain a couple of liters of coolant at the radiator drain spigot, then the egr cooler will be more-or-less empty when removed, apart from a wee bit at the lower back corner. Take care removing the cooler without tipping, and that little bit can be tipped out into the drain receptacle. After you're done just pour back into coolant reservoir, and with a day or two driving the level should stabilize, to what it was at the outset.

Using this approach, no extra coolant is needed. Still, having a gallon of the coolant on hand is not a bad idea, for top up, and it can eventually be used when you replace coolant.

For cleaning the EGR cooler, OxiClean is the most effective: mix the powder with the hot tap water, as close to saturated solution as you can, plug one end of the of the cooler, pour in the solution, let sit an hour, rinse with hot water, repeat maybe 5 times, and it'll look like new.

The cooler is stainless steel, can take the Oxi treatement, which is moderately caustic. For everything else though, I would stick with BrakeKlean or similar solvent, since they have aluminum.

 

Aluminum does not take kindly to caustic (basic) cleaners: if you for example put an aluminum pot in the dishwasher, it'll come out looking dull-grey, compeletly lose it's sheen.

 

The mechanic replaced the egr valve and cooler, or just the valve?

Have you marked the coolant reservoir to see if it is declining? How’s the oil consumption?

Glad to hear things are moving in the right direction .

 

The EGR circuit is a 4-part passageway - Intake manifold, EGR pipe, valve and cooler. All 4 need to be cleaned clear of obstruction. If not, your head gasket is still at risk and your misfire likely to return. Aftermarket coils and/or plugs could prove to be problematic, too. Just so you're aware.

+1 to this. Observe coolant and oil level carefully over the coming weeks. Your car was just at a sketchy point in it's life and you'll want to pay close attention to be sure it's out of the woods.

Excellent news at this point, tho!

 

How many miles have you put on your Prius since yesterday ?

Good to hear the levels are stable.

 

Make a note of your odometer, monitor for a while. My head is spinning, trying go figure that out.

 

Unless you are faced with a major repair that exceeds the value of the vehicle, keep it going as long as you can. And keep saving for that next vehicle you really want down the road.


Btw, is the clogged EGR problem applicable on Gen 2 Prius?

I’m not familiar with what a Gen 3 has vs Gen 2.

iPhone X ?

 

No EGR on second gen, as far as I know.

 

Half. If the car is worth $5,000 and need to replace a part that's $4,000, car value is still $5,000 after $4,000 part is put in. Any repairs more than half of car value won't be worth unless there's a serious compelling reason such as rarity of car or sedimental value that another car can't replace it.

 

Great, one less thing to go wrong. But how do the get away with not having one? I thought all cars of the last 30 years or so had an EGR valve of some kind.


iPhone X ?

 

Valid points, I would tend to agree.




iPhone X ?

 

With regard to Gen 2, it uses "internal EGR," where the ECU dictates valve overlap to the variable valve timing system at typical EGR required engine loads. This allows back-flow of exhaust gas into the combustion chamber in a maintenance free package.

 

Thanks for the explanation of how it works.


iPhone X ?

 

Any updates on this ongoing problem?

 

clean your egr circuit and intake manifold, and install an oil catch can.

never shut the car off if the engine is warming up, until the engine has shut itself down.

how many miles on her?