Prius III engine knocking at high torque low RPM (solved)

Copied and pasted from another thread - hope this helps:

My approach to the intake manifold was treating it like washing dishes. This took about an hour:
1. I filled a large size container with hot water and dish detergent.
2. Dunked and drained the manifold several times in the hot solution.
3. Drain the manifold.
4. Scrubbed the insides of the manifold with nylon pipe cleaners. Nylon so that you don't score the plastic. The sludge and varnish sticks to everything and must be dissolved by the cleaner to completely remove.
5. Spray through all the openings with clean water.
6. Repeated steps 2-5 until it looks like a new part.

 

Hello Team! My 2010 Prius(170k) experiencing the same engine rattling/knocking as some of yours too. After my mechanic cleaned -cleaning EGR Valve, EGR Pipe, IM, replaced spark plugs, replaced EGR Cooler ($800 total) - the engine is still knocking like crazy when battery is low + moreover car has started shaking at certain RPM on 20-70MPH + check engine light comes in and out

Looking for your suggestions. Thanks

 

If the Check Engine Light has come on, then your car’s computer will display one or more diagnostic codes which will help you. You can attach a diagnostic scanner to your car’s OBD port and read the codes. We can help once you know the code(s).

 

I have a Prius 2010, Gen III. It has burned oil since about 65,000 miles (about 1 quart for every 1,400 miles). Likely due to sticking piston ring(s) and very low viscosity 0W-20 oil . I received a P0401 EGR engine fault code at about 162,000 miles. When I replaced the EGR valve I found that the EGR pipe on the intake manifold side was almost blocked solid by oily sludge. The port into the intake manifold also had lots of oily sludge. For sure it is unburned oil condensing out of the exhaust gases. The exhaust gas cooler on the upstream side of the EGR valve was also pretty clogged with soot. My understanding is that Toyota changed the 2010 and on Prius ring/piston design due to issues like this but refused to fix anything unless the car burns more that 1 quart of oil for every 1,200 miles (in the USA).

 

Even better, from the Owner's Manual:



This should be prominently displayed in the sales brochures, in my opinion.

Did you clean everything? Have you hear Oxi-Clean solution is effective for floating the gunk out of the EGR cooler? It takes multiple soaks, say 5 or 6, about an hour for each. Also consider an oil catch can.

 

600 miles. there is one thread here from a member who got toyota to replace his engine.

 

you got me, and with a visual.

 

Queeks draw...

 

My 2010 Prius has 186k miles and has used a lot of oil since 90k miles. We probably add a quart every two tanks of gas now. It blows blue smoke at full throttle. I'm just waiting for the day when it starts having HV battery problems before I turn it in for scrap. It looks great and hasn't given us any problems. It isn't worth putting in a new engine plus replacing the HV battery. I've spent a lot of time and thought on this problem and have the following recommendations for others in this thread. 1.) Don't bother cleaning out your intake and EGR valve. That is a symptom of the problem, not the cause. 2.) A clogged EGR means your engine is burning a lot of oil. It only gets worse from here. 3.) I blocked my EGR for a year or so. It didn't make much difference other than a constantly set Check Engine light. It is no longer blocked, I don't have any Check Engine lights, no error codes, but I know it isn't working right.

BTW: I live in Wyoming where we don't have emissions tests. This Prius would have been thrown off the road long ago if I lived somewhere that it had to pass a test.

 

Overheating an engine can cause oil burning. By blocking EGR you overheated your engine.
The same thing happens when you let the deposits build up in the EGR cooler until it's plugged.

 

Chicken-and-egg thing?

PCV valve dumping oil/water/gas/whatever vapoours into the intake manifold, and on to the compbustion chambers, which coke up the piston rings and the EGR circuit.

 

Not true. My engine burns no oil and yet the EGR cooler, from my best guess, was around 80% blocked @ 70k miles. Again fellas, clean the EGR circuit periodically and install an oil catch can if you wish to avoid Gen 3 engine problems.

Pixel XL ?

 

Im experiencing the same problem with my cab company in amsterdam. And it seems like no one can help me out. The dealer is saying that its a totally different problem.

Can you please contact me to explain more how you managed to fix the problem. I can really use your help.

Regards,

 

My 2010 Prius with 165k miles started to rattle/knock when accelerating about a month ago. Since then, every time the ICE starts it rattles. I have no CEL but have had pending codes of P0302. The engine does not use oil (changed every 7500mi or less), nor does it loose coolant. I have cleaned the MAF, EGR valve, tube, cooler, intake manifold, and throttle body. I have replaced the plugs and PCV valve. Conducted spark test (good), compression test (good), Tested the EGR (20.8 ohm), MAF (1.76KOhm @ 85 degrees F), Injectors (13.3 to 13.5 ohm at 90 degrees F), Coil voltage is good. Swapped coil 2 with coil 4 and no pending codes to tell if the problem followed coil 2.

Any help diagnosing my problem would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You!!!

 

Agree 100%. My late, great 2010 never burned a measurable drop of oil in it's 150k miles lifetime. At 97k miles the intake manifold had complete blockage of the EGR path and the car was symptomatic as per the title of this thread. That led me to this thread as it was the only of it's kind at the time, my how far we've come... At 142k miles the entire circuit was cleaned and the cooler was ~75% blocked. I'm sure oil burning exacerbates the cooler clogging but it's not a required ingredient.

 

Just curious, did the cooler get cleaned once or twice over the first 142k miles? I'm reading it like it only got cleaned one time and was 75% blocked...

Pixel XL ?

 

Simple intake manifold cleaning early on.

Complete get circuit cleaning at 142 k miles.

I know as I was a willing participant .

 

^^^ Ha, what he said! ^^^

Sorry, my wording is pretty poor in post #155... Just an IM clean at 97k. Ray and his awesome dad, Jeff, assisted in an EGR circuit blitz at 142k. We plowed through a water pump swap and entire circuit clean in something like 4.5 hours. Good times.. And then an errant Silverado pick-up murdered the old rattle trap at a few hundred miles shy of 150k.

 

We did make quick work of all that.

When we did a similar effort out here over the Christmas holiday, it took a bit longer.

But I’ll get a chance to further improve my skills in this task over the next couple of months.

Maybe some of the Bay Area folks will come out.

 

Created new thread for this issue, any help is appreciated.