I started up the car and when the gas engine comes on a loud and violent vibration happened. I turned off the car and restarted and it happened again. Looks like maybe a starter, but Priuses do not have those I thought. After I got out, I looked under the care and two springs and a bot where under it. Seems to be under the gas engine side but I cannot locate where they came from. Any ideas would be helpful. 2005 Gen 2 Prius 208,000 miles
I know that bolt and spring very well, Travis said, stolen CAT, you can look at pictures of the CAT and look under your car you will see it is missing. The Oxygen sensor wire is likely cut off as well. If you get it fixed with a replacement, recommend getting the CAT shield. Parking at safe locations, preferably garage will also help.
That is it, wires hanging down and everything. Unbelievable, thanks for letting me know. I live in a apartment complex, hard to believe it has never happened before.
Horrible. Sorry dude. So in addition to them cutting it off with a pipe cutter they also have to unbolt it to? is it pipe cutter in the rear of the cat them unbolt the exhaust manifold connection to the cat? Are those the springs on that exhaust manifold donut connection? Only a matter of time till they start that in Fla. It has changed the way I use my G2. Guess its time for a protection plate.
Uh oh. They are quoting 2200 for just the CAT. Uggh insurance may help or total out the car. Could it be time to buy the next Prius.
Hopefully you have a small deductable (i had to pay 1000 on a 3.7k bill). If you do manage to fix the gen 2 prius i highly recommend getting the cat shield installed, but to be honest, if you dont have a garage, the paranoia will always be there, not much you can do when its parked out there.
We just went through this ourselves. Toyota wanted $3k-3500 to replace, Meineke charged $1700. If Toyota had done it it would have been a total loss, Insurance told us to use Meineke.
You live in Charlotte, NC. You can have an aftermarket cat installed for a lot less. Only California and New York State requires and only approves an OEM cat.
That's the one I bought -- along with the bolts/springs, oxygen sensor, and gasket (all from amazon). I had a local garage install it all and weld in the catalytic converter to the resonator (instead of clamping it on). Total cost was about $1,200.
