Impulse absorption plate (between ICE and transaxle input) needs replacement

It's clanking quite a bit when HV battery is being charged. This Gen 3 has 180K so I'm guessing HV might be questionable anyway. I'm thinking of letting it idle for awhile just to charge it up though as it might be another month before I get it going again. Depending on the quality of the HV battery, how long can they safely go without being charged or used?

 

Coolant I think is good. I'm betting there's an EGR issue and that caused a miss which caused the broken plate springs. I found pieces of the springs in the neighborhood of the starter access plate when they broke.

 

My idea at this point is that the ICE must be completely removed to replace the damper anyway. Since I can pick up a junkyard engine locally from a crashed Gen 3 for 200 or less and there could be multiple problems with this one, I'm considering that. Could a normal bi-directional scanner show me the EGR function relative to misfire or would TechStream be needed for that? I'd probably do a leakdown test to be sure the ICE doesn't a more serious problem relating to the misfire.

 

I think the later Gen 3 cars can frequently be found around 100K but of course, they also could be much higher. I've had some luck getting VIN reports that can get pretty close to the mileage or sometimes found the VIN on Copart where the listing showed the mileage. I've also called Toyota repair techs at dealerships and gotten some good info from them on particular VINs. Gotta schmooze a bit sometimes. Sometimes, I find maintenance info in the glove box. I pull dipsticks and look under Oil Filler Caps. But it's still kind of a Box of Chocolates in that you don't know for sure what you're going to get. Most yards will also take the motor back for future credit if the motor turns out bad, but of course that doesn't compensate me for the hassle factor. I still think the risk/reward equation favors the junkyard option when you consider the prices of Ebay engines or other options.

 

Excellent suggestions here. I can do the head gasket for even less cost and hassle than the junkyard ICE. I will probably remove the cylinder head or check the bores with a scope to get an idea of how much wear there is. The motor also has an oil consumption problem that results in oil coating the rear bumper so I need to eliminate that if I keep it.

 

Keep in mind that this 200 dollar engine is one I pull myself from the junkyard. If I pay someone else to do it, there's another 100 buck at least. Plus, I'm transporting the engine, etc. But, I can also scope the cylinders if I want and get a good idea of head gasket, etc. by looking at oil cap and dipstick. It's not surefire but I also get a 30 day guarantee of engine condition (store credit).