Fog Rises out of Engine - 26 day-old Prius Prime

Some part of the cooling system failed. Don't drive it. Have it towed to your dealer instead.

 

Yep, probably coolant hose blew loose or something has been chewing on your hoses and wiring harness,

Get it towed to the nearest dealership - should be a free repair, unless they determine it vermin damage.

Good Luck....

PS; The tow should be free, It's covered under the 3 year 36K mile bumper to bumper warranty. Arrange it with the Toyota service advisor at your dealership.

 

bummer!
likely toyota will send a regional to the dealership to take a look at it to determine if a mistake was made in the factory, or some other cause.

 

Ditto to everyone else that says call the dealership and have them tow it and fix it.

Just for curiosity, you could look at the two white plastic reservoirs on the passenger side and see which one is low. That will tell you if it was engine coolant or inverter coolant that sprayed all over. It's physically the same stuff(Toyota Super Long Life Coolant), but the two coolant systems are separate from each other.

Considering how new the car is, I suspect either rodent damage or a defective or improperly attached coolant fitting. If it turns out to be Toyota's fault, you can try to see if they'll replace the hood liner, but honestly all it will need is a light pressure washing and drying.

 

I would suspect engine coolant, I don't think he would've made it 1.5K miles if it was the inverter coolant. I believe that's a low pressure system vs the engine coolant is running at higher pressures, so more likely to pop from defects in those plastic connectors. But who knows; I could be wrong....

 

Look for the obvious first, the radiator cap.

 

i hope no engine damage was done

 

At least for me, Win10 with Chrome, the images weren't resizing properly (I did grumble about this in the Bug Report thread, linked at top). Anyway:

 

Do cars still have a cap directly on the radiator anymore?

The overflow tank cap can still leak, but wouldn't the empty head space result in less liquid escaping?

 

Yeah, I don't think the radiator on this generation has a cap. It's all the overflow/reservoir tank. So it's probably a coolant line.

 

Or the coolant was super overfilled in the overflow and that's what decided to release coolant through a relief valve somewhere. Now if that relief valve sprays up into the hood, that would be wild.

Does need to be looked at, its just terrible luck I think for OP.

 

Was just a guess. Rock auto shows some caps, can’t get much out of it. Looks like the bottle may be pressurized. Car is so new and was fine at first, so it’s a puzzle.

 

Judging from the stain on the hood insulation; The leak is somewhere center rear engine towards the fire wall. Near or around the #4 spark plug. The fog effect was coolant dripping onto the hot exhaust manifold.

 

At the end of the day, there's a warranty and not every single car off the line is gonna be perfect in every single way.

Mine had a poorly lubricated gear for the seatback (manual seats on my model). Took it in and they just added some lubricant and it's been great since.

At least the issue for OP came up early and can be fixed in warranty and without damage done to the engine since it hasn't been going on for a long time.

 

The coolant is bad for the paint, try to wash that stuff off of your car.