hello prius peeps i have a 2010 Prius with 200,000 miles. The engine rattles like crazy upon startup. i have a video attached. does this sound like a head gasket issue? or is this a badly clogged EGR? any help/advice/pointers are very much appreciated. fyi this is my first hybrid. all my life ive driven hondas ( pilot and accord)
Welcome to the gen3 head gasket world. It is not an egr stumble or a clogged egr cooler. Don't let it fool you if it is intermittent; that strategy will cost you an engine. Don't be fooled if it easily passes a coolant combustion gas test, a compression test or a leakdown test; that strategy will cost you an engine. Don't be fooled if the coolant does not seem to drop; it may only lose a few drops for a few seconds. A borescope test under pumped up coolant pressure when cold can be definitive but the symptoms are also very common. Car Care Nut HG Borescope at 11:00
Long neglected EGR cleaning, it’ll be totally clogged, has caused head gasket to fail. Various relevant links in my signature, if you stick with it (on a phone turn it landscape to see signatures).
thank you so much, i will work on the prius this weekend. need this thing fixed....BIG BIG THANKS Thank you sir...watching...i appreciate ur help
Hello My Prius makes a rattling sound from the engine every now and again and has only done over 58000 Miles. do you still think I may need a EGR cleaning / clogged ? thanks in advance.
Cost of new head gasket and use an entire day to repair? Or pull $15000 out of thin air for another vehicle? I say $15000 and junk it!!! Time is just that precious
I’ve settled on 50k miles as a prudent cleaning interval for the EGR system. More risky, leave the first cleaning as late as 100k. Disconnectin of coolant hoses is necessary with removal of the EGR cooler, so it’s opportune to do in conjunction with engine coolant change. Or just drain a couple of quarts/liters of coolant, into a clean container, and return it to the reservoir afterwards. Is the engine shake a regular thing? At cold-starts, say after sitting overnight? Or more random? Head gasket failure leaks coolant into combustion chambers, causing shake on startup. Another possibility is if you’ve say done a very short run the day previous: water can condense in the EGR and/or intake, get drawn into combustion chamber at next start up. with your miles head gasket failure is unlikely, but there may be exceptions. A member here, @bisco, apparently had head gasket failure at 70~80k miles. This was a plug-in model too, with a fair amount of electric-only usage.
You don’t need to, but when you get knocks at 100,000 miles, you wish you should have rotated your phone side ways on mendels signature at post #9.
First it's best to start your own thread rather than confusing things for the 200k guy. Cleaning everything is nice but it is highly unlikely cleaning the egr will solve your problem if your symptoms are like post 3's video with or without smoke. If it's a head gasket don't waste money (~$1,000 at a dealer) on an egr cooler, pipe and intake cleaning when it's easier to inspect them during a hg repair. If it's just a stumble with no severe metal to metal sound, it could be a sticking open egr valve which is designed to be closed at low rpm. Some oem egr valves have internal wear and an updated oem valve or sealing of an air leak can fix that kind of mild stumble. Aftermarket egr valves are often bad out of the box. The system checks egr flow almost every drive and will code if it sticks open or clogs. A good scanner can read the test results. 20 kPa is pretty good an an engine with 58k miles which should not be burning oil yet.
