1.8L starting rattle, knock, events

Have never noticed any startling noise while starting up my vehicle. It's got around 13,800 miles and I've had it for 17 months.

 

Another question is what brand of fuel the owners who experience knocking are using. I've always used Shell or Chevron gasoline. So far, no problems here.

 

I have had the rough start twice with the following:

• Less than 5000 miles
• Moved the car short distance from driveway to garage and stopped engine before warmup cycle was complete
• Cold night - temps in the 30 to 40F range
• On start in the morning the engine ran rough
• First time I stopped and restarted with no further roughness
• Second time I floored accelerator and roughness disappeared

Now I move the car to the garage in EV if available or I let the engine complete its warmup cycle. No further rough start events since.

 

I have 6,000 mi in 5 mths. No rough starting experienced.

I suspect that other members' rough starting experiences are caused by carbon deposits in the cylinders built up to a certain point where the compression ratio became too high because th3e carbon deposits take up room. So this led to dieseling of the gas under high pressure and high temp. Once the carbon deposits are knocked loose and burnt off (some people reports a few seconds of white smoke) the ICE becomes normal again.

jdcollins5 reported he floored it and the roughness disappeared. I think it's because by flooring it, the vast flow of the gases blows/burns away the loosened carbon deposits.

I routinely drive the Prius in PWR mode accelerating aggressively so I think I won't have this problem (touch wood) since I routinely blow/purge the cylinders of carbon deposits with my driving style.

 

None of the above have happened with my car. 14,000 miles, ownership since end of March 2010. Cold starting temps have ranged from 39F - ~70F.

 

if you had the dealer change your oil and you guys are having this issue, the very first thing I'd do is change the oil yourself to make sure 0W-20 was installed...I'm thinking a heavier oil could at least contribute to this issue, especially in cold weather.

that being said, I've had no such issue with my car, 15k miles (bought used with 11k)

 

On my test drives this is the only thing the Fusion had over the Prius. On the Prius a slight vibration is felt when the ICE starts. On the Fusion there was none. It could be because of the Fusion's larger engine or a difference in the transmission design. The engine on my Prius doesn't knock or exhibit high levels of vibration when starting but, as remarkable as it may sound, the hybrid system of the Fusion seemed more refined after back to back tests. The Fusion has a seamless transition from electric to ICE even during heavy acceleration.

 

Never had knocking or rough starts! Can I feel the engine turn on? Yeh, barely, most people comment they can hardly hear it!

 

interesting, I've never driven the fusion....

.....but can it get close to a 60mpg average over 1500 miles like my GIII?

 

as i understand the engine design it has a very high compression ratio,>13 but becasue of the valve opening and closing ratio- it has a different expansion ratio witch means we can use 87 octane...
if the valves were to leak down and / or not open at the right the time there might be a higher comp ratio in affect causing the pre ignition and therefore knock,, my 2 sense worth.

re; carbon in cyclinders, with today computers rarely have i seen carbon in engines in tear that i tear down or scope

the engine designers could tell us im sure

 

I had this once in our March-bought 2010. The car has 14,400 miles on it now and in July I wrote:

Three month old 2010 with 5500 miles. Wife started it today and apparently it was rattling/shuddering "almost as if the tires were out of balance" from the engine bay--not the dash board. It went away after. FWIW did oil change at dealer 1000 miles ago.

So, it happened in the summer, when cold, just once at 5500 miles and has not happened since.

I answered the poll with "one time" and "summer".

 

This is plausible but the buildup would have to be quite substantial and occur after the last trip between its end and the restarting of the car when this event happens; how would the build up occur in such a short time? If it was a gradual build up over time I don't think we'd see shaking at startup and then all the junk knocked away without subsequently returning.

For fuel we always use the cheapest 87 we can find.

 

I had only one rough idle for a few seconds back when the car had between 5-6K miles. It happened only once (while cold) and never again. Car now has 26K miles and running great. (it always has).

 

I experienced it once, and I *think* it was last weekend. Temps in the 50s I'd say, car sat over night, was the first start of the morning (probably going to head to the grocery store) around 10am or so. It almost reminded me of a crank start not getting the engine spun up enough to start. It started up within about 10 seconds just fine. I then shut it off, checked the oil level, looked around and turned it back on and it started up normally. Haven't experienced it since.

 

Have not had this happen yet. The Prius is 7 months old with 4K miles.

 

On my Gen 2, I used to have tons of knock backs... but nothing serious... it'd go away after a while. But it'd come back... from time to time when the engine had to ignite again after I put some gas on it cruising from 40mph in stealth mode to accelerate.

For my 2010, I haven't had any issues with this car yet. Unlike 99.9 percent of prius owners on this forum, I drive my car a bit rough... my avg is 43mpg. So even with "aggressive" driving for a prius with 10,000 miles on it I have yet to report a engine knock back. Solid performer, knock on wood.

**I only use premium gas** haha jk jk only regular goes into my tank... I can't afford premium gas. I use regular gas from various stations so I can't report a specific company having to do with any of my results.

Just wondering... could engine oil figure into engine knock backs?

 

i have gotten the shake and rattle and role 2 mabe 3 times.. one of the times was more mild than the other 2 ..it sucks

 

Never experienced it in over 22,000 miles and just under a year.
I run in ECO, last 2 oil changes were with 0W30 or 5W30 (dealers are apparently unable to RTFM , even when you ask them specifically to put 0W20 - to their credit 0W20 is quite hard to find in France).