1.8L starting rattle, knock, events

My 4 events have happened in all kinds of ambient temperatures, hot too cold. In my experience. I do my best to avoid the quick start stop situation but it's not always possible since I don't drive the car exclusively.

I'll be making sure it goes in my car's file at my next service appointment so that if something happens down the road then I'll be covered. Otherwise, I'm going to just try not to freak out about it. {shrug}

 

Your link just flagged and blocked all kinds of bad on my computer. Please remove.

Whoever addressed this, thank you!

 

Ah...darn...thought I might be immune. Just got my first Prius knocks ~3 to 5 seconds long. ODO @ 9926. Had the Prius Five for 6 months. Backing out of garage (garage temp ~51 degrees) about 7 feet into backing up the engine came on with fairly loud knocking. Prius had been in my garage for about 12 to 14 hours. Next oil change I will mention the TSB and go from there

 

As i mentioned in another thread, that TSB will not solve that brief knocking on a cold startup.., its only for prii in extremely cold climates..., and it solves a long drawn out buzzing type noise while the engine is running..., not the knocking for 3-5 seconds...

 

We have 30k+ miles on it and I had the third occurrence last week, as mentioned yesterday, but today the fourth occurrence. I moved the car today in 15F temperatures into the garage--it was on maybe 20 seconds or less. Upon restarting a few hours later got the knocking once more. Again, flooring it removes the problem but letting off on gas it comes back unless you wait or presumably keep the gas on a bit longer.

 

^You're refusing to allow it to complete its warmup cycle? That should keep it from happening. It's only happened to me once. I'd hate to think what long-term damage is being caused by four instances of the knocking.

 

I am refusing. An idling car in sub-freezing temps can take five minutes easily to warm up. I never have nor will in my life come hell or high water warm any vehicle up or operate in any other such manner that inconveniences me. I am sure it wouldn't need full cycle in any case, just some basic heat.

At the risk of sounding apathetic, I don't much care what/if any damage is being caused by this. I got the car from a dealership that gives life-time power train to the purchaser so literally if the engine drops on the highway after the regular power train they will cover it.

I still strongly suspect that this knocking sound is not going to cause any measurable damage to these engines with the regularity most of us are seeing it (anywhere from never to every several thousand miles or less). If I were to keep the car without life time power train I wouldn't let these knocking events perturb me, at least until/unless we hear officially that it is truly injurious.

 

Took mine to dealer and although the knocking did not occur I did have several YouTube videos with me that detail the problem. The service techs had not seen/heard of this problem before but were all quite interested. The dealer notified tech support in California and they approved my getting a new intake manifold after watching the YouTube videos. My new intake manifold should be available in a week or so. I'll keep everyone posted after it is installed (...to be covered under warranty of course).

What I find most interesting is that the dealer, located in the greater Baltimore/Washington area, had not had any reports of this problem. This forum does not have that many users, and the users of this forum are scattered all over the world. With so many users experiencing this problem you would think that the percentage of owners NOT on this forum that are having the same problem would be quite high in numbers, no?

Anyway, I think Toyota does know about this problem and rather than starting a campaign to correct all the problems they are simply waiting to fix them as the problems get called-in. With all the recalls and problems Toyota has had in the past 5-7 years it doesn't surprise me that they want to keep this issue quiet for as long as they can. Quiet from the press anyway.

 

Did they mention why they suspected the manifold?

Standard line.

 

They (Toyota of America) suspect moisture is getting in the intake manifold -- that's what I was told anyway.

 

The knocking we are all experiencing is clearly the result of an incomplete warm-up cycle and likely the cause being an improper mixture of fuel (my guess), hence the knocking.

 

So, does swapping the intake manifold sound like a resonable fix? Does the intake manifold adjust the mixture of fuel to some degree -- ????

 

Mechanical knowledge of me exhausted, maybe somebody else can opine

 

Is there a relationship between this defect and the factory (plant of manufacture), where produced Prius?
The VIN number contains the plant code.
It is position 11 and there are 3 Prius plant codes:
0 = Tsutsumi plant line # 1
1 = Tsutsumi plant line # 2
5 = Fugimatsu plant

VIN: JTDKN36U005000829 = 5 = Fugimatsu plant

 

OK guys, its official, the TSB is out for the engine knock in the morning..., the problem is the intake manifold..., the issue is when, condensation builds up in the egr it gets sucked into the engine in the morning causing a misfire, the new manifold was revised in order to address this condition..., a brief knocking after cold startup.... TSB number:0010-12

 

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...n-engine-knocking-startup-t-sb-0012-10-a.html

 

wow, it took toyota 14 months to (hopefully) figure this out?

 

Late october dutchess co new york 20 degrees it happened once to my brand new 2011 as soon as engine started it sounded like hog eating rocks, I turned off the car because I thought one of my cats got into the engine compartment and was getting chewed up in the fan belts
after checking visually and restarting, I never heard it again.

 

Look under the hood and you'll find there are no fan belts to chew up your cat!

 

Has there been any explanation as to what is actually making the "Knocking" sound ? ("Knocking" is putting it mildly....How about "Hammering"?) It's been my experience that a "Misfire" in itself does not result in any noise.....