236k Mile Toyota Prius C Head Gasket Failing Sign?

Any updates on this?

 

OMG you guys... my wifes car has the EXACT and i mean EXACT same problem! she complained that the coolant warning came on when she was idling in traffic, and i go to check coolant level and the reservoir is bone dry. I opened the radiator cap and the coolant was low, so i filled with some coolant and distilled water. in the radiator, didnt take more than like 100ml and then it was full. But the tank required a full top up. I then started looking for leaks. I can find some, very small amount of coolant in the plastic shield down below the engine, so continue looking and WOW under the main coolant intake hose is a huge amount of crystallized residue!

I haven't run the motor for a length of time yet, but i put some distilled water in the back seat and will run it for the next few days and measure coolant loss. I will then be taking it in i think, so we may know an answer here, but to all those previous posters, did you get a resolution??? if so, what was it??

EDIT: i am at 363000 kms

 

What kind of coolant? The spec I believe is Toyota Super Long Life Coolant, which comes pre-mixed, no need to add water. Just 100 ml is minor, but just a heads-up; best to stick with adding just the spec'd coolant.

Head gasket failure with coolant leaking into cylinders will usually cause knocking during cold-starts, at least that's the case with 3rd gen. If you're not getting such symptom, it could be going somewhere else. Have you checked from below for pink crusties?

 

its toyota coolant , red, from toyota dealership. On the side of the bottle it just says glycol, not mixed, and it seemed a bit thick to me so i figured it wasnt mixed. has ratios for mixing on the side too. I mean if you are somewhere where its -30 in the winter then you want a higher ratio. I bought it when i did the water pump like a year or whatever ago.

i haven't done any inspection from below as i just discovered this last night. now its raining so it might be a few days till i can get the car up and take a look. coolant volume looks only a slight bit down if at all in the overflow bottle today after my wife drove it for an hour or two.

As for knocking, the car always sounds horrible for the first bit when it starts up but i think its more of a ticking sound and has always done that (we have had it for 30k kms). It always quiets down after it gets warmed up. I read some people on here that says its normal for a noisy first start. Ill try and make a recording of it.

Pretty sure its exactly what the others posted though. Hopefully someone got it figured out in the last year.

 

Yeah Long Life Coolant (without the word “Super”) is NOT pre-mixed; you’re good n that score.

 

Hello everybody!

It seems my 14 Prius C is having the exact same issues as others on this thread. It currently only has about 80k miles on it. I am mostly hoping for an update from anyone who had these issues on what they ended up doing, and what happened to their car.

I was just informed that there is a coolant stain near my head gasket on my Prius C. It currently runs and starts fine, with no sign of coolant in the oil and and the coolant level just slightly below the full line.

Right now I'm planning on just keeping an eye on the coolant level, but I'm curious how this ends, if it got worse for others and how quickly, and if they did the gasket change/engine swap.

Thanks so much!
JJ

 

That's very vague; is that how it was worded? Dealership?

FWIW, the Prius c has been relatively bullet-proof; the mechanicals are more similar to gen 2 if I'm not mistaken.

 

Well I got in there and saw for myself, it's the exact same spot as the previous posters. There's a small pile of pink crust built up, and it looks pretty obviously like it is seeping from the gasket. I bought the car based purely on it's bullet proof reputation so I'm more then a little disappointed. Seeing how previous people with this problem just stopped posting I'm guessing either they sold the car or, hopefully, it just never became a worse problem. So far nobody has had coolant leak into the cylinder or oil it seems.

I can post some photos tomorrow if it helps

 

An external seep is a much, much less serious problem than a combustion chamber gasket breach as has been happening in the 1.8L engines in the big-body Priuseses.

 

Here is a photo of the leak, this morning when I started the car the engine shoke for about a minute, felt like a misfiring cylinder. I found a highly rated shop nearby that will do the job for $3000 Canadian, and I think I'm gonna do it. Am I overreacting because of one bad start? It doesn't seem like the coolant level has gone down since I first noticed the issue.

 

You've got visual evidence of an external breach, which does not cause rough starts. Coolant loss is the only direct effect, and you've stated that you haven't seen the level drop. Therefore the leak is quite small.

You've had one rough start, which is sometimes (not always) a symptom of an internal breach. Other things can cause rough starts.

So I'd say that replacing the gasket is quite premature at this point.

It might be worth taking it for a diagnosis of the rough start, but if it were me I'd wait to see if it repeated or developed a pattern.