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Anyone have a good visual of fuel system in engine bay?

Discussion in 'Prius v Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Amy50421, Sep 24, 2024.

  1. Amy50421

    Amy50421 New Member

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    We have a 2013 prius v

    We just did a full egr system clean and husband said he was smelling some exhaust fumes this morning. No check engine light, nothing else seeming amiss, but want to make sure all the hoses and such don't have leaks and are connected properly. There was a lot of fussing around in the engine bay and we just want to cover our bases
     
  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    Before starting it up? FWIW, when I pop the hood on our '10 there's usually a slight "bouquet".

    Congrats on the job, btw. :)
     
  3. Amy50421

    Amy50421 New Member

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    Thanks, he did a great job, I tried my best to help with the stupid cooler haha. We are seeing instant improvement in car performance, wish we'd known about that sooner

    Only off thing at this point is my husband says on heavier acceleration there is sometimes a fuel smell so I just want to make sure there's no leaks after that
     
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  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    I wouldn't think you'd need to disturb the injectors or fuel rail. Maybe something amiss with the intake manifold? There's two PCV hoses on it; I know from personal experience if the main lower hose (from the PCV valve) is disconnected the car will flat-out refuse to run.

    There's also a hose running gas tank vapours back to the intake manifold, plugs in just below the throttle body, around 3 o'clock orientation. Again, not sure if the car would even run, with it disconnected.
     
  5. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    The egr system is flowing exhaust into the intake. Eg “Exhaust Gas Recirculation”. So if the egr cooler, valve or pipe is missing a gasket you can have an exhaust leak under the hood.
     
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  6. MAX2

    MAX2 Member

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    It is much better to make instrumental measurements using programs and look at the engine operating parameters using them.
    Do you have the opportunity to use some kind of scanner or a special Techstream program?
     
  7. Amy50421

    Amy50421 New Member

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    It's absolutely exhaust fumes not a straight up gas smell. No leaks. Mostly at idle. Dr google says maybe mass airflow sensor issue? It's still throwing PO403. Any idea where we should be looking?

    @Mendel Leisk @rjparker ?

    Good news, MPG is up, no more weird noises/feelings. Can now personally attest to the fact that yes indeed, you DO need to clean your EGR system. The car hasn't worked this well in YEARS.
     
  8. Amy50421

    Amy50421 New Member

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    Let it be known we THOROUGHLY cleaned the intake manifold and completely replaced the valve with genuine part.
     
  9. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    There’s maybe 5 connections along the EGR path, between exhaust and intake manifolds. Check ‘em all? I know that’s not trivial, basically a redo. Any possibility a gasket was forgotten? There’s one right at the back, where the EGR cooler connects to exhaust manifold. If you remove the two studs there first, it’s very easy to drop the gasket there, and not realize there was one.
     
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  10. Amy50421

    Amy50421 New Member

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    Husband says he's sure he went step by step and there is no smell from engine bay itself. More like exhaust coming out of tailpipe is just super strong?
     
  11. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    P0403 technically means the egr is not moving properly and it is most likely an electrical problem. It could be a connection problem, a bad egr valve or open or shorted wiring.

    A Techstream egr active step test while monitoring map pressure can verify operation. It is possible your egr is shut 100% of the time which can make the engine run smoother.

    Exhaust smell? When cold the engine runs rich by design and sometimes you can smell the richer mixture in the exhaust. Otherwise the egr system has gaskets and can be leaking especially if someone has been working on it.

    One of the biggest troubleshooting mistakes is to blindly assume something is good and then never check it again.
     
  12. Amy50421

    Amy50421 New Member

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    OK it's definitely noticeable in the mornings when it's colder out, not as much later in the day but still on occasion there.

    This may be a stupid question but what is techstream?
     
  13. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    Techstream is Toyota’s factory obd2 scanner and is capable of active tests
     
  14. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    #14 Mendel Leisk, Sep 30, 2024
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2024
  15. MAX2

    MAX2 Member

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    The presence of an exhaust odor in the engine compartment may be due to faulty gaskets on the outlet at the junction of the engine and exhaust pipe sections. Considering that the system has an EGR, etching is possible from the cooler or the EGR valve, as well as the places where they connect. The worst case is if the EGR valve is stuck in the open position due to clogging. Then some of the exhaust gases will always enter the inlet circuit.
     
  16. Amy50421

    Amy50421 New Member

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    It doesn't seem like it's coming from the engine bay? We have opened the hood and had the engine cycle on several times and smell nothing in there.

    Seems like maybe it's coming from the tailpipe area and maybe that's why it only seems present at idle and stop lights and such. Unsure if there is anything that could affect it from the egr job if it's not a leak from the engine bay itself

    We cleared the P0403 code a couple of days ago and it hasn't come back. We had not done this after the egr cleaning. We'll see if it pops back up
     
  17. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Mendel might be trying to give a pre-Hallowe'en scare by linking to a page that advertises the "Techstream Lite" bundle.

    What you need is a laptop, the software download, a license to use it, and a dongle to plug in to the car. If you buy that bundle, what you're getting is a full year's licensed use (normally $1360) and the exact dongle that Toyota recommends and supports ($500-ish as I recall). You bring your own laptop.

    For somebody running a shop, that could be an economical way to go. Most other folks, who aren't running a shop but still want to be 'legit', will probably end up buying some other J2534 dongle that's less money (a one-time outlay), and going with the $70 two-day license whenever they need to use it (still beats the pants off a dealer visit, and especially if you end up using it repeatedly in those two days).
     
  18. Amy50421

    Amy50421 New Member

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    Just a quick update, not sure which part was impacting it, but we gave the MAF sensor and the throttle body a cleaning and it's doing fine now. No more unreasonably rich fuel at idle.

    MAF didn't look super dirty nor did the throttle body but I guess it just goes to show that you should do maintenance anyway.
     
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