Rough engine start

I have a 2011 and it has happened to me as well as my 2009 Camry Hybrid. I happens when the engine engages after the electric motor starts. My son is a mechanic for a dealer, part of SET. He says it is the engine engaging and that the roughness of the start is nothing to worry about. Since he has worked for Toyota for 9 years and has seen this many times, I believe him.

 

As I stated in another thread, I do recommend contacting the Toyota customer experience center to have the case documented and logged in their database.

However, the above is for filing a safety complaint w/NHTSA. I have no 3rd gen, but it doesn't seem like a safety issue to me and thus a safety complaint seems inappropriate.

 

I'm going to go on record as having this happened for the first time this morning.

Details:

• 2010 Prius V
• 10k miles
• Moved from warm garage (it got up to 90 on Sunday)
• Sat in driveway overnight (low of around 45 with lots of rain and humidity)
• Driveway slightly inclined, nose pointed up.
• Oil changed on Saturday (the rough start occurred today, Monday).
• Car was not used on Sunday...only moved out of garage.
• When ICE kicked in, the engine sounded like a dryer with a couple pair of wet sneakers bouncing around. I let it run for about 10 seconds.
• No codes on ScanGuage II, no warning lights on dash.
• Restarted, had a little valve clatter (and a slight smell of raw fuel), then it smoothed out after about 10 seconds.
• Opened the hood, dipstick wasn't in all the way...it was in the receptical but not "plugged in" securely.
• Oil level is fine.
• Car ran fine all the way to work.

I will be talking to the Toyota service department where I had the oil changed over the weekend to log my issue...if for anything else, to have it on record. For now, I'm going to place this in the "one-time" fluke folder, and drive the car with no worries. If it begins to happen regularly, I'm going to have a nice chat with my Toyota dealer.

 

sorry, but i call BS on that one.

 

I echo this sentiment too. Shenanigans! Yes, you can indeed feel the ICE kick in when the car switches from EV mode to ICE mode, more so in the older Prii. This is normal. The entire car shaking and the engine knocking as if there are rabid badgers in the engine compartment is NOT normal. I'm guessing that your son didn't hear the issue correctly. I'm sure he's very knowledgeable and is an excellent mechanic...but this type of knocking and shaking is far from normal operation.

 

Well a big part of the problem, seems to be that the problem is very unpredictable and intermittent...so I wouldn't expect it to happen regularly. But unfortunately, even a spontaneous and occasional "whatever is happening" is potentially damaging.

Also, until Toyota officially recognizes it as an issue, good luck chatting with your dealership. Just like with the Brake software recalibration....until Toyota say's there is a problem, the dealerships main line is going to be there isn't any problem.

 

That's why I didn't bother reporting my lone instance of it happening in the 6000 mile range.

 

I'm taking it to the dealer in 2 days. The service receptionist at the dealer said she was aware of the rough start condition and scheduled my appointment. I'll post the results.

 

The Dealer was unable to reproduce the shaking engine syndrome. They called Toyota corporate and they responded by saying there is no fix at this time because the 2011 models have different engines that are not prone to the problems of the previous generations.

So why is mine doing it? Frustrating. I played a poor cellphone video of a second occurrence for the service rep, but it was mild compared to the first one. The first time it did it, it shook the entire car violently. Way more rough than any youtube video I've seen.
I plan on calling the Toyota hotline tomorrow.

 

I don't think so. Same engine, same rough start problem.

 

Finally happened to my 2010, first time.

Car had sat outside for a day and a half, was damp and cool outside with light rain at 4 celcius.

I've read about the issue here, and listened and watched other owners youtube videos. So I recognized it when it happened.

My car has just over 47k, kilometers....

I did not press the gas peddle, nor did I shut it off right away... I wanted to see if the computer would adapt... there are various sensors that can detect knock and or rough idle.... it lasted for much less than a minute... did not sound healthy for those seconds that seemed to last for a longer time than it was... but it levelled right out on it's own and I drove off.

Has not happened again, even though there has been similar, if not identical situations since where the car always is outside and the temperature/weather/and time since last driven has been virtually identical.

Wonder if the computer has learned something and it will never repeat.... it did take almost two years to happen the only one time.

Roland.

 

Sigh... lame excuse or misunderstanding. The 3rd gen (2010 and 2011) use the same engine. The 2nd gen (2004-09) use a different engine from the 3rd gen. Obviously, the issues you guys are reporting are on 3rd gens.

I've seen the one YouTube video of a 3rd gen doing it and my 2nd gen has never sounded like that at startup.

 

I was hoping it wouldn't happened again also. But it did, 2 days ago, about 4 months after it happened the last time.

 

What's weird is that there seems to be no consistency to it. My 2010 (May 2009 build, 8/2009 purchase) has done it a few times when the car was newer, but not for months now. The car now has 65,000 miles and hasn't done it since probably 45,000.

Of course, now that I wrote that, it'll go nuts!

Has anyone heard or thought more about the valve timing gear issue propsed earlier? Am I correct in that the 2010/11 Prius and Matrix have the same basic ICE?

Toyota's silence on this is telling. I bet they're waiting for someone to lunch their engine and then there will be a very quiet campaign or recall. Bummer - this is such a good car. I wish all the other cars I owned had been so trouble-free!

 

Not intentional shenanigans, I'm sure, but a misunderstanding. Yes; Prii will sometimes lurch or rattle softly when the gas engine kicks in while stopped.

The other person's description of rabid badgers fighting under the hood only barely BEGINS to describe the noise and shaking. It's like five bowling balls being thrown around under the hood. The first time it happened, I expected to see loose parts laying under the hood. It was scary horrible.

 

Just happened to me today. Get this, it happened in the dealer's parking lot right after my first 5k service. I suppose the theory of moving it short distances and turning it off proved correct.

I had the service advisor witness it for himself. He called out a tech from the garage to see it.

Of course, after that they couldn't duplicate it. Other techs in the garage said they have seen the same thing. Something about the MG1 motor engaging the engine and missing sync or something like that.

Either way, I had the tech note in my file that he witnessed the sound/issue first hand so that if there is ever a TSB or something that requires them to see it for themselves, that part will be covered.

 

If it had to happen at least it happened in a good place at a good time. They can't very well say they have never seen it before, at least in your case.

The MG1 out of phase or out of sync theory has been discussed on here before. To me it doesn't explain why it only happens after running for a short time several hours before. If it were MG1 I would think it could happen at any time, also doesn't explain why it sometimes happens with Corollas.

 

I just called the Toyo 800 number and got a case opened w/ my issue. At least its on record now. I'm hoping everybody on this forum who have experienced this problem have done the same.

 

I just had the same thing happen on my 2010 Prius 3. I started it up last night and drove it into the garage. The next morning I started it up and it felt like only some of the sparkplugs were firing. It rattle pretty bad. After I tried a third time and drove the car 100 yard the shaking stopped. I will report this on the next service schedule.

 

Someone had suggested (perhaps in a differen thread) that this occurs when the engine doesn't complete a full warmup cycle before shutting down for an extended period. I was able to confirm this behavior.

Yesterday, I was moving the car from the driveway into the garage. Normally, I would do this in EV mode but since the car had been sitting for a while, EV mode wasn't available. The engine started as I was entering the garage. I would have waited for the warmup cycle to finish, but thinking about this problem (which I had encountered on my 2010 a year or so earlier), I decided to take one for the team and shut down. This morning, when I started up, I got the violent shaking I described in this thread. I shut down and started again. The shaking was less pronounced and stopped after about 10 seconds.

There seems to be something to this cold-shutdown theory. If anyone else wants to verify this behavior please post your results. Perhaps we can one day get a service bulletin if this is repeatable.

Additional factors: The temperature yesterday was in the upper 40s/low 50s all day. The car had sat for around 8 hours before moving into the driveway. The ICE ran for around 10s before shutting down. The car sat overnight for around 10 hours, with an ambient temperature in the low 40s in the garage. Note that none of these temperatures were extrememly cold.