Rough engine start

I had a similar issue yesterday, a rough start for just a brief time then it smoothed out. I had started it earlier for just a moment to move it.

 

The more I am reading the more I agree it points to some sort of short cycling of the engine and possibly rich mixture or similar. I had this happen in my Gen 1, (years ago of course), and it was similar. Moved the car to another spot closer to my unit when I lived in Maryland. That was the only time it happened. And has not happened in the III yet but then, I have not started and restarted in a short period of time.

 

Wow, *this* is interesting. Where the first-gens started dropping
like flies every fall from sticky throttle plates that jammed
harder when cold, now we've got the onset-of-winter banging
3rd-gen Prius. Bizarre. I hope a proper diagnosis emerges soon.
At least in the second-gen all we get is the snowflake light...
.
_H*

 

Happened to me for the second time yesterday, no codes. I had started the car for a minute or so about 2 hours previously. The event was fairly serious, sounded like the exhaust pipes were rattling around, and lasted for 5 to 10 seconds. Unfortunately I didn't have the presence of mind to check the scan gauge until it was almost over, next time I'll be ready.

I started the car for a minute or so this morning then shut it down, I'll go out and restart it in a couple of hours and see if I can get the event to repeat.

 

Seems intermittent, bet the fix will be a re-flash of the ECM

"Never fly the "A" model of anything"

 

I should have an opportunity to offer a data point to the testing of some of these hypotheses. My gen III is in the shop, with a full (I think pre-winter blend) tank, for an extended period, so I'll (a) see if it pulls any of this stuff when brought back out if its medically-innduced coma, and (b) if it changes its behavior when I gas it up with new blend. I'll report anything I have (hopefully soon).
Cheers
Tim

 

Had it happen to me this morning. Here's how it all went down:

1. Drove home from work and parked it Friday evening.
2. Moved the car from the driveway to the street Sunday afternoon. Car was on for maybe 30 seconds or so.
3. Started the car up this morning (temp was around 40F), engine kicked in to warm up and car started violently shaking.
4. Killed the engine and waited 10 seconds.
5. Started it back up, same thing.
6. Kicked it into drive and shaking stopped.

 

Advice I'm starting to wish I'd followed. My dad always told me never to buy the first year of a redesign. I figured "hey, its a Toyota, they know what they're doing!" Starting to doubt that they do...

 

My turn... Unlike those who had run the ICE for short periods before the problem, I believe mine to have been related to the cold temperatures (just a guess however).

We had driven to the in-laws for Thanksgiving (only a few miles away) and parked the 2010 Model V Prius in their driveway. The temperature dropped to somewhere near freezing while we were there.

About 4 hours later when we were going to leave, I pushed the start button and instead of my usual practice of backing as soon as the ready light comes on, I sat for a few moments, adjusting the heating controls, etc.

As soon as the ICE started, there was a substantial amount of shaking, accompanied by unusually loud rattling sounds coming from the engine compartment. I pressed the accelerator several times while still in park, to which there was no response (the engine didn't accelerate and the shaking continued).

I pressed the power button to turn everything off. Upon restarting, the condition didn't return. To date, that had been the coldest temperature to which our Prius had been exposed, hence my assimilation with the cold temperatures. I will call my Toyota service department today to record the condition on my vehicle's record. Their response will determine if I will bring it in, or wait to see if it happens again.

It sounds like this issue is something we need to keep monitoring because as we all know, in many cases the manufacturers try to dismiss issues until they finally become so "large" that they can no longer simply deny it happens.

I'm still not ready to say it was a mistake to buy the car so soon in its production life. Especially if it is something easily fixed without much of an inconvenience. Many makes and models develop "issues" even after several years of production runs. How it is handled by Toyota, will be more important than the fact that the problem has surfaced.

Lets keep this thread current with any other similar occurrences and see if we can collectively get an answer. Thanks!

 

I have experienced perhaps three rough starts since purchase in July '10. The actions of the car remind me somewhat of those episodes of dieseling (pre-ignition) one experiences with a standard v-6 or V-8 when the engine will continue to turn over very roughly after the ignition is switched off. I wonder if there is some distant realtion to that phenomena re: the Prisu ICE. I wonder if there might be residual combustable material in one or more cylinders that "pre-ignites" on start-up causing the rough start? Enough people have commented on this issue here and elsewhere that I would think Toyota would have a handle, or at least an explanation, of the cause.

 

That is exactly what I thought the one time it happened to me (late summer). This engine is susceptible to that just like any other. Therefore I don't think this issue is anything to worry about.

 

Add me into the list of folks who have had this issue with their 2010.

Thanks 'Bobsprius' for linking me over to this thread, seems like several folks have this issue. I've had it happen twice now.

You can see my knocking issue details at: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...artup-anyone-else-experience.html#post1017302

 

Just an update - I talked to my dealer this morning and here is the bottom-line. This is common for the 2010 Prius. They said it's "motor generator 1 looking for the best polarity on a cold start, the technical term is called 'hogging'." I reiterated that my garage was showing a temperature of 50 degrees and they still said that is considered a cold start. Hope that helps anyone out there. They tried to go into technical details about something positioning in the engine, but they lost me in that part of the conversation. Bottom line from the dealer, it's normal. The rest of my post is here: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...ing-twice-startup-anyone-else-experience.html

 

I had this happen to me for the first time this morning after starting the car briefly last night to move from driveway to garage. My wife's eyes were wide open when it happened but I was able to explain that from PC, I understood what had happened and it was nothing to worry about ! Thanks guys.

 

My husband and I just experienced the same hard knocking and shaking in our Prius this morning.

We live in Bothell Washington and the temperature was around 32 degrees this morning and likely 5-10 degrees colder over night. We have 4750 miles on the vehicle. Our car is always parked in the garage and was last driven at 8pm the previous night.

I am calling the dealership to document our concern today. Hope this helps someone.

My husband quickly thought to record the sounds and posted it to Youtube. (Being my first post, I cannot embed the link). You can search Youtube for "2010 Prius Engine Knocking" .

You can clearly tell the engine is knocking, though the shaking is hard to tell (recorded with his IPhone). After a few seconds the engine returns to normal operation.

 

WOW - Quick thinking on your husband's part to record the sound!

I wonder if this is what all of the others have heard?

 

Exactly the same happened to me this morning. Although I did not let the engine shake for that long. Just 3-4 secs.
I stopped immediately. Completed the reverse maneuver on batteries and once I started driving forward I kept the ICE accelerated (by using the left foot to brake on several traffic slowing bumps to avoid the ICE from turning itseld off).
The shaking did not return once the ICE was pulling the car.

Temp: 48 degrees.
Car has 10,500 miles
Not used for 60hrs.
Parked outside.

 

The recorded sound and picture is great. I didn't see any shaking and the noise sounded to me like a collapsed lifter, which is fairly common.
But, unless I'm wrong, I don't think the recorded event and the event others talk about are the same

 

What about them do you think are different? After re-reading the thread many of the posting sound similar to me....