Serious Engine Knock less than 4000 miles brand new, done with Toyota

Update: I got the car back from the dealer today.. and guess what they found out!!!!!!!.. Absolutely nothing , They couldn't reproduce it and they were like "we would like to keep you car the rest of the week and see what it does". So i politely said no and told them I would call to document when it does it again (hoping it wont).. I hope Toyota puts out something that address this.. But I will move on.

 

Makes me wonder if we could get any relevant information as to what is happening with some monitoring every time the car is started. Maybe some strange anomoly would appear. I know, this would take some amazing luck, but it would at least let us know what the engine is doing and get some readings. From what it seems, most people have only experienced this once or twice and that's it. I'm not sure if Toyota will easily be able to pinpoint the problem until it can be reproduced with regularity. It is as though you have to see every little detail that the ECU are doing to know what is happening. I wish there was some way that the ECU would store information, even after the car was shut off but didn't throw a DTC. Maybe it does, and I just am unaware? If it kept previous information, a hook-up via TechStream would probably give quite a bit of data.

Wishful thinking, I guess. It's only happened to me one time over the 16k+ miles I have on the car.

 

MOST PEOPLE?

You do realize that this and other forums are just a very tiny percentage or Prius owners don't you.

I'm not saying the knock doesn't happen, we have not had it in either of our cars but I will keep an eye out. I suspect the car isn't getting enough oil based on reports. There are many reasons for this. My guess would be faulty lifter seals or something like that.

As an ex mechanic, there is nothing more frustrating than getting a car in with a real problem and not being able to reproduce it.

 

I didn't mean to imply most meaning a majority. I meant that most of the people that experienced this particular event only had it happen once or twice. As in, it's not a regular thing.

 

For example, I was one of the 2004 Prius owners "lucky" enough to experience The Stall. I also had the hyper-sensitive "traction control" that left the car helpless on a bit of snow and ice, but other Prius owners inferred I didn't know how to drive in winter

At least I'm lucky enough to have an '07 FJ that doesn't have a defective rear axle, fender bulges/cracks, or a windshield that cracks if you simply breathe on it

Problems are difficult enough to track down, when they are truly rare you quickly discover just how good - or just how awful - your local Toyota dealership really is

 

I recorded the hard knocking over a year ago and reported to it Toyota with resolution to date.

 

what WAS the resolution?

 

Yes, I've also heard of no resolution. I've heard maybe flooring it while it does this should stop it but that is a resolution like casting a broken arm is instead of getting the broken arm to begin with.

 

No offense, but something is lost on you ... logic.

-Brad

 

That is something I posted because I discovered, more or less by accident, that it works for me. Others have tried it and it works on some cars and does not work for others.

It is just something people can try, I never intended to offer it as a permanent fix. I think I referred to it as a "work around". The solution, if there ever is one, will probably need to come from Toyota.

I have also found in my car if I remember to manually start the engine by pushing the throttle down right after the Ready light comes on I never have the rough start problem, so for me it is solved.

If you already have the broken arm the cast can be a good idea.

 

I think we need more threads on this topic.

Are you listening, moderator?

 

Member for a couple of days and already complaining

 

Sorry if this has been posted already in the thread..... quite a discussion here on the issue: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii.../86722-1-8l-starting-rattle-knock-events.html

Generally consensus is that this is a cold-restart issue. If you move your car a short distance and interrupt the ICE warm up cycle... shut it down... leave the car for hours or even days (particularly in cold weather) ... then come out later it might make the noise on startup. This seems to be the most consistent condition to repeat the issue.

It stinks, but once you know about it it is pretty easy to avoid the situation where it might happen. Many cars have cold-re-start issues. it sucks for sure, but the Prius is hardly alone in this.

 

Indeed, my old 1996 BMW 323i coupe had a cold start issue although not exactly the same as this - if I started the car and then stopped the car after only a short period (no matter what the outside temp), it sometimes would have problems starting again. The first time it happened I called out breakdown, the guy said it's a common fault caused by unburnt fuel in the pistons/plugs (can't remember exactly), and he said simply floor the throttle when attempting to start and it always started after a couple of attempts...never had any engine knocking though.

 

I've owned 13 cars - '69 Cougar, '76 B210, '79 Scirocco, '78 Scamp, ,82 Scirocco, '85 Mustang, '85 Escort, ,86 Jetta, '83 Toyo Pickup, ,93 Accord, '88 Toyo pickup, '09 Prius and now '11 Accord.

In all those, I never had an issue of knocking on cold start / restart.

However prevalent or not this issue is in 3rd gen, it is unacceptable, period. It should be video recorded by all who experience it, reported to dealer and if necessary, reported to Toyota Coroporate, to pile drive Toyota's nice person into the ground on this.

Completely unacceptable. This is the largest car mfr. in the world we are talking about.

 

Some answers why it might happen in other cars -

Answers.com - What would cause a knocking noise when the engine is cold

 

I've only experienced it once in my life on another vehicle. It was a Maxima and I think after moving it once a few feet and starting it again it kind of chugged the engine for a few seconds, but it didn't knock. Coming up on two decades of driving now I've never experienced it in any other vehicle.

 

I can't believe dealers haven't come across this...with all the short start/stops these cars will have on a dealer forecourt...

 

They've come across it before. But they can't replicate it so they say they can't do anything about it. And they usually don't record it in their service database when a customer complains about it, so it looks like it doesn't happen very often.

 

One forum member did get it to happen right in front of the service manager, but they didn't know what to do. From what I've read, the car would have to sit overnight after an incomplete warm up cycle, not just observed within a couple hours, but even so, it isn't consistently reproducible (just like the grabby brakes while reversing syndrome).