Prius 3Rd Gen - Engine Sounds Strange When Warming Up

[tinyman]

My car has done 69k so far. in terms of fuel also its doing quite well.

however when I start the car, i hear a sound like rating when the engine warms up.

when I asked Toyota Lanka they said to do the engine tune up & see.

Since it is doing good on fuel and no difference in pulling power, would engine tune up help to resolve my problem.

Anything other places to get an inspection done prior to go ahead with the tune up.?

[The Don]

What exactly is a rating sound?

[VVTi]

Well, going by the typical Thel Hinganna logic, if its doing well on fuel, I guess all is ok with the car.... keep driving till you lose 0.001kmpl... and THEN PANIC!

[tinyman]

What exactly is a rating sound?

its only there when I start the car before I take out the leg from brake pedal, once I press the accelerator slightly the sound disappears completely.

I just recorded it last evening and posted here.

Voice 020.mp3

Edited October 2, 2014 by tinyman

[Watchman]

The file seems to be corrupted and I cant here it. But Kudos on taking the effort to record it, which would help people better advise you!

[tinyman]

The file seems to be corrupted and I cant here it. But Kudos on taking the effort to record it, which would help people better advise you!

I re encoded it and tried to post directly, but there seems to be some size restrictions in place in AL which prevents me from uploading 640kb file, so I shared it from Google drive,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4R6P_Y0-_mAM1hsa3d0TS11Rk0/edit?usp=sharing

[Rumesh88]

What's the RPM like when this rattling noise appear? Does it appear only on cold start?

[Watchman]

If you get it when the car is stationary it could be a loose fan belt or a worn out pully bearing.

If you get it only when moving i would check if your wheels are properly attached first.If not that test the suspension linkages etc .

[VVTi]

That sounds like a loose guard panel or it could be a loose brake pad.... check your wheel wells, and ensure that nothing is loose and moving around in the boot space.

[tinyman]

What's the RPM like when this rattling noise appear? Does it appear only on cold start?

Prius doesn't have a RPM meter, I guess its on low RPM. this sound comes only on a cold start, I don't get this sound when driving.

[tinyman]

If you get it when the car is stationary it could be a loose fan belt or a worn out pully bearing.

If you get it only when moving i would check if your wheels are properly attached first.If not that test the suspension linkages etc .

I get this sound when I start the car in the morning or after hours long parking.

That sounds like a loose guard panel or it could be a loose brake pad.... check your wheel wells, and ensure that nothing is loose and moving around in the boot space.

The sound is from the engine bay, the noise is more from engine start til I take out my foot from the brake pedal, completely gone once I slightly press the accelerator. I mentioned this on my last car service at TL, Maharagama. they say it may be a engine miss. they would have inspected the brake pads, right, coz this sound is there even before I did the service.

[Rumesh88]

Prius doesn't have a RPM meter, I guess its on low RPM. this sound comes only on a cold start, I don't get this sound when driving.

You don't really need an RPM meter to judge if it is in the required region or not. If you just listen to the engine noise you can figure out the RPM approximately. For your Prius at cold start RPM should be around 1300 while once it warms up it should come down to 1000 or so. Just listen to the engine idle noise when it is warm and compare it with what you get at the cold start. If the cold start RPM is less then you have a problem with your throttle control. There are few seemingly trivial mechanisms involved at the cold start of a Prius.

[tinyman]

You don't really need an RPM meter to judge if it is in the required region or not. If you just listen to the engine noise you can figure out the RPM approximately. For your Prius at cold start RPM should be around 1300 while once it warms up it should come down to 1000 or so. Just listen to the engine idle noise when it is warm and compare it with what you get at the cold start. If the cold start RPM is less then you have a problem with your throttle control. There are few seemingly trivial mechanisms involved at the cold start of a Prius.

Is it advisable to do a tune up or do I need to go for a full inspection.

[RViji]

Is it your first hybrid?

Prius and other Hybrids are known to make funny sounds here and there,maybe you should not panic too much.

Edited October 7, 2014 by RViji

[tinyman]

Is it your first hybrid?

Prius and other Hybrids are known to make funny sounds here and there,maybe you should not panic too much.

yes it is. I just fixed up an inspection on Friday.

[tinyman]

Got it done at TL Wattala. they did a engine tune up, but the noise was still there for next two days and disappeared.

[japalk]

I too faced the same issue and after tune up it disappeared. Petrol consumption also improved

[tinyman]

Hi, I searched the forum to find out information on the issue i'm encountering now with my car, having not find any discussion, I tried to start a new topic, unfortunately I couldn't find a link to start a new topic, So I'm posting it here, a topic i posted sometime ago on the same car.

about 2 months back, the 2010 Prius that i'm using started to indicate more pulling power and felt like i was driving on power mode (actually i was on eco mode) after few days the check engine mark lit up together with check hybrid battery massage. TL upon diagnosing said that 3 cells are under charged, they said the correct solution is to replace the battery pack in full, alternatively they suggested recharging the weak cells which was much cheaper option. I took the 2nd option and car was doing fine thereafter.

However last night again the check engine indication came up together with check hybrid battery massage. today TL advised to go for battery pack replacement although replacing 3 battery cells would solve the issue on short - medium term. TL & Hybrid motors (HM) gave me following options,

TL

Replace with Brand new battery Pack - - 700k

Replace 3 battery cells - 150k

HM

Replace with Brand new battery Pack - - 900k (1yr warranty)

Replace with Re-manufactured battery pack from Japan - 400-500k (1yr warranty)

Replace with Reconditioned Battery pack from local vendors - 200-300k (No warranty)

Hybrid Motors Lanka said that they are not recommending changing of battery cells.

My car has done only 80,000km,

are there any other places that I should check which does hybrid maintenance.

what would be your advise on the way forward.

[Rumesh88]

Thank you for sharing your experience. Is it a 2010 Prius 3rd Gen?

Provided the other cells are still in their prime, replacement of three cells will work. The other thing is all the cells should be in the same state of charge (SOC) when doing a partial replacement of this nature. BTW aren't TL giving you a warranty?

[maersk]

Check below article as well.

http://m.imgur.com/gallery/j8Bcp

[luckey007]

Well, hope lot of this type of stories start to appear soon..This is just after 5 years and even less after coming to SL these vehicles started to show their colors. Wheres the Cali and clan who jumped on their tails to promote them. This is a horrible situation. Even after putting a battery pack for 900k their guarantee is only 1 year.. No need to mention the hazel you have to face to get claims/replacement even in this period. Can you save that much of money by fuel ? and peace of mind.

Dear friend I am sorry I am not in a position to advice you. But what Rumesh says is worth considering. And refresh those your self is difficult here unless you are a techie. If you do it it is amazing and put the whole story here for us to see.

This is my feeling. In next 10 years we will be able to see lot of Priuses, and other Hybrids with swapped engines and drive trains.

Edited April 28, 2015 by luckey007

[tinyman]

Hi all,

A friend of mine who works at VW Australia strongly advised against replacing battery cells or installing reconditioned batteries. So I checked out the prices of battery pack from Toyota Japan through another friend who is in vehicle trade in Japan.

Apparently the price of battery pack is 300,000 yens, approx Rs.340,000, alternatively only battery modules can be bought for 160,000 yens, approx Rs.175,000. a known logistics company said the total import duties, including PAL & VAT will be 48% of the value.

Meanwhile I took back the vehicle from TL and went home during the long weekend, when I took back the vehicle the error massage has disappeared and hybrid system was functioning normally, (when the error massage was there, the engine used to run continuously). when I was returning back to Colombo on 4th the check engine mark appeared without the hybrid system warning. So I took the car back & scanned, now its giving P0172 - System Too RICH Bank 1 error code. According to my VW friend and Google it is associated with the fuel intake and nothing to do with the hybrid system.

VW friend suspects improper installation of Air filter (which I replaced at TL at the last service one month back), leading to misfiring engine, lower performance as generator to recharge the battery, ultimately leading to hybrid battery issue. He further says a low performing engine can lead to hybrid battery issue but not vise versa.

I do not want to replace the HV battery as recommended and later find something wrong somewhere else to be the actual cause.

I would appreciate your insights into this.

[Rumesh88]

It is unlikely that you get P0172 code due to "improper installation of air filter", unless of course the filter was installed in a manner that allows dust to go through the filter and contaminate the MAF sensor (just cannot visualize what can possibly go wrong with a simple air filter installation). It is more likely that your previous filter replacement was already overdue and the MAF sensor was contaminated anyway. However, MAF is not the only reason for this error code. Another thing is that if your engine had a misfire you could have noticed it anyway (unless you tend to run on EV mode all the time like many hybrid owners do!).

BTW didn't your VW friend tell you the logic behind his advice against replacing individual cells? I'm really interested to know.