Engine clatter (fuel knocking)

[BAllanJ]

Speaking of the hood support rod.... who in hell designed that thing? I tend to keep my cars a long time.... I still own a 1988 Corolla, for example... and the clip that holds the support rod never lasts the life of a car. No biggie, just a bit of rattle. But this one is attached to the hood, not the body. When that little clip breaks next year or the next, closing the hood is going to be a pain in the ass. What genius decided to put it on upside down like that? Some fancy pants engineer who never drives a car past its first set of tires?

[Patrick Wong]

Originally Posted by edthefox5

... Do you mean pinging? Pinging is very bad. Your car like my 07 has a detonation sensor on the motor that will sense that combustion issue and pull timing to prevent that. You will never hear this car ping. I would imigine if your car is pinging so bad its out of range of the sensor it would throw a check engine code. Any codes?

I've noticed that both my 2001 and 2004 had slight ping when going uphill, especially in the summer when using California-formulated gas.

However, when driving the 2004 in high altitude areas in the Mountain West where 85 octane fuel is sold (i.e., Utah, Colorado), I've used that octane and have heard absolutely zero ping.

Now that the 2004 is in Arizona, I don't hear ping. I suppose the gas there is better (compared to CA), not to mention cheaper.

[statultra]

when was the oil last changed?

is it too high or too low?

my 2001 Prius makes a knocking noise from oil not being changed in time, it sludges up and the oil takes a while to get to the top end.

[fuzzy1]

Originally Posted by BAllanJ

Speaking of the hood support rod.... who in hell designed that thing? I tend to keep my cars a long time.... I still own a 1988 Corolla, for example... and the clip that holds the support rod never lasts the life of a car. ...

None of those clips have ever broken in a car in my household, despite car ages of 12, 13, 20, and 23 years.

But we've never had a Toyota before either.
[... ducks away fast ...]

[jyoungprius]

Per the advice of "morpheux", I added a bottle of "Heet" to the fuel tank. Almost right away the pinging noise has almost been eliminated, but now I am concerned that I may have too much alcohol concentration as I had only half a tank at the time of dumping in the "Heet". I may head straight to a gas station to fill up. As I said, I never had this problem in the 84,000 miles I put on the '05 Prius.

[richard schumacher]

What fray wrote. If it's pinging see a dealer.

What's the oil level right now?

[djasonw]

I have a simple question for the OP. What made you trade an 05 for an 09? You really didn't have too many miles on your 05 which is why I'm curious. I have to agree with you on the '10 interior. I do like the instrumentation, however the center console is a big waste of space. I prefer the open air feeling of my '04. I also love the little gear shift joy stick. I think the main reason for the change was merely to make the car appear more mainstream. It seems to be working.

[jyoungprius]

Originally Posted by richard schumacher

What fray wrote. If it's pinging see a dealer.

What's the oil level right now?

Did take it to dealers service. They "could not duplicate problem". Oil level is actually above full.

[jyoungprius]

Originally Posted by djasonw

I have a simple question for the OP. What made you trade an 05 for an 09? You really didn't have too many miles on your 05 which is why I'm curious. I have to agree with you on the '10 interior. I do like the instrumentation, however the center console is a big waste of space. I prefer the open air feeling of my '04. I also love the little gear shift joy stick. I think the main reason for the change was merely to make the car appear more mainstream. It seems to be working.

Reasons for trading for new '09 vs. new '10:
1. Liked backup camera on '09...refuse to be forced to pay too much for navigation system to get built in backup camera.
2. Had access to all 4 centrally located cup holders from drivers seat in '09...On '10 the 2 back seat cup holders are now out of reach for front seat occupants and you have to slide the console lid open to get to one of the front cup holders.
3. Front door pockets in '09 were long enough to hold a lot. '10 front door pockets have been shrunk down to merely a bottle holder.
4. '09 Multifunction Display was easy to read with a multitude of large high resolution graphics. '10 MFD is smaller low resolution graphics placed farther away therefore harder to read.
5. Gear shift knob was always out of the way and never accidentally hit on the '09. On the '10 you actually have to reach across the large gear shift knob to reach functional buttons (driving modes) therefore the gearshift knob may be hit quite often.

Bottom line.... These are just some of the reasons you may have noticed a lot of first time '10 Prius owners now registering here on PriusChat and hardly any new '09 registrants. Toyota has deliberately gone to modern "cockpit" styling which is all about flashiness and not practicality. This has resulted in a lot of 1st and 2nd generation Prius owners going to the Toyota showrooms, sitting in the drivers seat of the much anticipated 3rd generation Prius, looking at what has happened to their very practical interior and suddenly getting, like me, very nauseated.

[richard schumacher]

Originally Posted by jyoungprius

Did take it to dealers service. They "could not duplicate problem". Oil level is actually above full.

I gather that this has been going on for more than one tank of gas?

Work to eliminate the possibility that you're hearing some loose bit rattling under the hood or inside the cabin. These can be devilishly deceptive.

Over filling the oil is probably not related, but over time it can help foul the throttle plate and cause its own problems. Insist that whoever changes the oil does not overfill it. An easy method is to start with three quarts even (in fact more than that is usually not necessary). Check the level yourself before driving away.