Prius Condition After 2 Weeks Vacation

[Tideland Prius]

Well this was the first time I've ever left the Prius idle for more than a day. The SKS was disabled on the front doors but the hatch worked so I didn't have to use the FOB to unlock for the first time. Also, the 12V battery appear to be in good shape (didn't use a volt meter) as the lights were bright. The HV battery didn't lose a bar either. Temps varied from -20°C to -10°C.


However, one interesting thing to note was when I fired up the car. The engine sounded fine but the interior of the car shook. My driver's seat was vibrating very noticeably and it almost sounded like a diesel engine. I got out of the car and it sounded normal from the outside. Switching it to neutral stopped the vibration and I could hear the normal engine noises. Shift back to P or D and the vibrations returned.


I took it inside the heated parkade for 5 or so mins hoping it would help warm things up (maybe something along the exhaust pipe was frozen??). Even after a 5 min drive, the vibrations continued (more noticeable at 14-22km/h where it sounded really really bad and I was half-expecting something to fall off the car).


The odd thing was once I got to the supermarket and let the car sit for about 5-10 mins (just went in to grab a 2 items), the car was operating normally when I restarted it.



I have no idea what caused the really harsh sound and vibrations in the cabin.

Any ideas?

[GrumpyCabbie]

Originally Posted by Tideland Prius

Well this was the first time I've ever left the Prius idle for more than a day. The SKS was disabled on the front doors but the hatch worked so I didn't have to use the FOB to unlock for the first time. Also, the 12V battery appear to be in good shape (didn't use a volt meter) as the lights were bright. The HV battery didn't lose a bar either. Temps varied from -20°C to -10°C.


However, one interesting thing to note was when I fired up the car. The engine sounded fine but the interior of the car shook. My driver's seat was vibrating very noticeably and it almost sounded like a diesel engine. I got out of the car and it sounded normal from the outside. Switching it to neutral stopped the vibration and I could hear the normal engine noises. Shift back to P or D and the vibrations returned.


I took it inside the heated parkade for 5 or so mins hoping it would help warm things up (maybe something along the exhaust pipe was frozen??). Even after a 5 min drive, the vibrations continued (more noticeable at 14-22km/h where it sounded really really bad and I was half-expecting something to fall off the car).


The odd thing was once I got to the supermarket and let the car sit for about 5-10 mins (just went in to grab a 2 items), the car was operating normally when I restarted it.



I have no idea what caused the really harsh sound and vibrations in the cabin.

Any ideas?

Sounds like you've just experienced the knocking/vibration on start up. There are quite a few posts about it under different names/descriptions. It's had to describe and I've had it happen to me once too. It seems to occur when the vehicle has been sat for a while and in cold weather. Do a search for knock on start up etc. The jury is out on whether it causes any damage

[paprius4030]

Could the cold have really cold soaked the engine mounts so that they are very stiff and makes the vibration of the ICE more noticably, just a wild guess.....

[Sandy]

Your smart cars soul is in it that would explain the diesel sound

[Tideland Prius]

Originally Posted by GrumpyCabbie

Sounds like you've just experienced the knocking/vibration on start up. There are quite a few posts about it under different names/descriptions. It's had to describe and I've had it happen to me once too. It seems to occur when the vehicle has been sat for a while and in cold weather. Do a search for knock on start up etc. The jury is out on whether it causes any damage

Hmm... but the engine sounded fine (both inside and outside). I'll go check it out cause it was vibrating quite badly. Thanks!

Originally Posted by paprius4030

Could the cold have really cold soaked the engine mounts so that they are very stiff and makes the vibration of the ICE more noticably, just a wild guess.....

But it stopped vibrating when I shifted into N. If it was the engine mounts, would it make a difference what gear I'm in?

Originally Posted by Sandy

Your smart cars soul is in it that would explain the diesel sound

lol. But I had a gasser like yours, not a diesel.

[mlibanio]

I find I get that if snow builds up between the exhaust and underbody of my Prius, especially if I leave it for a few days. I drive it and it gets worse and worse. Then I stop, leave it for a couple of minutes or hours depending where I am, then all of a sudden, its gone! Son of a gun! The heat must defrost it while the car is stationary. While the car is moving, the heat dissipates too quickly to defrost because of the moving air. Used to happen to my Pontiac Firefly quite often. Never happened to my 2002 Chrysler Neon though. I hope that is all it is.

Remember with that Exhaust Heat Recovery System the 2010's have, all that extra plumbing must make the collection of snow and ice underneath even worse. That would be my guess.

[Tideland Prius]

So you're thinking snow blew under the car and collected underneath? I didn't check to see if anything was caught underneath the car.

[mlibanio]

Yeah, it definitely sounds like it. No pun intended. The fact that there is no noise on the outside of the car is precisely what I experienced, and was mystified. I thought my poor Pontiac Firefly was dying. Turns out that is all it was.

By the time I bought my 2002, I was used to that happening, so I just checked underneath and there it was. A bunch of snow and ice jammed and frozen underneath. You will find this will also happen if you are driving through very deep snow, and then let the car sit in the deep snow while its cooling down. So the prodcedure should be as follows: Start the car. Just continue driving for about 15-20 minutes, turn up the radio. Stop into Tim Hortons for about 15-20 minutes and buy a nice XL coffee. Return to Prius. Start up Prius. Then continue driving, it will be gone, I am certain of it! : )

[Tideland Prius]

Well it hasn't happened since but I'll keep that in mind! Thanks!

[Tore]

Originally Posted by Tideland Prius

Well it hasn't happened since but I'll keep that in mind! Thanks!

Hi Tideland Prius.
I posted this story yesterday in another thread....similar sensation I believe...
and..I have no snow under my car...
"The very same phenomenon happened to me on sunday jan 10th, after returning from a holiday trip to Tenerife. My car was parked in a parkinghouse at the airport close to Oslo, but ambient temp. had been very cold during my 10 days absence. Between minus 15 and 20 centigrades (+ 5 to -4 F ) and same temp. when I returned. Before parking, I had been driving approx. 50 km in normal higway speed, and engine temp was between 70-80 degrees (C) when I parked. The hybrid system started normally but the ICE kicked very quickly in, and the VERY strong noise and vibration started. I felt as if my car would fall apart and all panels inside the cabin vibrated loudly.
I was so confused by this that I unfortunately didn`t think of using my video camera, but engine noise sounded much like the Prius 2010 in the You Tube video. But the vibration inside cabin was awful!! I started to drive home, and noise was gone when pushing the acc. pedal, but returned when releasing the pedal and ICE was back to low RPM ( 1200-1400 ) according to SG II . This continued for about 10-15 minutes when driving and then slowly decreased.
I have not experienced this during the last three days, but my car is parked in a garage, and I use it every day for work commuting.
Anyway, I have been speaking to a friend of mine who is working as a technician / instructor at Toyota Distributor headoffice in Norway close to Oslo, and he admitted that they some days before did a video of a similar problem when visiting a dealership. Also during this trip it was very cold in the dealership area ( -15 to -20 C)
They now would investigate further and send this video to Toyota in Japan, hoping for some feedback in due time.
However, based upon the many similar cases only in this forum, I believe this should be a priority issue for Toyote in Japan. Maybe some ECU software upgrade ??""