Cylinder misfire. Help!

Mark, as you're probably finding out, there is indeed a rash of Gen 3 head gasket failures getting reported around here in addition to those chasing unsolvable misfires. It's becoming quite cringe worthy, actually. I'd guess your dealer wasn't being completely honest with the "2 cars in the entire country" line! Many of these failures are reported south of 200k miles, too. That's not acceptable Toyota engine failure mileage, IMO, especially since even the 2010's are still pretty young. Sorry to hear of your debacle and thanks for reporting here. Congrats on the Gen 4.

 

Modern electronics challenged?.... I'm pathetic and have no plans of changing. Still gonna try and get a few video clips of running the water pump when I change mine out preemptively. Like you say, we'll see!

 

Hopefully you'll get it.

If not, I will coordinate with @NutzAboutBolts and try for it in a couple of years when I hit 200 k miles.

 

I'm sure if you do a video, @Tideland Prius would help you out.

Some say he is very responsive and sets the bar high

 

See that. A response in a minute.

I don't know what @Prodigyplace is talking about.

Maybe he just speeds to mention your name (and not in vain).

 

I'll get it, but will likely have to hire qualified help in the form of wife and/or daughters. And I will absolutely have borrow the video device from said help. Me and my 2006, 1G Samsung phone don't make movies, although I probably shouldn't speak for the phone...

 

Good luck with DW's or the daughters assistance.

My wife would do this if asked:

 

Have you and OP ruled out the water pump? There's a theory that water pumps are causing the bad head gaskets because they don't set a check engine light until it's too late. It would be nice to prove/disprove this on PriusChat...

 

Since I'm the only one I've seen theorize this, I'll say I too would like to see it proven/disproven, but mostly proven. Perhaps AV can test his sister's when they go to pull the bad engine?.. Do you have mini-VCI, Aaron? I've asked a few of the recent failure reporters to test theirs but none has taken me up on it. I understand not everyone works on their own cars but it would really be great to get some data here. I'm struggling to believe these things are just popping at 6 or 7 years and 180k miles because they're old and tired. With no belt/bearing squeal or coolant getting flung around under the hood as a tip-off, a failed electric water pump just seems like a stealthy path to these blown head gaskets. If we start getting confirmation that water pumps are still operational, I'm gonna be really disappointed.

 

Makes me want to go do a preventive water pump replacement on my 2010

 

I have owned 3rd gen prius brand new Uber driven reliable car tho never gave me any problem until at 171k I started my car in the morning with loud knocking sound, then I drove around engine check light came on with p0302. Got it checked from auto zone and told me I needed new spark plugs i did that too but didn't help but engine check light was gone car back to normal drove around everything was normal then I checked my oil dipstick there was mixture of coolant then I checked the coolant level I noticed it was low, then I let the car cool down for couple hours then turn it back on, I noticed large amount of dirty white smoke and loud knocking sound as well as engine check light, then I went to professional mechanic he was specialize for hybrid cars especially Toyota, he told me it's 100% head gas kit. He told me he would put new head gas kit for 1500, plus he was giving me 60k miles warranty to, but he said car wouldn't be ready for week, he also told me if I get used engine it will be 3000 but will be ready in a day, so I went for second option got used engine installed with 20k mikes on it for 3000 plus he serviced my transmission, I have heard from lot of taxi drivers that gen 3 prius only last till 200k or less you'd be lucky to get more milage out of it, but tranny and battery still working good new issue there yet and no any other issues with the car. I don't think it's that bad as long as you keep your car maintain and in good condition you can still get some value out of it, so yeah this was my experience with 3rd gen prius, like I said it was brand new
MPG still between 40-45 in city and 45-50 on Highway bcz in Seattle lots of hills, plus my car was mostly driven in the city, now I'm trying to keep it on the freeway hopefully this engine last me longer.
Thanks hopefully my info will help you out

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Oh and I cleaned up intake manifold EGR pipe and new pcv valve my knocking sound didn't go away

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That means head gas kit

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Mines only at 100k and so far no issues, but for future reference what's the procedure for testing the water pump? Or is it just checking engine codes?

 

There's a function in Techstream for running the pump. Come to think of it, when I tried to run mine while doing coolant change it wasn't able to connect. Still pretty sure that was a software/ECU issue but this thread has be worried if it can fail without any codes. It's an expensive part to preemptively replace.