Horrible racked noise at start up

Perhaps a trusted automotive mechanic could do this for you.

 

Yeah, get them to watch the videos, get them the Repair Manual info, torque values etcetera.

 

@Mendel Leisk somebody mentioned and egr recall or tsb, are you familiar? not sure if it was for 2010.

also, is the oil catch can something practical to ask a dealer or private mechanic to do?

 

how many years/miles do you hope to keep it? btw, make sure you can play that sound for whoever you take it to.

 

in that case, i would start researching private hybrid shops. i don't know any, but maybe yelp or such has a listing.

btw, no need to panic, mendel, and many other members have a lot more miles on their 2010's with no serious issues.

 

Check the EGR pipe yurself, anybody can manage that. Then you'll have some idea..., and maybe get the DIY bug.

 

Thanks for posting the video. Here are some pics from members here on priuschat. The oil That is sitting inside the intake plenum is being sucked in at startup causing this knock. The pics show a combination of oil/water/fuel that originates from the crankcase>pcv>intake manifold>combustion chamber=knock. In the occ thread you will see it has eliminated the knock, this knock will lead to a blown head gasket. The dealer has no fix and the mechanics are useless. They only replace parts when a cel pops up. The knock will throw a misfire code and the dealer will give you the run around with spark plugs, ignition coils etc, while charging you the big bucks. Show them your video and they ????? uhhh that's weird, must be bad gas. Your knock is not new, it has affected almost all of us and is more apparent in the winter with cold start. If you take your air box off and open up your throttle body and see the oil/water/fuel in there, take the steps to at least swab it out with a rag and you will see the knock go away. The oil catch can traps the contaminant with a 10sec dump without having to remove all these parts to get to the throttle body.

 

I have 172 k miles on our 2010 Prius II and it is running strong.

I have had the startup knock once a few years back. Trapping the contamination before it gets into the intake and through the engine is key.

I’ve done many preventative maintenance items to keep our Prius running well and the maintenance videos in the Gen3 maintenance section help those that view them do the same.

Maybe @bisco will reveal his down the road mechanic he uses since you’re in the same geographic area .

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

As others have said, the oil catch can is the right direction to go to prevent the startup noise. Maybe buy an OCC online ($35-40 for the ones most of us have bought) and have a local garage install it if you are not mechanically inclined.

On the other hand, at only 68K miles, save your money and don't worry about the EGR system yet. The EGR system is not to blame for this particular issue. It does get clogged up eventually, but without symptoms, I wouldn't touch it until you hit 100K miles minimum. At that point, DIYers might go in and do a thorough cleaning of the EGR valve, EGR cooler, EGR pipe, and intake manifold EGR passageways. But if you aren't able to DIY, I'd recommend waiting until the first related check engine light or symptoms (hesistation, misfires, P401 code). Those EGR parts are all cleanable, but like Mendel Leisk says, the dealer would be replacing all those expensive parts because it's time intensive to clean. A local mechanic's time would also cost a lot. A good alternative would be Priuschat member fix-it gatherings, like Raytheeagle's in CA. But I'm not aware of any in MA. For reference, my Prius didn't have problems related to the EGR until 158K miles, so yours is a baby.

 

Another option for the EGR cooler might be to borrow somebody’s spare one to install. They may charge to clean and keep your dirty one but the cost would be less. I believe @Raytheeagle has one but I do not know what shipping would cost.

 

I know of one spare in the state of MA and one in Upstate NY.

I know @Bay Stater plans on doing a swap sometime in the spring, but once he’s done that cooler might be available if you talk very nice to him.

Especially given the state of the spare cooler in as received condition. But he’s now one of our cleaning experts .

At least an East Coast option ,

 

Thanks, I forgot about them.

 

No worries .

I pride myself on remembering things, but am kept in check by the boss.

But she allows me to help here.

 

I am sure you remember better than I but I am likely older, so more mental wear & tear.

 

36 but 2 kids take a toll on short term memory which leads to long term memory gaps.

 

Almost reverse the numbers. 62 here. 2 guys. Youngest is off and married,. Oldest is here enjoying his Prius v and dog breeding.

 

The main obstacle with EGR is not the cleaning, it's getting to it, extricating it, getting it all back together. Cleaning it is not trivial either, but just one of the instruments, in the symphony of frustration that is Toyota's EGR implementation.

As others have said, it might be a bit early; EGR clogging might be playing a role (in the knocking), might not be the principal player.

It's certainly not crazy early to clean it though: I did mine at 72K kilometres, now that's erm...

One thing puzzling: it'd be good to suss out just what exactly is going on with the knocking. @Erin Riel has an excellent video; any way to show this to a Toyota engineer? Barring that, to any competent mechanical engineer?