2013 Toyota Prius C engine rattle/other noises EGR inspected

Hello all, my wife's 2013 Prius C has had the engine rattle and other noises for quite a while and also the "pull over safely right now hybrid battery" warning P0A80 which I have been resetting every so often and it's fine for a while. A few days ago she was stuck at a Target with a new warning"traction battery protection mode" long story short I have it home and in the driveway. As I have researched the engine rattle many times, it seems to point to the EGR valve,Cooler and possible intake manifold being gummed up which I have put off investigating until today. The car has about 175,000 miles on it and I was expecting all three of those to be completely plugged up with carbon build up but the weird thing is they are not plugged up at all. I can see straight through the cooler and see pretty much no build up at all. the EGR valve seems pretty much the same, almost no carbon build up to speak of and I can't see very well into the manifold even with my borascope but it appears ok there too. My question I guess is would all of that indicate a completely stuck/frozen erg valve motor? If so, this car has been acting up for at least a couple years. Luckily it died less than 5 miles away from the house and not on a trip somewhere but now I have to fix it. I was expecting to clean the parts out with brake fluid but honestly they don't look bad at all. Could the EGR have failed to work all together and the car just kept running. Could the whole engine problem be just needing a new EGR valve?It ran fine most of the time, rattle when idling or sound like it stopped running sometimes for a few seconds or rev up RPM's by itself for no reason.The Hybrid battery thing is a different issue I was just mentioning it in my post. I took pics of the Valve and cooler I can try to upload them .Anyone have any ideas on the EGR thing?

 

Hi bisco, Thanks for the reply. I didn't remove the manifold. I just stuck my borascope in the main hole that the aluminum pipe bolted to. I am hesitant to remove the manifold honestly unless at gunpoint. I'm not as confident at this stuff as I once was. It took me quite a bit just to get the cooler,egr and hoses etc apart. I do have the cooler apart from the EGR itself and it is baffling how clean it all is. I expected a packed in pile of carbon at the business end of the EGR valve and the fins in the cooler look honestly pretty much like a brand new radiator looks. aside from not being silver, it is not clogged at all I can see right through the whole thing. I don't have techstream but the trouble code with my odbII device has given the P0A80 code multiple times but no other codes.

 

I'm looking at the forums now to see how or where to download tech stream. I have been away from the forums for quite a while. The Prius C has been an amazing vehicle. I have nothing but great things to say about it. We have not had to put much into it over the 10 yr span really and luckily I have been able to handle most of it myself. I am on an Apple macbook right now but I have access to a windows pc if it is needed for tech stream. Also can Tech Stream be ran with all the EGR stuff unhooked? I had reset the codes after she got stuck at Target so there may very well be none in there right now anyway. I had a buddy that was an auto mechanic and had one of those thousands of dollars machines to hook up to the car for codes etc...but he's in North Carolina now lol. Thanks for the replies