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Prius V Engine Rattle + Coolant loss

Discussion in 'Prius v Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Adam Deane, Oct 22, 2019.

  1. Adam Deane

    Adam Deane New Member

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    I have a 2012 Toyota Prius V that I would like to ask the forum a couple of questions.

    I’ve only ever taken the car to be serviced/repaired at Toyota dealerships. As the car has done far more kms than would be typical for its age (280,000) I’m starting to experience performance issues with it.

    The car has been experiencing engine rattle on cold start up, once the ICE kicks in. This usually goes away after a few seconds then the car drives normally. At the start, it only happened after the car had been sitting cold for sometime, but just over the last week it has been doing it when its been taking off at the lights for example.

    Last weekend I noticed a small amount of white smoke when I was driving the car in the morning.
    I put injector cleaner through the fuel tank and filled using 98 Octane - this did make a big improvement to the car.

    I’ve also noticed a recent loss of engine coolant. Toyota believe that the engine rattle is due to blocked or degraded fuel injectors and they will need to be either cleaned or replaced.

    They were not able to diagnose what was causing the loss of coolant, apparently the cooling system behaved normal under a pressure test.

    I’m little concerned that the rattle, loss of coolant and white smoke is actually pointing towards a failing head gasket. I’ve been doing some research online and there is a fair bit of information on common errors in the Prius V.

    I’m asking is this something I should be trusting Toyota to properly diagnose and rectify, or should I be getting a second opinion on this?
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    it sounds to me like the answer is no.

    welcome!
    you likely have the clogged egr circuit problem that many experience around 100,000 miles or later.

    it sounds like this has caused the head gasket to start to fail, which will call for a new one, or replacement engine or car.
    toyota has not published anything that i am aware of regarding this problem, and the dealers are ignorant of it.

    but there are tons of threads here detailing the problem and solutions.
     
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
  3. Air_Boss

    Air_Boss Senior Member

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    Cool/cold morning starts often evidence water vapor, a combustion by product.

    Coolant level is temperature dependent. How are you measuring 'loss of coolant'?

    Brief rattling/chattering on startup is widely reported, and could be residual fuel in the intake plenum. That could point to injectors, or to timing.
     
  4. Adam Deane

    Adam Deane New Member

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    I checked my levels 2 weeks ago and they were fine. Then when my wife was driving the car the other day she asked me what the little thermostat warning light meant - overflow bottle was completely empty!
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    uh-oh :cautious:
     
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  6. mjoo

    mjoo Senior Member

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    There was another in the gen3 forum that had coolant blow past the pressure relief valve in the reservoir cap. It turned out to be a bad thermostat boiling the coolant and not a headgasket. Where did the coolant go? Out the exhaust or out the reservoir?

    I'd refill the reservoir, run the engine in maintenance mode and observe where the coolant is going

    Pixel XL ?
     
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  7. High brid

    High brid New Member

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    Totally empty coolant reservoir and Toyota couldn’t tell you why? Wow they sound useless to me. It’s impossible to diagnose from here but it sounds like the head gasket has blown leaking coolant into 1 or more cylinders causing engine rattle and the white smoke is probably water vapour. As the car sits over night more water is able to accumulate in the cylinders which is why it’s worse in the morning.
    Have you ever had the water pump replaced?
    I just did mine and found the plastic on the impeller magnet had cracked and swollen causing the impeller to intermittently stop spinning. I saw the temp light flicker once and the engine hesitated and rattled once then the next day i had the engine light on dash with water pump codes. There is little warning before you overheat a prius. I got lucky 74B97A38-C637-46C1-9D1D-2327A01E6044.jpeg 0AF59C13-4F50-429E-AB2A-0DF5531FC6A9.jpeg
     
  8. Adam Deane

    Adam Deane New Member

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    Well I took the Prius to my local non-Toyota mechanic for a 2nd opinion. They did a test on the cooling system and confirmed there is combustion fumes in the coolant, so it's the head/ head gasket for sure. Unfortunately they want $3300 to replace the entire cylinder head - claiming their people can't/won't machine the head down just to replace the gasket. So I'm stumped. I don't have that kind of money and even if I did I wouldn't be throwing it at a car with a resale value of under $10K with 280,000 km on the odometer. Not sure what my options are :(
     
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  9. High brid

    High brid New Member

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    If you are going to throw the car away then you have nothing to loose. There is a product called chemiweld. The instructions need to be followed exactly as directed. This product can fix a blown or even cracked head for up to 5 years. If your not confident with cars ring around and find a mechanic that is familiar with the product. It would be preferable to find someone who has had success in the past with this product. I have used it in cars that were not worth repairing and it has lasted for years. Just make sure you fix the original cause the overheating like water pump or thermostat.
    Good luck mate
     
  10. Fierofly

    Fierofly Member

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    I recently purchased a 2012 V that was burning coolant, engine ran sometimes and sometimes it came to a dead stall upon start up. Had coolant in oil and white smoke. I removed head and found about 1/4 of coolant and a spotless clean combustion chamber on #1 cylinder and a bad head gasket. Now here's the question, how many people would just do necessary maintenance to replace head gasket and be on their way? Luckily, I decided to look at rods and sure enough, #1 was bent. So keep this in mind, I think this is a 13to1 compression motor, not much room for error
     
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    fortunately, the labor involved in replacing the gasket opuses many to just skip that option and get a low mile salvage