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Any ideas please

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by Esther87416, Feb 14, 2024.

  1. Esther87416

    Esther87416 New Member

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    Hello,

    we bought a used 2005 Prius that had hit a deer. The people we bought it from said that before they hit the deer it would make this noise upon starting like the car was going to die and even while driving but once you started driving the noise would go away. Accelerating was not great either as the car acted like it just couldn’t get to speed quickly. We researched online and decided to change the fuel injectors. After doing this the car went 100 miles and then while driving the triangle and vsc light came on. We decided to finish our trip and came back home. About 200 miles. Now besides the triangle and vsc the car seemed okay. It was actually getting 43mpg from when we bought it which was 35mpg. So we were thinking the fuel injector replacement helped it also stopped making the noise on starting and I could accelerate without issue. The next day we went to drive go 2 minutes from the house and the car started smoking out of tailpipe white heavy smoke that smelled like gas maybe? The car wouldn’t go past 24 it barely did that we got over and ended up towing it home. My husband knows how to fix cars but we are more Honda people then Toyota and hybrids ???? Anyway we need ideas!!! It seems a lot of people are saying blown head gasket but the symptoms aren’t necessarily lining up with that? He even put the old injectors back on to see but it didn’t help! The fuel is blinking but it had 3 bars of gas left so it shouldn’t be out of gas? The car is freaking out and I love this car that I’ve owned less than a week please help!
     
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    You're going to need a capable scanner so you can start reading some codes which you have stored in memory in your car's system like the Honda insight and what have you it has lots of computers and lots of electronics and lots of software to tell you what's kind of going on You will need that data just like you would in the Honda for this car that'll be a big start to help your husband if he's not been scanning his Hondas I guess y'all just have regular gas civics with you know all the parts on them or something anyway this is a little different you'll need to get it scanned and probably stop changing fuel injectors those are things that are kind of really rare on these cars until you're up above 300,000 something like that this engine is not known for things like that so I'm pretty sure he's barking up the wrong tree The codes are really help. It's probably actually something pretty simple this engine's not known for blown head gaskets but it won't take a lot of abuse Make sure the car has water in it there's a belt around the water pump there really is one if you don't see one there's a problem etc.
     
  3. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    Without actually seeing the car, the only thing I can tell you for certain is the fuel gauge will blink with one dot any time 12v power is lost and then restored. The fuel indication will 'recalibrate' itself eventually and stop blinking. Could be 5 minutes or 5 hours. Make sure all your 12v connections are good at the battery and the (-) cable fastener at the body is tight. Another indication of a bad 12v connection is that you'll lose your radio presets and the driver window auto up/down feature will stop working.
    You definitely want to make sure the fuel tank is NOT actually low, because you'll make your life a lot more difficult by running it out of fuel.
    If it's showing more than one dot while blinking, then you have another issue going on that it's trying to tell you about (like a blink code).

    As for the "white smoke"......heavy white 'smoke' is typically indicative of coolant being drawn into the engine cylinders. Whether that be a failed head gasket or a mechanical failure of the engine itself, would need to be determined. Very light white smoke at idle is typically condensation inside the exhaust just burning off. An engine running very rich (like a failed open injector) typically emits dark gray or black exhaust.
     
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    How many miles on her?
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    Your car has a rubber bladder inside the fuel tank, and sometimes they’re not accurate
     
  6. ColoradoCrow

    ColoradoCrow Active Member

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    A gen 2 with a blown head gasket is rare but possible. If your husband is handy he could remove and clean the throttle body. You can keep the hoses connected and just move it to the side. Gently clean out the TB or throttle body and maybe remove the intake manifold and clean that. Id check the air filter to make sure it is clean. Did you replace the spark plugs when you did the fuel injectors? What about the PCV Valve? A new one is $8 and well worth a replacement if you don't know the last time it was changed. A tank of 91 Octane three times a year is also helpful. IMHO