Aftermath of EGR Cooler Cleaning Project

Maybe a recording would make more sense.

You said in a post above

“Only idling seems to be the issue. Car just idle while in the neutral/park mode. It’s shaky, noisy and dies.”

I don’t get what you are saying. Are you saying the problem is only at idle and the engine does not turn off like normal, eg it does not revert to ev mode?

Does it misfire at idle? Does it make a severe metal to metal sound like something is broken?

The engine dies? Does this mean you have to restart it?

 

Also…. Reading your old posts from last year you had a 2010 Prius with a blown head gasket and water in the oil. You changed the head gasket but it did not go well. You then bought an Avalon hybrid.

So is the current problem on the same 2010 Prius? Are you buying Prii and fixing them for resale?

At the beginning of this thread you said the current car was running great until you did an egr clean.*

You used strong solvents on the intake with the maf sensor installed and were waiting on an eBay maf. I would assume that maf is an aftermarket unit which are almost never good.

Now some vacuum leaks were found on the intake and the egr plus you posted pictures of a poorly fitting throttle body with perhaps something jammed between. That sure looks bad.

Confused…

*See Mendel’s sideways signature for more egr information

 

Two of your codes (P0123/P2135) relate to the ECM seeing bad information from the TB. I don't think you would get those codes because of a vacuum leak, as they are triggered by electric signals. Although I have never heard of a TB being damaged by WD40, I have also never heard of anyone cleaning it with WD40 so can't say what the correlation might be.

You can't go by the value given by the ECM through a scan tool as the means to test a TB, as the issue is a bad signal from the TB to begin with. You need to test the voltage output to/from the TB connector itself.

A bad TB signal COULD cause the hunting, because the ECM is expecting certain parameters (rpm, air intake, etc.) based on where it 'thinks' the throttle butterfly is positioned. When it doesn't see the right correlation between the throttle (because of bad/incorrect signal) and how the engine is running, it tries to 'find' the right parameters using various other variables (ignition, fuel, adjusting throttle, etc.). This can cause the "hunting" action.

It's a similar problem with older cars that have bad idle air control valves that go bad.

That being said, I would PERSONALLY never trust a MAF from Ebay unless it was from an authorized dealer (some do vend on Ebay). There are a LOT of counterfeit parts - especially electronic - being hawked on Ebay and Amazon.

 

I should also state that I am not completely familiar with the TB on a Prius, but some TBs are VERY sensitive to having the butterfly/plate being moved manually (especially when disconnected from the circuit) like what some might do while cleaning.

 

I’ve done that (with our 3rd Gen Prius) , no ill effects.