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Car Turns on - Engine won't engage

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by johnpriusowner, Jul 2, 2024 at 8:15 AM.

  1. johnpriusowner

    johnpriusowner Junior Member

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    I have an 07 Prius with 140,000 miles on it. I was driving through heavy rain on a 12 hour drive when rattling/misfires/knocking occurred and I had a loss of power P3190. I've had coils go bad on plenty of cars and can always notice the hesitation on idle when they are failing and there was slight hesitation on idle with this prius for a while. However this would be the first time a coil going bad on me would cause such an awful sound and leave me stranded. Which ultimately makes me think it could be something more serious. Normally I would check the codes and start there but a loss of power code is so ambiguous and I would like to have some more info before I start throwing parts at this car. Especially seeing as it sounded like a blown engine with the knocking and rattling.

    Anyways currently the car will not throw any codes except hybrid battery ambiguous codes, but it's pretty clear that the car refuses to engage the engine. I'm assuming it recognizes an issue with the engine then refuses to engage it. This is because right when the engine should kick on theres a thud and it stays on hybrid battery power. Which has also led to the hybrid battery being completely drained because the engine can't kick on to charge it. I also assume that's the reason for the hybrid battery codes. I feel I should mention I have had batteries fail on a couple other Priuses and the engine would still always be able to kick on and put me in limp home mode. That coupled with the way the engine sounded and the battery codes coming once the battery started to drain from not being charged is the reason I'm fairly confident it's not the battery. However, battery codes are all that I will get now even though the engine should be throwing codes. And just in case some are wondering I'm not using a basic obd 2. I do have a MaxiDIAG Elite MD802 which reads a lot of PIDS. However it's not picking anything up on the engine right now. No misfires or anything as would be expected with coils/spark plugs going bad and a loss of power. Trying to see if I can get a copy of Techstream right now though to see if that can read more.

    My background. I'm fairly competent and have replaced engines, transmissions, hybrid batteries, head gaskets, etc... including rebuilding some. I currently try not to make a habit of this though but I am fairly tooled up.

    That's the background but my questions are:
    -Does a simple misfire sound like the engine is destroyed?
    -If the prius detects an issue with the engine and refuses to kick it on, is it normal for no engine related codes to show? The utter lack of codes baffles me. trying to get my hands on Techstream currently.
    -Anyone have a similar issue? Engine sound like its blown with just a p3190, then the engine refusing to engage and no codes thrown? Could it be as simple as new coils and spark plugs needed?

    I probably should have checked the oil, which is my next task. And I haven't tried turning the engine over manually yet either to check if things are internally bent. I will update once done.
     
    #1 johnpriusowner, Jul 2, 2024 at 8:15 AM
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2024 at 8:30 AM
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    But everything's turning over normally If it wasn't turning over normally it would probably sound like not very well and all of that. Definitely turning the motor around by hand a couple of turns with your half inch drive ratchet or something will give you an idea of the feelI can't imagine a 1NZ. With this kind of goings on unless it's been quite abused or 400,000 plus miles or something You would think there would be codes but if the engine won't start or is poor running then in the manual you've got like I don't know man 26 pages of reading probably and this set up the reciprocating mass is always turning when the car is in gear no matter what so it's just activated by electronics turns on the coil so on turns them off when the engine's not running or something along those lines so let me have troubleshooting can probably be pretty lengthy and drawn out but it sounds like things have changed slowly over the years oil would be a good thing to make sure we have for sure even with my poor oil change antics 10 12 13,000 mi whatever goes by all four of mine so far three of them are heading to 400K and past it no issues nothing can't even create issues other than the standard normal things CM monitor and things like that inverter pump etc.
     
  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    This all sounds like you have seen some codes but avoided telling us exactly what they were. Why?
     
  4. johnpriusowner

    johnpriusowner Junior Member

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    You make it sound like I am being devious in some way, P3000, generic hybrid malfunction. It doesn't help at all. Why not just answer the questions if you know instead of implying something? Also now p3000 is a tag for this thread. Which doesn't help people searching for answers if google eventually picks it up. I can't tell you how many times I've searched threads that have useless codes mentioned in them that does not help.
     
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    P3000, if you also get the INF code that goes with it, does tell you something more about the situation. Plus, it often confirms that there are further codes that the scan tool you've used has failed to read, which gives a good direction for further workup.

    I don't know before you've supplied the codes; that's the point. I don't mean to imply any nefarious intent on your part. But if you step into my shoes for a moment, I read endless numbers of threads on PriusChat started by someone who hopes I can say what's wrong with his or her car without being told what the trouble codes are, and it's even fairly common the person already has the codes, and mentions having the codes, and mentions what assumptions he or she has made about what the codes do or don't mean or why they are or aren't useful, and does all of this without ever saying what the codes are.

    I have to respond to such posts so often that I try to change up the wording from time to time to keep it a little more lively. Sorry if my wording this time made you think I was implying anything nefarious.
     
    Brian1954 likes this.
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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