Mystery with gen 2 prius

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Luoar, Oct 23, 2025 at 6:05 PM.

  1. Luoar

    Luoar New Member

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    2008 Prius with 200K. Last 4 months: rough cold start, significant drop in mpg, carbon buildup in tailpipe. No check engine light. O'Reilly computer analysis shows codes 300, 301, 302 and "Frequent random misfires cylinders 1 & 2." Sparkplugs changed. No change. Injector coils switched around. No change. I'm not very handy. Don't want to spend a fortune on "fishing expeditions" either with diagnostics or repairs/replacements without an actual diagnosis. Has been a great car. Any ideas/suggestions?
     
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    How do the plugs look are they old as hell and all of that? When you had the coils out did you look at the plastic extensions carefully you're looking for like gunpowder residue where the voltage is blowing thru extension ? Look very carefully with your magnifying glasses on that's what I use if you see this for some reason the voltage isn't going all the way to jump gap . And taking least resistance path.
     
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  3. saneesh8

    saneesh8 Member

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    Yes. Plugs can tell you the condition. Since not happening on all cylinder, hopefully not something like Gen 3 have. If you can, clean the injectors also.
     
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    new plugs oem from a dealer?
     
  5. Luoar

    Luoar New Member

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    Thanks for the replies. The plugs are 3 months old and still look fine.. Switching the coils around didn’t change the fact that cylinders 1 and 2 are still the ones misfiring. So that would seem to rule out anything to do with the coils being the problem.

    Yes the plugs are oem from the dealer.
     
    #5 Luoar, Oct 24, 2025 at 1:39 PM
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 24, 2025 at 10:32 PM
  6. saneesh8

    saneesh8 Member

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    Yes.. hopefully not a counterfeit one.
     
  7. Luoar

    Luoar New Member

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    As I said in my original post the computer analysis always shows 300, 301, 302 “frequent random misfires cylinders 1 and 2.” Replacing the plugs and reanalyzing didn’t change that and switching around the injector coils and reanalyzing also didn’t change that. So it seems like the problem has to be with both cylinders 1 and 2.
     
  8. Luoar

    Luoar New Member

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    I suppose another possibility is that the fuel injectors on cylinders 1 & 2 both malfunctioned at the same time while the injectors on cylinders 3 & 4 haven't malfunctioned. But doesn't that seem like an unlikely coincidence? Isn't it more likely that there is a problem between cylinders 1 & 2?