Hello Prius chat members, My wife and I own a 2013 Prius V. Which we purchase new and had 170K miles. At about 145K we had the missing when cold and a good local service shop diagnosed and repaired the cloged ERG. Now we have occasional ratteling on cold start up. On a couple of occations I've check the coolent and observed it a minimum. But it's very irregular. I did the test for CO2 gas in the coolant tank, but the indicator never changed from blue. In the last month I have lost two full coolant tanks with not a drop on the ground. Most mornings it does not rattle. Today I pulled off the wiper assy. Plastic covers and removed the coils and plugs. Using my new Velvor bore scope I've posted what I think is steam cleaning of a piston and cylinder head. Notice the area arround the exaust valves are clean of carbon. This is cyl No. 1. I'd like another voice before I tear this car abart further. My wife loves this car. As far as she is concerened she would drive it another 170K miles. No milky oil. I did get an over heat warning light for five seconds last week when the coolant ran low while driving. There are no other codes. Just the 117 from the temp sensor. Should I go forward with a Head Gasket Job? Thanks
You need to fix it quick. Overheating will warp the head making a gasket repair fail and too much coolant in the cylinders can bend rods or blow holes in the block. “Hey Walt…”
Greetings, I'm faced with your situation on my 2013 Prius V, 150,000 miles. Cylinder 1, occasional misfire...rattle on start up, minor, sometimes without the check engine light, very subtle....goes away after maybe twenty seconds. I'm losing about a cup of coolant every month. So...... youtube..... and,,,, I know this is not gonna go over well here but some guy put Barr's stop leak in his and it.... so far...... worked..... I'm thinking I'll put a couple of Barr shots in mine and cross my fingers. Has anyone else tried Barr's as a solution?
It is short term and can clog your heater core (a $2,000 repair) and radiator which is micro channel. All for 3-10 weeks of hg denial.
Hello Hirshwin, I went ahead and did a Bar's small treatment, and so far so good. I drive the car daily, have had no rattle start ups and it's running better than it has in over a year. I didn't put very much Bar's in, I wish I measured it but was less than half the container. I followed their directions and I'm hoping it's fixed. I caught it early, knew it was number 1 cylinder, wasn't losing much coolant and now the level stays normal. I hear what rjparker is saying.... we'll see what happens. I've driven my V for a couple of weeks, put almost 200 miles on it. I'm in Wilmington NC so no interstate just city driving and it performs great, stop light start ups smooth, no misfire, no codes.....
@priusesforever @Hirshwin You guy should monitor your ECT, since you know you have an issue. Going into the summer months, as your engine starts running hotter - the hot exhaust gases is going to push that bar's leak band aid out of the way. Your engine dummy lamp doesn't light-up until the temperature reaches 248+F. Anytime your running near 240+F; head gaskets pop and/or components can warp - especially all the plastic they're using on modern cars now. Just food for thought.....
Coming soon to a sealer repaired engine near you... “Hey Walt… they want to wait and see if it gets worse…”
