Prius Gen 3 Misfire Cylinder 4

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Prius_Only, Apr 12, 2026 at 4:10 AM.

  1. Prius_Only

    Prius_Only New Member

    Joined:
    Friday
    2
    1
    0
    Location:
    Pakistan
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    My 2010 Prius with 200K kilometers has intermittent misfire in cylinder 4. I replaced all 4 spark plugs with new Denso iridium, Changed the order of ignition coils, cleaned intake manifold especially all 4 tubes within, egr pipe , valve and egr cooler which is a pain to remove and install. Also swith positions of fuel injectors after cleaning them. There is no sign of Head Gasket leak as no coolant reduction.
    I had done everything what i could do. The misfire wasn't going away. It came mostly when the engine was hot and at very low rpms infact when gas paddle was not pressed. Took my car to several mechanics but no remedy.
    Finally one mechanic said have you changed its transmission fluid. I have not done it said no. He recommended me to chane it see what happens. I opted and took my for a transmission oil change.
    To my surprise the the oil was severely dark and only 2 Liters came out. I refilled it with Toyota ws fluid almost 3.8L drove my car and the misfire was gone. I drove 80 kilometers and no more misfire now the car runs smooth.
    He said something that Prius has eCVT transmission which requires lubrication to cool the components.
     

    Attached Files:

    bisco likes this.
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    114,739
    52,431
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    welcome, that's crazy, congrats!
     
  3. Prius_Only

    Prius_Only New Member

    Joined:
    Friday
    2
    1
    0
    Location:
    Pakistan
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    @bisco you are right! I also thought this fluid change is a fixer. But my joy was short lived. It again started cold rattle in the morning.
    I have noticed that coolant reservoir is loosing coolant but not overflowing or boiling.
    So far what i have done
    Change ewp
    Clean egr cooler along with pipe
    Clean intake manifold with all four cylinder egr tubes
    Replace pcv valve.
    One thing i have noticed that the radiator fans were running at high speed AC was off and the coolant temperature was 88°C
    To my knowledge fans kicks in at 95°C
    I hope its not the head gasket issue.

    Copied for somewhere
    "In 3rd gen the EER brings coolant temp. up faster to reduce emissions. Have had that part of system leak which has resulted in the coolant bottle boiling over from the pressure being introduced into the cooling system which then looks like a massive leak when it starts burning/ leaking into the exhaust system"
    Is the above statement true.

    In the morning i will open the reservoir cap and try to smell exhaust gas if there is any.
    Here in my country those liquid color changing facility not available.
    Can egr cooler also get leaked and gases introduced into the coolant?
     
  4. WICruiser

    WICruiser New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2026
    18
    4
    0
    Location:
    WI
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius
    Model:
    Five
    I'm afraid that head gasket is the most likely problem. I recently fought that notion for a long time thinking of all the alternatives but ulitmately did the head gasket replacement (so far so good).

    A bore scope will help a lot to inspect the cylinders for coolant but I did not have access to one. When I removed the cylinder head I had one cylinder with what appeared to be coolant on top of the piston and another cylinder that was suspect. The coolant loss wasn't a lot but it doesn't take much to cause a misfire on the initial start of the engine. It clears up fairly quickly but returns every time the engine shuts down allowing coolant to flow into the cylinders rather than compression pressure to excape into the cooling system.
     
    Brian1954 likes this.