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Crunch, crash, bang from under hood

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by cyberpriusII, Feb 18, 2017.

  1. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    Started up this morning. Some 43 degrees F, raining fairly hard, and as I start to move forward, I hear a crunch.

    Thinking I am running over something I stop and shutdown and run into the house and yell at husband about what he has left outside for me to run over.

    He grumbles but finally ambles out with a flashlight and crawls around best he can in the mud and rocks and pronounces that he sees nothing and maybe I ran over something and it is still under the tire.

    So, I start up and more crunch and bang for about a second and then it goes away (ICE was running). Let it run for a minute or two -- drive it about 20 feet and no dash lights, no more crashes, crunches.

    I shutdown again and husband who was standing next to the car says it is from under the hood. I open the hood and on top of the filter box is a collection of nuts and other detritus left behind by Mickey/Minnie.

    Clean that off, check the belt pulley as well as the fan (as best you can standing out in the rain) and see nothing.

    Pull off the air filter, nobody inside. Pull the cabin filter, nobody.

    So, the pulley looks O.K., the fan appears O.K. -- no broken pieces I can see, nor any body parts (did not want to stick my hand in it.).

    So, guess I should just drive and see what happens? Any other suggestions?

    Funny thing is, my dog was sniffing the car tires yesterday, which usually means mice. I put traps around the tires last night, but nothing -- the peanut butter was not even touched.
    kris
     
    #1 cyberpriusII, Feb 18, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2017
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    mice aren't that noisy. it wasn't the cold soak detonation?
     
  3. andrewclaus

    andrewclaus Active Member

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    My friend's Prius was nearly totaled by packrats in Arizona. About $13,000 of damage to the wiring when the car was worth about $16,000. Be aggressive about pest control around these cars!

    Hopefully you just got a bit of debris thrown into the belt. Check that carefully, all the way around. You may have to remove it to do that.
     
  4. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    Only cold soak detonation I know of is when I force my husband Kevin to go out in the rain and crawl around looking under the car and then look under the hood while he is in his boxers and T-Shirt. He was pretty much in an explosive mood after that, this morning.

    So, let me know more.

    But, what I was thinking was possibly some of the food was on a fan blade or on the belt, or maybe a mouse was on one of those parts when it kicked on.

    As for the rodents, I have been battling them for years, but screened off the Prius a few years back, which pretty much kept them out of the interior, but it does not do much for the engine compartment.

    It may be our weather this year. Record rainfall and record cold. But, usually, my traps work quite well. Have bait stations, also, but those take a couple of days to work and by that time the rodents can do some major damage.

    ****Update*****

    Reading some about Cold Soak -- seems to be the 2010-11 models.

    But, it does sound like it could be. I had not driven for a few days and then just moved the car enough to have it face downhill and then did not drive it for a few more days until I started it this morning.
     
    #4 cyberpriusII, Feb 18, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2017
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    not sure about gen 2, but in gen 3, if you start the car and shut it down before it warms up in the cold, unburned hydrocarbons in the intake manifold. the next time you start it, they get sucked in, trowing off the combustion. the explosions sound like pots and pans in a dryer.
     
  6. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    Bisco, you may have solved the mystery. The more I think about the noise, the less I think it was mice. It was pretty loud. More than a nut on a pulley or in the fan could produce.

    So, everything is mostly O.K.?
     
  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    hasn't caused any problems yet, just a lot of consternation.
     
  8. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Believe it or not, my wife's '07 did that cold soak rattle one time. Shook the whole car. Scared the heck out of both of us. I thot a rod came out of the block. Shut it off after about 3 seconds looked under the hood & saw nothing amiss. Said a prayer. Restarted and it was fine. Later I read about the issue and that's the only thing that made sense.
     
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  9. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Having grew up in Vermont I remember my tires got stuck a few times. Parked in slush and it froze overnight and made quite a bang getting loose.
    Scared the maple syrup out of me!
    I left Bennington Vermont right after the blizzard of 1978. Google it.
    Snowed so hard overnight you couldn't see my Dodge van in the morning.
    Done with that.

    Friends in New Hampshire there getting killed. Snowed so hard in the last week my buddy's snow plow is stuck in his driveway.So yeah crazy winter going on.
    Hey kris post some pics of your winter wonderland please.
     
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  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    ah, fond memories. i got married during the blizzard.
     
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  11. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Hopefully the honeymoon wasn't right after.

    That's one way to spend your time with cabin fever(y).
     
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  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    delayed until we could get a flight to bermuda. it rained the whole week, don't go in february.
     
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  13. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    Well, drove the car, no further issues! Hopefully that continues to be the case. Put out mousetraps again last night and one was tripped, but there was absolutely no bait taken off the foot, so, it could have been anything. Too windy and rainy for me to feel like looking under the hood this a.m., but I have to give the muddy dog a bath eventually, so I will look then -- I will be all wet anyway.

    Thanks again, Bisco, for coming up with what seems to have been the issue!!

    Finally, for Ed, I don't have an I-phone and my 2008-era Samsung clamshell does take pictures, but you have to use your imagination to figure out what exactly the image is trying to portray. So, I don't take many pictures.

    Let me just say that the real fun started Dec. 14 when my area in the mountains got about four-inches of snow (unusual for us), but down in the lowlands, near the city of Eugene, they got > I think< four inches of ice coating trees, vehicles, buildings, etc. It caused tens of thousands to be without power and caused many, many trees to topple on houses and roadways. Chains were required on vehicles traveling Interstate 5.

    Issue was, I needed to pick-up my niece at Eugene Airport at midnight. The ice-storm hit late that afternoon. I put chains on our Camry and drove at 20 mph the entire 45-minute trip. Luckily, road crews had cleared the major downed trees on the route I was taking, but even with tire chains, it was a dicey drive. The snow was about as deep as I would risk driving, but other than that, not so bad. The ice-covered roads were terrible. The power was out at the airport. I got there and got back, that's all I can say.

    Then, another ice-storm on Jan. 2, followed by about four inches of snow about 14 hours later, so snow on top of ice. That's when I fell and injured back, neck, shoulder and wrists. Time for tire chains again. That lasted a week.

    Oregon is normally very rainy, but get very little snow -- even in the Coast Range Mountains, where I am at.There were a couple more more minor ice storms and a snow storm tucked in there in January and December and February. I am tired of it!

    I'd post a photo from the local news media, but it is getting very windy here at the moment, meaning my power will probably go out, and when that happens, if the computer is on, I have a great deal of trouble getting it to restart once power is restored.
    kris
     
    #13 cyberpriusII, Feb 19, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2017
  14. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    how did you pull off the avatar pic?
     
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  15. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Maybe she pulled it off the 'neto_O?
     
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  16. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    ohman, i'd be so disappointed. especially if 'chris' is a boy. isn't that how they catch predators?:eek:
     
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  17. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Just be thankful you never went to BFE Oregon to find out;).
     
  18. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    Just to be vindictive and petty. I'm going to blame the crunch, crash and bang on Oregon's Attendant -No-Self Serve Gas Laws.

    Just kidding....

    When I first read your post my very first thought was the cold start up issue that has been widely reported. The "Cold Soak" scenario.

    But your first sentence threw me off that trail....

    It's the phrase...as I started to move forward.
    This made me think the noises were not associated with the engine starting up...but with movement forward.
    Most cold soak scenarios manifest the moment the engine is started and running.
    It's something that happens almost immediately upon start-up, with cold engines.

    I hope I'm wrong, because think that is the easiest, least impactful possible problem.
    Rodent damage can be a lot more complicated.

    Good Luck.
     
  19. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    Thanks for the good wishes, Electric. To be honest, I can't - positively - say the noise started before or after I moved the car. It was all a fluid type of movement. :whistle:

    I actually went under the hood during our little 35-mph windstorm a bit earlier today and again saw no indications of damage and no mice.

    As for self-serve, As I noted in the gas thread, I really don't think there is much REAL justification for the ban, except to keep Oregon Weird...

    Bisco and Ray too much time on your hands....You do know other people have cameras.:confused:

    My former pix here was taken by a boyfriend (who not too long after became husband). I do actually have a Canon digital camera, but I put the recharger somewhere and have not seen it for a year or so. I am not really a photo-taking sort, anyway.
     
    #19 cyberpriusII, Feb 19, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2017
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  20. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Good point, @The Electric Me. But there is about a seven second or so lag between the ready light and the engine starting, at least on a Gen 2. Depending on how the car's parked and how big a hurry the driver's in, moving and engine start can be simultaneous.
     
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