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Engine Rattle Simulated on CT 200h, food for thought.

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by rrg, Jan 11, 2022.

  1. rrg

    rrg Active Member

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    As the weather gets cold here below 20deg. I start to pay more attention to the engine starts in the morning.
    I have 205,000 miles so far, to date.
    So I start my yearly search for updates and possible fixes to my engine rattle cold start.

    I came across this video that really points to how the hybrid car can be forced into making the rattle sound while running. Very interesting video.

    It's not the fix but it tells me it's EGR system related. Maybe.
    So now I do not think it;s related to other things like injectors, spark plugs going bad or other stuff.

    Search on youTube for
    2012 Lexus CT200h Cold Start Rattle Simulation# 1 minute fix

    my2cents.
     
    #1 rrg, Jan 11, 2022
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2022
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    What do you mean by pay more attention to the engine starts You mean the ice engine coming on and running which in cold weather in my 09 is instantaneously when I start the car and the heat is on like I set mine at 76 degrees and pretty much it stays there The minute I get in the car in the morning and push the button my display does or doesn't light up the engine almost fires immediately because there's a call for heat I've never noticed any rattling in the 1n z . But I guess it could be a thing and the CT200 is a gen 3 so maybe that's what you're talking about here I'm in the midst of ripping out a gen 3 engine and replacing with a JDM spec when the JDM spec gets here this afternoon I'm going to unbolt the EGR and have a look at the what goes on in there I haven't tried to access the one on my car too much crap in the way be easier to do with the engine out of the car. My Gen 3 13 is the same in cold if the heat's ready to go and all as soon as I start the car the engine's going to come on because that's the only way it's going to make serious heat coming off that exhaust and all that stuff it does
     
  3. rrg

    rrg Active Member

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    On my Gen 3, I get random Engine Rattle noise on first starts when it's cold for few seconds before is smooths out.
    It happens to allot of people.
    I've never seen the engine rattle noise forced to happen on a hybrid like the video.
    In the summer I never hear the loud rattle noise on starts.
     
  4. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    At 270 on the 13 I didn't have rattling just all of a sudden had an unsmooth transition between MG12 and the ice engine there's the way I understand it and what it felt like and when I pulled the head my buddy pulled the head and looked at it had the gaskets and all ready to go He told me there was a divot on piston number 2 I didn't get him to send me a picture I had other stuff going on apparently he put the engine back together with a hole or a fisher crack and piston number 2 and that failed within 5 mi obviously
     
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The main thing the video in post #1 shows is how many different things can cause the powertrain to rattle.

    In that video, the cause was two bolts that were forgotten when somebody reattached a pipe to the intake manifold, resulting in an unmetered air intake leak, therefore misfires, therefore rattle.

    The chance of that turning out to be the explanation in anybody else's rattling Prius is pretty darned slim. (At least it's easy to check: open the hood and see if those bolts are missing!)

    In anybody else's rattling Prius, chances are those two bolts are present and so you don't have the same issue as in the video, so you'll just need to track down why your engine is misfiring.

    As this classic old article showed, it pays to remember that lots of things can cause misfires. (The owner in that article let a very good car go for scrap price on account of forgetting that.)