How long did the dealer have your car for ???

Interesting - this is one of the very few times that I have seen a Prius gasoline engine problem of this magnitude. Did the service writer tell you the cause of the low cylinder compression: valves, a leaky piston ring, a bad head gasket, or ?

Is your dealer able to get parts from a North American warehouse or are they waiting to get parts shipped in from Japan? Perhaps the reason for the delay is that the latter is the case.

How frequently did you have the engine oil changed? 37K km is pretty low mileage, around 22K miles.

 

according to my warranty booklet, if they can't fix it in 30 days, you can take your car anywhere, have the work done, and then bring the bills into a toyota dealer for later reimbursement, heh

the basic warranty has transportation assistance too. when you pick up the car give them
your bills for the rental car

for basic warranty transportation assistance you need to have any of the following

1)the warranty repairs will take longer then one day to complete
2) the warrantable condition requires extensive diagnosis
3) the parts needed for the warranty repairs are not readily available and your vehicle
is inoperative or unsafe to drive.

the policy does not cover if the repairs will take 1 day, but the car must be kept overnight
because of a dealer or owner scheduling conflict.

if they have it for more then 1 day, i would call them up and tell them you want your
transportation assistance.

this is for the basic warranty.

the extended warranty platinum plan has its own transportation assistance that adds on to this
one

the extended warranty will cover your hotel room and other expenses of $100 a day for 5 days, i think, but you have to be 150 miles away from home..

the basic warranty should cover the rental car, at least

 

I'm assuming that you are the first owner of this Prius since you say you changed the oil at 2K km. It is very strange to hear that wrong plugs were installed, which implies a factory production issue. It wouldn't surprise me that this was not previously noticed when the car was in for routine service, since the spark igniters and spark plugs normally would be left undisturbed until 120K miles (or 200K km) had been logged.

Usually when low compression is diagnosed, one test is to inject some engine oil into the problem cylinder to see whether compression improves. If yes, then this implies that the piston or piston rings are the problem. If no, then this implies that the head gasket or valves/valve seats are the problem.

When the head is removed, the valves can be inspected to see whether any of the four valves for the cylinder are burnt or leaking, and the cylinder head and cylinder block can be inspected for cracking or other defects. Perhaps when you reach the service adviser you can probe into these issues and find out whats going on.

Regarding rigormortis' discussion about transportation assistance, since you are in Canada this may or may not apply. Perhaps another Canadian member with a 2007 can research the availability of this program by referring to their warranty booklet.

Good luck.

 

I do not think that Toyota Canada offers free rental cars during warranty service; see the following website and look up the owner's manual supplement for your model year.
TOYOTA CANADA : Service

 

Thanks for the update, the short block consists of an assembled aluminum engine block, crankshaft, crankshaft bearings, oil pump, and pistons. The head and other auxiliary parts apparently will be installed on the short block.

I assume that the original block must have had a crack affecting cyl. 2, usually that would be the reason for replacing it. Usually the head surface has to be machined due to warpage when the engine overheats. Did this happen to your car?

 

did they actually take the engine apart to decide this? did they do cylinder leak down tests? are they sure it's not in the head, valves, or timing chain? if there were a problem in the block, there would be low power in the cylinder but it would still be firing. the cel flashing says overheated catalyst- can be caused by rich mixture or misfire shooting fuel directly into the exhaust and overheating cat.

the blinky cel is what has DH wondering.

 

Hello Shar: The Dealership in Jasper made a serious mistake. He found the engine was hydrauliking and fuel to that cylinder was erratic?????? At that point the car should not have been driven AND the service manager should have had the car towed as well as providing transportation. More damage was sustained by driving to Calgary. Any and all expenses should be reimbusable to you , make sure you get it, you are entitled to it. If after all normal channels are expended you may have to hire a lawer. It should not go that far. The laws within the UK, US and Canada are basically the same. Its all English law. Hopefully Toyota will treat you right.

 

Glad that your car is back in service.

The short block would come with new piston rings and gaskets. The block might be new or remanufactured. If the latter then the block itself, crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons and bearings may be reused or new. However in either case the short block is supposed to meet all production specs and tolerances and be the equivalent of new.

Since your original head was reused, the valves from that head also would be reused and not new. When the short block is taken out of the shipping crate, it would be necessary to remove the head and timing chain from the old block and bolt those parts to the new block. Other ancillary parts like the knock sensor, crankshaft pulley, serpentine drive belt, water pump etc also would be moved from the old block to the new.

5W-30 is the Toyota-recommended oil viscosity, bot 0W-20 in your area especially in the winter should be fine.

 

3K km or 2K miles is OK for the first oil change if you are concerned about getting rid of metal debris from the production and assembly process. If you can DIY the oil change, then you can look at the drained oil and see what metal particles are within.