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Prius Engine Shakes Horribly

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by mcdoofleburg, Feb 11, 2020.

  1. mcdoofleburg

    mcdoofleburg New Member

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    Hey guys, I'll try to keep this as short as I can. My parents have a 2010 Prius III (250k-ish miles) that had a slight engine rattle when the ICE kicked in from electric. The rattle lasted maybe 3-5 seconds then stopped and ran normal. I also noticed there were symptoms of a blown head gasket. I've never messed with a hybrid but I've done lots of work on regular vehicles. So, told them there's no sense in paying a crap ton of money for a shop to do it when I can.

    Fixed the blown head gasket.

    Cleaned the entire EGR assembly.

    Cleaned the Intake Manifold.

    Cleaned the Throttle Body.

    Put it all back together following torque specs and patterns to a T.

    It fixed the Cylinder 2 misfires, which was caused by a coolant leak into said cylinder.

    Now there's a God awful knocking sound and the engine shakes like crazy. Almost exactly like this video: Bad Flywheel | PriusChat I'll try to upload the video I took when my brother sends it to me, but it's basically the same thing.

    Found out today, when I start it a put it into neutral the engine runs superb and quiet. Only does it shake like that when in Drive and Park.

    What the hell happened between the start of the repair and the end? I never touched anything lower than the head bolts aside from putting the timing cover back on.

    Also, after shifting between gears I now have the codes: P0351, P0352, P0353, and P0354. All corresponding to "Ignition Coil (A,B,C,D respectively) Primary/Secondary Circuit."

    Is this something with the transmission or MG1 and MG2 or whatever they're called? Or could the coils/coil wiring be bad? I don't know how it would make THAT big of a difference in performance from N to D if they were guilty.

    Thanks in advance for the input!
     
  2. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    All connections are plugged in and there are no mechanical connections missed, like the PCV hose?
     
  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    That sounds really familiar. All I know is in neutral the hybrid battery will not be charging. Maybe someone with more brain cells can shed more light.
     
  4. mcdoofleburg

    mcdoofleburg New Member

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    Checked all the electric and mechanical connections twice and everything looks good. I’m assuming since it runs normal in neutral but shakes in gear that it’s an issue with the transmission. I’m not familiar with these hybrid transmissions so I made sure not to touch anything that side of the bay. What gets me is that it never did this before but now all of the sudden sounds like it’s gonna blow up or something.

    Luckily, my parents have newer vehicles, so this needing to run is not mandatory. It sat for a while. They were gonna get rid of it for cheap or scrap it anyway. Figured I could fix it on the times i can get down there and visit then sell it for a little more money. So, if it’s trashed, no big deal.

    BUT, I’m stubborn, like learning the new systems, and would like to fix it! If all else fails I’ll just get someone to tow it.

    So if y’all have any more ideas I’ll give them a shot!
     
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  5. wheezyglider

    wheezyglider Active Member

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    So that major engine rattle was definitely not there before your HG repair and EGR cleanup? If that's the case I don't think you should prioritize the untouched transmission bits. The question of how it runs smoothly in N and not in D is a good one, but let's suppose there is an answer that involves only what you've touched so far. So it's very likely not a hybrid mystery, just a normal (but complicated) ICE problem.

    To Ray's point: I can't count the number of times experienced wrenchers have done the EGR work and left off a hose or sensor connection, even after checking "everything" several times.
     
  6. Austin Longenecker

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    I dont know how this could be correlated, but when I had the same problem, also after having the EGR cleaned/replaced, no mechanic could figure out why it kept shaking. Sparks plugs were new, egr was clean, etc. I noticed the engine coolant was low so I flushed and refilled that, and the engine no longer shook. It was shaking horribly when I pull into my driveway, and ran flawlessly after leaving the driveway once the coolant was refilled.

    Like I said I have no clue how that could have solved the issue, but I like to put it out there because it appears to have been what helped me. Worst case scenario, nothing changes but at least your coolant is fresh.
     
  7. Austin Longenecker

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    You bring up a good point. The mechanic missed a hose and a gasket when doing the work on my vehicle, having that corrected did help to a small extent, but the knock was not entirely eliminated until I flushed the coolant.
     
  8. borgestes

    borgestes Member

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    I guess, since I have the t shirt for this job, you didn't get the head decked you just swapped out the gasket? Sounds like the head is still leaking. Sorry but done that too :(
     
  9. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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  10. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    It might not need to be flushed but maybe bled of air.
     
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  11. Austin Longenecker

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    Possibly. I had no idea how old my fluid was because I bought the vehicle used. So I figured I'd flush it. It worked for me and that was all I cared about.
     
  12. Zak Basher

    Zak Basher New Member

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    Was there ever a solution here?

    Just swapped a 2019 motor into a 2013 V. Runs perfect in neutral. Engine shakes violently in Drive or Park.

    any ideas?
     
  13. Zak Basher

    Zak Basher New Member

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    Hi Medel, have you heard anything more/different about this issue. This is exactly what I am experiencing currently.
     
  14. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Nope. Just guessing: the damper between engine and transaxle may be damaged? But you would notice during the transplant? Did you DIY?

    @ChapmanF and others may chime in.
     
  15. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    In neutral, the engine isn't being made to do any work. It just spins with no load.

    In Drive or Park, load is put on the engine, to move the car, charge the battery, or both.

    So the engine is simply shaking under load. Misfiring will do that, for any of the various reasons misfiring happens. There are as many solutions as there are misfire reasons, because of course the solution depends on learning why this engine is misfiring.

    An article that takes up most of the back of this Toyota Tech issue presents a number of useful ideas for misfire diagnosis.
     
  16. Raygon

    Raygon Junior Member

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    My car had the shakes and rattling after EGR cleaning and a set of new Denso coils took that away..
     
  17. Zak Basher

    Zak Basher New Member

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    Not DIY. A trusted mechanic/friend. We're now working together to try to find the solution. One detail that I did forget to mention, the shaking stops when coil is removed from one specific cylinder. Any combination of cylinders that includes the "bad" cylinder make it shake again, remove ignition from the bad cylinder, no more shake. Again, no shaking in neutral regardless. Hopefully what I am saying makes sense.

    And to be clear, this is a crazy shake, not like an engine vibration but like a break-mounts shake.
     
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  18. Zak Basher

    Zak Basher New Member

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    I also should've mentioned that the damper seemed to be completely happy upon swap
     
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  19. Zak Basher

    Zak Basher New Member

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    One detail that I did forget to mention, the shaking stops when coil is removed from one specific cylinder. Any combination of cylinders that includes the "bad" cylinder make it shake again, remove ignition from the bad cylinder, no more shake. Again, no shaking in neutral regardless. Hopefully what I am saying makes sense.

    And to be clear, this is a crazy shake, not like an engine vibration but like a break-mounts shake.

    thank you for the insight. I'll check out the info you shared
     
  20. themzlab

    themzlab Junior Member

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    I think a new thread would be better. it is confusing reading through the history here. Do you know anything about the origin of the 2019 engine? maybe it is messed up, mechanically on that one cylinder. generally, you could try swapping injectors to see if the problem moves.
     
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