Another 2007 Toyota Prius

I bought this 2007 Toyota Prius Friday.

It was running fine. I put good premium gas in it, drove it home. Drove it Saturday. Drove it Monday and it started making this noise after I put regular gas in it:

https://youtube.com/shorts/MQEYO6hXwm4?si=3iHfHdeY90qiSnLi 

And this video is right after changing the plugs cleaning the PVC valve and changing the oil. The old oil was weird, really thin.

It changes amount of noise, not sure about why yet. 

Post guesses as to how bad it is. I'll post updates.

Ooof.  I've had a few cars with destroyed big-end rod bearings that sounded like that....

The dealer had a 30 day warranty. They used it as leverage in negotiations and apparently I didn't negotiate down far enough for them to say it wasn't included. I sent the link to the video and they said "That ain't good.Can you get it here without blowing the engine up?"

So I am off to borrow a friends trailer and tow it the 1 hour and 30 minute drive to where I found it.

I wonder if in the same 3 to 4 hour chunk of my life if I could pull the valve cover and fix it myself, but I am going to give this a shot. 

The most boring update ever posted:

OK, so the dealer put another engine in it honoring their warranty. I have been running it quite a bit doing gig work, 300 miles daily 2 to 3 times a week.

It was leaking oil when I got it back. Because the oil drain plug wasn't tight. Other than that no serious issues.

I put front struts and links in it, then got it aligned. 

I need to replace a lot of the suspension. Not dangerous, just worn.

The question I have is, what parts do Prius owners here use? Any input is welcome.

And I guess I'll call it Tod. With one d. 

Yo, WAKE UP! Post is over. =D

Bent-Valve said:

The question I have is, what parts do Prius owners here use? Any input is welcome.
 

 

I use the cheapest parts I can find on Rock Auto or Amazon.  Mostly.

Anything specific?

What front struts did you put in it?  I used Gabriel pre-loaded front and rear struts via RockAuto but I suspect they may have been discontinued given that one of the rear is no longer available.  I've used the house brand FCS before from RAuto, on an Avalon, and they were fine.  Certainly an improvement over worn struts.  

I just bought a $400 parts-Prius making the same sound.  I have a suspicion that it might be a dead fuel injector causing the noise.  But, given the poor quality of the entire car, I might not research to find out if that is the answer.  But, now hearing yours as the same sound maybe I should find the time to investigate.  If this sound is common, this could be a good source for finding an easy fix to what seems catastrophic.  A further thought is engines for these can be bought for $300 w/120k.  My understanding is the engines can be in relatively quickly/simplisticly.    

I've not had a bright red Prius but I once saw some tastefully small, fake Ferrari, yellow prancing horse fender sticker/badges  on a bright red Prius (may have been prancing moose badges)

I got a good chuckle out of it.

Just squint a little...

Sorry for the slow response and thank you for the input.

I'm needing rear struts worst right now. I can only do so much so fast.

I'm a bit concerned about the battery and its cooling. It was above 115 degrees and the fan was on high. It was 95 outside.

I took it all apart and cleaned the fan, made sure it was blowing but it doesn't really "blow" hard but it does move air. I would think it needed to have more pressure and volume, but maybe its quiet on purpose and is fine. I guess the best way to describe it is that it doesn't blow like an auto ac blower which I guess I was expecting it to.



I took the battery cover off and made sure they cells were clean since it wasn't cooling much.  It only cooled down on the highway rolling 60+ driving kind of easy.

During the test drive it still heats up. 

I wonder if the controller is bad?

Dr Prius app shows I have about 55% (ish) capacity left in the battery, so not totally shot but not perfect either.

Any thoughts?

Good. I see you have the Torque app.  

This is how I have mine set up.  

I find the most important thing to know is the voltage of the individual 14 blocks.  In this case, 14.5 to 15.0.  Don't get freaked out by the 10ths of a volt.  Generally, just stay with the idea that all 14 blocks are within 1.0 volt of each other.  Said another way, in this screen shot, all the volts are "the same" but in examples where you have a problem, in this sample of 14.5-15.0 there might be one block reading 19 volts.  My point being that when you have a problem, it will be an easily noticed outlier.  If you do have a block or two running high volts (like 19v in this example), it will create a lot of heat.  

95 degree day with a 115 battery isn't extraordinary.  

It does lead me to wonder...does your AC work?  

The input for the battery cooling is at the passenger side of the rear seat.  This means that the cooling happens via the inside air.  When your inside cabin is hot, you feed the battery hot air. In the best scenario, you have the AC on and the inside cabin air is cooled thereby feeding your battery cooled air.    

Also, do not let that vent location of the rear seat get blocked such as carrying a large box on the back seat.  

I see you mentioned Dr. Prius  You can get this 14 block voltage for the Dr also but worth noting...I hate the way Dr scales the data.  

At first glance of the image below, block #1 looks like a problem.  But, if you read the actual number, all 14 blocks are between 18.5 to 18.7 or, generally all the same.  There is no need for voltage to the 1/100th and because of it, the graph looks like a warning sign...when it is not.  

I went looking for an example of "bad block voltage"  This example, found on the internet is the reading of block voltage via the software, Techstream.  In general, all blocks are "14-something volts."  I'm not even concerned with Block #8 being 13.8.  However, Block #5 being 12.78v is the clear outlier.  

Another note:  you said the hybrid fan was on max speed but your image shows speed #3.  I seem to remember there are 5 speeds to this fan.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Yes it works, I had on recirculate then turned it on pass through hoping that a bit of that cool air would flow through the battery.

In reply to John Welsh :

I have only seen 1 2 or 3 as the levels as far as the battery fan goes.

Dr Prius is on a big tablet that is hard to handle going down the road.

On the Torque Pro I have this set up:



They all seem to be close but around 16 volts.
 

Looking great!  

In reply to John Welsh :

Seriously nice day, "TOD the go kart" as I call it hummed along all day.

"TOD the go kart" >>>TOD off the license plate and it drives like a street legal go kart with A/C!

Anyway, I am doing gig work in this car. Today it ran 8 am to 6 pm and however many hundreds of miles (300+?) just fine. I got new tires and TPMS sensors Friday and the ride is better. I did Kenda Kenetica all seasons.

Why did I buy a Prius? I started doing gig work, in my 5.0 powered 2018 F-150. Yup. I made money but knew I needed a small car. So I started looking for a small car and as a test asked an AI what the best car for gig work was. It answered Toyota Prius and listed off pros and cons.

AI was right at least this one time I think it is a great car to do gig work.