2011 radiator pressure.

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by bob11x, May 19, 2025 at 10:42 PM.

  1. bob11x

    bob11x Junior Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    My son and I drove our 240k mile Prius to California from NY. Made it to east side of LA and in traffic noticed some wierd shaking on engine start.
    Went to Claremont Toyota and they were awesome. The tech explained that there are head gasket issues , usually around 150k. He’d never seen one go over 200k without the problem.
    Car is extremely rusty (NY salt tax) so not worth putting $$$ into.
    Anyway, car still runs fine, just loads up cylinder when hit and engine off. We took the cap off overflow- hoping to alleviate the pressure when shut off, but still pushes water in cylinder and creates rough start.
    These were the first to not have a radiator cap- is there anything else to do to lessen pressure?
     
  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The reason you're not finding a separate radiator cap on a gen 3 is that the gen 3 cooling system isn't the overflow-bottle style. The bottle you found is the degas bottle and it is a full participant in the cooling system and its pressure cap is the only one there is. When you take that cap off you have depressurized the whole system.

    If you're still getting juice in the cylinder with the system depressurized, the gasket is just that bad. Not great news, I know.
     
  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Stop-leak product till engine fails, sell for scrap?
     
  4. bob11x

    bob11x Junior Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    upstate ny
    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    Thanks for the replies. I was not to hopeful there was another cap but thought I’d ask. Yeah- the gasket is probably gone too far.
    I guess we’ll drive it till it dies and then sell the converter off it and scrap it.
    PS I also heard about an oil consumption problem. At 240k never had to add between 10k oil changes. The car doesn’t owe me a thing.