Is coming from the engine area. It started last night on my drive home through heavy snow. After losing sleep about it last night, I went out today and determined it only seems to be happening when the ICE is running. Goes away when system switches to run on battery. Usually when stepping on the gas it happens for a few seconds then sort of goes away as revs increase. It is LOUD! I’m freaked out. Any ideas of what this could be? Thanks
Why not open the hood, then start the Prius and have a look at the engine. If you can manage to get out and to the front quickly you should be there when it starts up. You get 3 or 4 seconds to do this. Have a good look keeping hands well clear and see if you can get a better idea what is causing all the racket.
Scona , I tried that. Everything looks normal. From what I can tell the noise is coming from under the engine. I did run over a decent sized snow/ice chunk that made a thud. In my google searches I think I came across someone saying that a heat shield could possibly cause such a noise. Would there be a cat heat shield in that area perhaps? I’m just hoping it’s something like that and not something more serious related to the drivetrain.
I think you are on to something. Probably jammed some ice up underneath. The plastic panels are not too sturdy but might contain anything that managed to get wedged up under there. I see that your weather is kind of ugly, makes it hard to look at anything underneath the vehicle. I had to get underneath to inspect something once and drove one of the front wheels up on a curb to get some room to crawl under and see what was what. Lifting it up either by jacking or on a hoist are the more normal methods, but may not be easy to do, given your circumstances. It is probably best to find out the problem, before driving too far, but if you have to use it then you play the odds, I guess. Good luck getting it sorted out, hope your weather improves soon!
Dealer diagnosed problem as two loose heat shields underneath the car. Phew. Thanks for your replies. I’m thinking about trading up for ‘14 or ‘15 Prius model IV. I don’t think I can live without the JBL sound. Wish they had kept putting it in IIIs.
