Death rattle?

Oil consumption is good. The coolant looked slightly low, I topped it off.

 

Your good if it was new from Toyota.
Both parts.

 

parts are Toyota. So was replacing the brake booster, the same as sating brake traction or brake system?

 

The brake system is two separate parts.... the brake booster and the accumulator
both are connected together on the firewall

 

He is right about that but realize there are no new engines sold by anyone. Toyota would sell you a new “short block” which includes the main block with pistons rings and crankshaft. They would rebuild the head and use all the existing bolt on parts like the egr system, intake and exhaust. Probably $8k or more.

You do get a new head gasket because you have to buy a whole set of gaskets to put it together.

This is a serious sign if it continues to go down.

I like to recommend a professionally rebuilt engine like Hybridpit sells, shipped to your local small shop for install. It might be $5k by the time it’s done but this is as close to new as you can get for $4500-$5,000.

A gen4 engine uses much of your gen3 including egr system, exhaust, intake and requires modifications to your existing wiring harness and cooling system hoses. You would really need a unicorn shop that has done this a few times. Even then you would have a frankengine that most dealers would not work on.

The budget play is a genuine used in Japan JDM gen3 engine for $1200-$1500 plus a direct bolt in install. If you were lucky maybe $2500-$3000 all in. If you go this route be sure it’s a JDM engine and not a US salvage yard special.

 

i'm hoping for genuine gen3 engine.
Can I put in a 2015 late model that has the upgrade for head gasket, as opposed to a 2011?

 

That's a good point. I'm chasing the same issue, very slight engine shake just at startup, I don't feel it when the car is moving slightly and the engine starts. No codes, no white smoke, and the oil still looks fine. Pistons 1 and 4 are a little washed though...

 

It's bad form to post the same problem in multiple threads

 

ok so this death rattle as it is described is almost always a head gasket? I replaced my EGR cool at 170k. It was only a bit dirty, not that bad and you could see through it. I did not take the intake off though. This morning my wife started the car and it knocked bad for 30 seconds with no smoke and no lights. No coolant loss and I only loose a cup of oil every 10k of oil changes. I have heard that the spring disc between the engine and transmission can break springs causing this? This car has had a occasional rattle at start up only in the winter for at least the past 50k miles and only lasts 1-2 seconds. This morning was different.

 

U need to make absolutely sure your not loosing any antifreeze. Fill to correct amount and mark...full line...examine carefully every day. I'll bet it's the dreaded known headgasket.

 

The intake manifold? It has the final leg of the EGR passages; all the upstream EGR cleaning is for naught, if the intake manifold's EGR passages are clogged. EGR flow enters the intake manifold on the driver's side, into a large gallery, that one-way-or-another (it varies, there were IM revisions) split into 4 "capillary" passages, one per intake port. The one at cylinder one tends to be first to solidly clog. That's also where the intake manifold tends to fail first, at the common wall between cylinders 1 and 2.

 

A broken spring damper is rare and won't clear up in 2 to 30 seconds. Bad plugs, coils or injectors won't clear up fast and be good all day long.

A severe metallic rattle is never an egr blockage. The worse an egr can do is stick open at low rpm and stall the engine. Usually it will just make it run rough at low rpms when it is designed to be closed.

The egr block test below will prove a sticking egr valve if symptoms go away when blocked. However your symptom of rattles going away in 2 to 30 seconds does not fit a stuck or blocked egr which will continue and code.

A hg leak on these cars start slow over months and gets worse. Even when it's worse it usually happens after a cold soak with pressure on the cooling system. Obvious loss of coolant could still be weeks or months away but combustion gasses may replace the drops of coolant being burned for those early few seconds.

Borescope testing is definitive.
Car Care Nut HG Borescope at 660s

South Main Auto
Excellent Borescope Footage at 6:50
Honda Misfires on Coldstart Only

Car Care Nut Egr video with block tube test.
Starting at egr block flow test

At about 10:15 in the video he starts talking about the egr valve letting "air" into the intake manifold. He means exhaust gasses.

 

These cars are ok till 150,000 could be less or more..... not reliable at all and takes special parts and know how to repair.
Inveter.... Water Pump.....Brake Booster / Pump... Traction Battery....HEAD GAsket....and once in a while Generator/motors inside the trani if your going to keep one that doesn't burn oil....EXPECT TO DEAL WITH MOST OR ALL OF THESE THINGS. didn't know caps lock was on...to lazy to change.... don't buy a used one....... will cause financial hardships.
I don't hate the prius... but wish I would have purchased a lower miles gen 2 instead of 3.
If I did I might still be driving it.

 

Is there any chance the car's most recent use before that had been very brief, say to move across the driveway or something, without fully warming up?

A temporary bad knock on the next start after that has long been a known gen 3 quirk that doesn't have to mean anything else is wrong. People began reporting that as early as fall 2009 with their spanking-new model year 2010s. So just avoid having those really short trips where nothing warms up.

That damper is typically the victim rather than the offender. Something makes the engine misfire and run rough and the damper soaks up the blows, until the springs are beaten to smithereens and the smithereens fall out. Then you hear really hard impacts, until the transmission input shaft breaks off, and then silence reigns.

There is (I think) a small handhole in the cover over the lower bellhousing, with a plastic plug you can pull out, and reach some fingers downward (with the car OFF!!) to feel around for smithereens. Or poke in a magnet on a stick and see what gets picked up.

 

Good avatar Tim.

 

So far no coolant loss at all and it has not happened again. I do plan on getting a coolant tester to see if there are gases in the coolant. If it's the headgasket then I am done with the car. Peeling clear coat and interior very dirty and needing struts, I am not going to bring it on top with all that going on. Time for a Sienna.

 

That’s definitely NOT a good test method, it tests for exhaust gas in coolant, which doesn’t happen till the head gasket failure is well along. If at all.

the usual DIY method is borescope inspection, preferably the morning after the car was driven, and with coolant system pressurized.