Engine misfire troubleshooting

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by PDX Prius Owner, Dec 3, 2024.

  1. PDX Prius Owner

    PDX Prius Owner New Member

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    First time posting on this forum so apologies if I posted to the wrong forum - please advise if I should post elsewhere.

    I'm a novice looking for some advice on next steps troubleshooting an issue I'm having with a 2012 (gen 3) Prius V w/177K miles on it. About a month ago I noticed an engine misfire and shortly after a P0302 (cylinder 2 misfire) code was logged. Sometimes the noticeable engine misfire and code (pending or fault) happens within a couple of blocks of driving, and sometimes it takes 30 miles of driving to notice any bad behavior and/or get a code (pending or fault). The behavior and likelihood of getting a code does not seem to be dependent on whether the engine is cold or not. I only notice the misfire (engine running roughly) immediately when the engine starts, and only when car is stopped or moving at low speed (<10 MPH). Worst case the engine will run rough for a few seconds, and it seems that if I give it more gas right when I first notice the issue it resolves itself faster, but I'm not 100% confident of that since the duration is short regardless of driver behavior. Other than the misfire code and short duration of running roughly the car runs fine, there has been no noticeable change in MPG, and all fluids levels look fine.

    So far I have replaced the spark plugs and coil packs, with no change to the symptoms or error codes. Looking for suggestions of next things to try, either diagnostics I can do to help isolate the issue or additional things to try and replace based on likelihood of fixing the issue and cost/effort/skill required.

    Thanks for any suggestions/help. I'm lacking experience to understand what the likely causes are based on the symptoms I have observed, but want to avoid spending $$$$ taking it to a shop especially if they are potentially going to shotgun it and do things that I could do for relatively low cost like what I did replacing the spark plugs and coil packs. Even if I do have to take it to a professional if suggestions are beyond my skill and level of comfort it would be helpful to understand the most likely causes to minimize the chance of being taken advantage of.
     
  2. Brian1954

    Brian1954 Senior Member

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    It could be the head gasket starting to fail. There are hundreds of threads in this forum concerning the head gasket problem on these Gen 3 engines. Do a search and a lot of reading about diagnosing a bad head gasket.
     
  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Misfires are hard to diagnose, because a lot of things can cause them. That gasket is one possibility, but only one (and kind of goes with a particular pattern of when the misfires happen, which your description didn't seem to me to closely match).

    There are also a lot of threads you can search here about misfire diagnosis in general. Some of them will mention, or have a link to, an article in an old issue of Toyota Tech with some advanced techniques that can be helpful.
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Did you hang onto the old coils? They very likely are good.
    How long have you had the car?

    It likely has head gasket failure. Boroscope inspection of the combustion chambers can confirm; look for evidence of coolant.

    if you follow through, replace head gasket, be sure to thoroughly clean the EGR system and intake manifold too (has EGR passages).