Hello I have had a 2009 Gen 2 prius for the last 2 years. It has about 100k. During a trip the plastic "guards" under the car and the guards over the two from wheels broke and I had to rip them off. Off late (and I am not sure if the plastic guard rippage are linked) I hear a noise inside the car after the car goes over about 25 mph. It seems to be comign from the left side (electric side). It stops when the car comes to halt. Its not a rattling noise. Its almost like what you hear when you are running a car at a high speed in a lower gear I ran the car engine in park and didnt get it. Noise continues when i take my foot off of gas so i am guessing its not the engine Noise continues if i put it on neutral so i am guessing its not the energy regen system. May also mean it doesnt have to do with the the electrical motor I hope someone can help me please
pure guesswork have you put her up on a lift? jacked up each wheel and spun, had a look around? could be something rubbing, or a bearing or cv joint
What does "electric side" mean? So there's inner fender wells one over each wheel and there's also 2 underside engine covers a small one over the bottom of the rad and another piece that extends a little further. never heard of anyone losing the inner fender guards that would be difficult to do. Which covers did you lose. Pics would help. The noise your hearing is probably a bad wheel bearing very very common on a G2 I lost my drivers side on my bought new 07 at 30,0000 miles. The dealer replaced it free under the 3.36 warranty. Mine did the same over 25 mile an hour it would make a woop woop sound. Did you hit something hard in the road and it damaged the under carriage? Easy to tell if its a wb. Go for a drive on a nice flat quiet ride. Turn the wheel firmly to the left. If the noise gets worse its the right side wb. And vice versa. Your basically putting a big load on each side. It will complain. use the "search forums" tab up top and search wheel bearing. to see your options.
Some additional info 1) AC and Heater is Off during this time 2) It seems to be available even below 25mph. Just becomes very apparent that speed. Noise increases with higher speed
Its coming from the driver side. Thats what i meant by electric side Turning one way or the other doesnt seem to make a difference in sound The fender plastic is completely lost. Two below and two over wheels. Reason i bring that up is a) could dirt have gotten to the engine causing the problem or (2) is the noise insulation lost because of loosing the plastic covers I dont believe i hit anything hard. I think i lost a "screw" or two and high speeds the wind made it come down causing it to hit the road and progressively made it worse. That also resulted (i think) in pulling the others down with it. At one point it was running against the wheels so i manually pulled/cut most if it
Not sure why drivers side is electric but ok. Never heard of fender plastic shield getting ripped off on this site. But you probably lost both plastic shields under the car. The back one is not really important but the front one covers the hole below the radiator/condenser that prevents rock and road fod from bouncing up and hitting the AC condenser and damaging it. If you get under the front of the car and look up you will now see the condenser. You cant see it if the cover is in place. Not really bad on most cars but the front end of a G2 is really low. I would replace that asap you lose the AC condenser and it will be very $$$$$$. Not sure about the sound but if it doesn't pass the wb test that's not good. If your not DIY and have no good mechanic you may want to bring it to the dealer for a check up. It will be expensive but at least you will find the issue. Maybe have them replace that front shield.
I said the driver was electric side because looking at it from the top i see most electric components there. I guess I am coin-ing phrases that I shouldnt Regarding the WB test, I am not sure wether left or right turn is causing it. I will take it to a mechanic While I am not a DIY myself I have folks to help me. I was told that if we rotate the wheel and touch the shock absorber at the same time the shock absorber's vibration will tell you if the bearing is bad. I also looked at youtube for prius and other other vehicle's "bad wheel bearing" sounds and I feel thats what it is Thanks a bunch for your time and will keep you updated.
In general, if you tear pieces of your car off and you notice noises, try going to a wrecker and get used parts to replace the ones you ripped off and then see if that fixes the noise... I'm not clear on what exact parts you're referring to, but it sounds like you're not doing very well with the way you tried to "fix" the original problem.
Thats not going to work on a G2 as its always in gear. You are unable to turn the wheel much. It does not free wheel like a regular car in neutral so who ever told you that has never worked on a Prius. . Plus unless the wb is totally shot turning the unloaded wheel with no weight on it will not show much if anything. Thats why my turn the wheel test works. It loads the wb and makes it bark. You may want to get a mechanic to take it for a ride and do that test. Its pretty common for a wb test. A failing wb will really bark under that test. Unless yours is not that bad yet. Mine went south pretty fast. Enough that the rim was getting hotter on that side then the other. But its probably that as its pretty common on a G2.
If it's really in Neutral it will freewheel. Just hard to get in Neutral and stay there;if you turn the car off, it goes back to Park. Can pull the appropriate fuse before turning off so it can't get itself back to Park, but that will annoy it. Even in Park, you can spin a front wheel as long as you have also raised the other one so it can spin the other way. Not much different from any front-wheel-drive car.
Is there a way to share a gift card with people who helped diagnose the problem? This forum saved me a significant amount of money. Even a couple of cups of starbucks for each person is the least I can do Fotomo & Edthefox please send me pm with you email please
Glad it worked out for you. No swag necessary we all like helping people on this site. if your really happy just give us a tap on the LIKE button.
