2010 prius sounds like a tractor/ white smoke

[roks]

Hi all, 

Brothers prius sounds like a tractor with white smoke from exhaust.

Just passed mot a week ago, all of a sudden last night he set off to work and felt car wasn't behaving normal and after a while started sound like that.

Any ideas what it could be?

White smoke is that coolant or oil leak?

Going round later to run a scan, hopefully techstream will pick something up.

[TonyHSD]

That’s too much and for too long, when this happens you should press the accelerator more and it might quieten down. 
The smoke from the exhaust looks like the typical water vapour from condensation on cold start. Check coolant levels, oil level and condition of both. 
What is the mileage of the car and has it ever been cleaned egr valve, egr pipe, egr cooler, intake manifold and throttle body?  
If not,  this is the most important periodic mainstream that it is not in the Toyota books but should be done every 100k miles. 
Highly recommend not to keep driving the car like that as these knocking and shaking are violent and can cause transmission damper failure or total engine destruction. 

 

[roks]

Thanks Tony, its at 203k miles, the AA man got there before me.

It was a spark plug, he had a spare used one in his van, car back to normal. Someone didn't change the spark plugs during the "major service" by the looks of it.

Apparently AA man told my brother to change all 4 plugs ASAP.

I've been looking at the prices, £50 for 4 plugs? last time I looked for my Auris it was under 30 quid, its the same models, sc16hr11.

 

[TonyHSD]

2 hours ago, roks said:

Thanks Tony, its at 203k miles, the AA man got there before me.

It was a spark plug, he had a spare used one in his van, car back to normal. Someone didn't change the spark plugs during the "major service" by the looks of it.

Apparently AA man told my brother to change all 4 plugs ASAP.

I've been looking at the prices, £50 for 4 plugs? last time I looked for my Auris it was under 30 quid, its the same models, sc16hr11.

 

Ok, that’s good you know the problem now. You still need to clean all that above the egr as preventative maintenance. Spark plugs only buy from dealer or dealer via eBay but not anyone else because many independent traders are selling fake ones and your problem can happen again. 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254376840140?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=vV-jwrewS2G&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=p34UK1z2T4m&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[Cyker]

Hah, I was gonna say "Is that what one cylinder not firing sounds like??" but too slow  

[Bernard Foy]

Jeepers that sounded like an old one cylinder Vintage Marshall tractor. Glad that the fix was so simple & inexpensive 👍

[BhxTrev]

Hi roks,

Wow, years ago with the cars as they were you’d be describing blown head valves or really excessive bore wear. So glad mate it was neither & the solution was so simple. Makes me realise I’ll be making sure I buy plugs from my Toyota dealer, no matter what the cost. 203k miles - very impressive. Mine has only done 45,000 miles so hope that don’t become a problem yet!

 

[roks]

1 hour ago, BhxTrev said:

you’d be describing blown head valves

I was dreading that too  🙂

[Joseph D]

On 3/5/2023 at 9:20 AM, TonyHSD said:

Spark plugs only buy from dealer or dealer via eBay

And the good thing is the Iridium long life plugs you get from the dealer will last 120,000 miles so £ per mile they are not that expensive.  I would expect them to be £13 or £14 from the dealer, so not expensive.

My brother once bought what he thought were genuine Toyota plugs (in Toyota boxes 'n all) which lasted 25,000 miles.  They turned out to be counterfeits.  Lesson learned.

[TonyHSD]

2 hours ago, Joseph D said:

And the good thing is the iridium long life plugs you get from the dealer will last 120,000 miles so £ per mile they are not that expensive.  I would expect them to be £13 or £14 from the dealer, so not expensive.

My brother once bought what he thought were genuine Toyota plugs (in Toyota boxes 'n all) which lasted 25,000 miles.  They turned out to be counterfeits.  Lesson learned.

In the UK spark plugs replacement intervals are 60k miles on Toyota cars. I did replaced my first set at 80k miles and they looked good enough for a lot more miles but since then I do replace every 60000 miles and all works fine. If spark plugs goes bad they can cause premature failure on the coils and these are way more expensive than the plugs. Best to stick with recommended intervals. 👍⚡️

[Joseph D]

I guess that is one of the advantages of doing my own servicing, I can change the plugs at the interval recommended by Denso and NGK (manufactures of the plug recommended by Toyota).

But if you are OK with changing plugs at half life, that no skin off my nose – have at it.

[AisinW]

Denso is the OEM for all Toyota. The original SC20HR11 is replaced by hotter SC16HR11 to reduce fouling because some pre-2015 model burns oil. Always buy from known reputable resaler. Either local stores or Autodoc/similar. 

Watch out your coolant level carefully, some Prius/Auris may develop head gasket failure over time. Replace the waterpump with Aisin or OEM pump just in case the impeler starts swelling and gets higher friction and eventually siege. But it may take 150k miles or more but it does not mean 300k miles water pump has problem either. It is a kind of random, it corroded internally from water intrutions. 

213730_2010_Toyota_Prius_Repair_Manual_-_maintenance_-_engine_oil__filter_change.pdf