chargerfan

iTrader: (2)

there was someone who considered a lawsuit for a car he purchased that came with alot of issues, I wanted to ask.... what ever became of that?

chargerfan

iTrader: (2)

hey everyone, bump from the dead

a buddy of mine had a HG blow on his CT and it got me wondering..... was there ever a recall or TSB to address this issue?

E46CT

Not that I heard of, at least not a recall. What year/mileage was his CT? Did he experience any symptoms before hand or was the failure sudden? (Shaking etc)
and what were his oil change habits?

The way I understand Toyota techs are dealing with this in 2021 and the best way on a preventive basis or at the starting signs of shaking etc, is to:

1) Blow out the EGR cooler IN PLACE with compressed air (no need to clean, soak, remove etc)

2) REPLACE (not clean or repair) the EGR valve with BRAND NEW

3) REPLACE (not clean or repair) the intake manifold with BRAND NEW

4) CLEAN OR REPLACE the EGR pipe

5) BONUS (my take) why not, replace PCV valve.

I don't have a CT anymore unfortunately (I miss it) but if I did, this is what I'd do. And this is what I'd recommend to friends to do. Friend has a 2016 Prius V w/ 90k miles... trying to encourage him to get this done but he's not really paying me any attention. LOL.

chargerfan

iTrader: (2)

2014, first year of the face lift, 100k miles. he states the failure was sudden .... but I would take that with a grain of salt, as owners sometimes "forget" to leave out details.

Not sure about his oil change habits. I am curious on that one ..... does more frequent oil change intervals alleviate this issue? (at risk of sounding dense, but I cant see how that would impact the egr being clogged or less clogged?)

I have been more than proactive, warning others about my fate. 2 ignored me and are dealing with or have dealt with a blown HG


After the CT, I moved onto a GK5 Honda Fit. Less luxurious for sure, but returned 40 mpg and was zippy. I now am an EV owner and honestly not sure if I could ever go back to a CT.

yeldogt

Lexus did address the intake on our 15's -- they replaced them with the updated part and it did stop the knock at startup -- or most of it. We never had the problem on our CT's like we did on the earliest 2011 Prius that we had (I switched over my company to hybrids back in 2012) -- because of the problems in Japan at the time the 2011's went into 2012. It seems that the old design somehow was more prone to condensation inside -- this moisture caused misfires. I was also told that the moisture trapped dirt from the EGR system in the small passages. The latter seems more of a problem

I'm not sure how much the knock from the intake and the Head Gasket are related -- other than it can't be good for the engine.

IMO -- the real problem is the clogging of the EGR cooler -- and resulting system. As the cooler starts to clog it no longer is working as well and the exhaust going to the engine is hotter -- now you have more heat at the head. Also the soot is going to clog other parts of the system -- the passageways in the intake manifold that deliver the EGR gas to the head start to clog in uneven ways. This changes the air gas mixture to the cylinders and the engine starts to run funny. On our first one when we got in the 120k range the car had been using some oil and did go through a period where it ran funny -- very infrequently. I just thought -- well the car has 120k on it. Toyota changed the plug to a hotter one when we went to do the service ... the old plugs looked fine. We did not notice much difference after the plug change. After a while the car no longer used oil and I really can't remember at this point how many more miles we went (lots) before the CEL game on for the EGR system. It was then that I did a deep dive and learned a lot about the system. In our case the cooler was toast -- no amount of cleaning worked and the valve was stuck and I did not want to risk cleaning it. So I ordered up the new cooler and valve and related gaskets. This included the intake -- reports of this clogging were all over the place. In our case -- this was true. Both the intake and the tube from the EGR valve had a lot of stuff in them. We discovered that the EGR pathways in the intake were blocked. My theory -- once the EGR pathways were blocked in the intake -- the head no longer got the hot gas and stopped using oil. After this service the engine ran fine with the occasional weird knock in the winter as it always did ...... the car never used any more oil.

We had 4 of them ....... two of them never used any oil and never had the service. One started to use oil and I ordered the parts and it was fine. They all went out past 200k and two are still in service with my employees -- two were totaled in accidents. Our oldest Prius are 16's and they have a different system. Our 15 CT's are 80k and 90k ... so still watching. The Lexus dealers may or may not know much about this problem -- it depends on how many CT's they sold. The Toyota dealers saw lots of them due to the Prius being a big seller.

Toyota did change the Intake manifold on the Gen 3 Prius engine -- Sometime very early into the 3rd model year. But, since our 15 CT's got an upgrade under the service program -- this fix must not have been enough.

KKM

I cleaned the whole EGR system and IM at 70k and it was quite a bit of build up already, more the EGR, the IM wasn't too bad yet. Knowing what I saw, I probably would've cleaned it 50-60k. I'm pretty good about keeping up with maintenance and change the oil every 7k. Probably will repeat the cleaning at 110k when I replace the spark plugs and coolant.

cablivi

Hey chargerfan, thanks for posting this as I recently started getting the shakes.
here are the things I’m going to have installed and bought brand new. I bought a few things please let me know if I’m missing anything.

1.EGR Valve
2.EGR Pipe cooler
3.Full Gasket Sealing
4.4pcs Fuel Injectors
5.Intake Manifold “the one you recommended”
6.PCV Valve
7.Oil
8.Oil Filter
9.Transmission Fluid

spark plugs and ignition coils already changed!

Am I missing anything or if you could add to what I should do? Thank you again!