2004-2009 Prius Morning Death Rattle! Causes, SOLUTIONS, and how I fixed mine for $50! 2nd Gen

In this video, I explain exactly what is happening in the Second Gen 2004-2009 Prius when they make that horrible knocking rattling sound after sitting over night, appropriately known as the “Morning Death Rattle”. I also explain the common causes and solutions as I walk you through the last time this happened to one of the Prius at our dealership.

[joeseng]

529k miles on mine and still running strong. I do my own preventative maintenance.

[mikekilovictor]

This is a phenomenal video. Clear video, clear discussion, clear progression of things to check. Thanks for this

[MauriceMercado]

I had the same problem on my 2008, turned out It needed new spark plugs and I cleans the mass flow sensor and throttle with throttle cleaner for good measure and it run new again. Found this video after the fact....thanks for making this.

[frankroper]

I replaced the coils and plugs in mine and ran a couple bottles of fuel injector cleaner through it and after about a week it smoothed out. I can sit in it now with the A/C running and when it switches to gas from electric no vibration. I have had it going on 4 years and it had that rattle the whole time so I know I did something right! Mine is a 2010.

[brycefrazier]

Drew,
You are obviously a highly experienced mechanic in general and a Prius Whisperer in particular. Most of us do not have a ready supply of spare parts on our shelves but that does not detract from your expertise. Valuable information here.

[jbooth]

2008 Prius with 328, 000 miles and still going strong.

[xkyoutlaw]

Yo nice video my friend. The sound effects are funny. Don't worry about the haters that want an east fix. There's no one fix for all. My friend has a 06 prius, and some mechanic told her she needed a new engine. I started looking around YouTube videos and even took out the intake manifold. Mind you, I looked at 3gen intake manifold cleaning. It wasn't the same for hers but I did. Did not fix jt lol. We ordered the spark plugs and replaced them. Still rattled like hell lol. So I was like man let me check this ignition coils and presto. One of them little bastards was not sparking. Unplug one at a time and if you have a bad one the engine idle won't change once unplugged. when one injector bad, it will rattle. When you Unplug 2 of them the engine starts fine but dies shortly after. Went to ebay and got 4 new coils denzos and problem fixed. You just reminded me about the injectors also. I didn't get thaybfsr but now I'll think about that always. I bought an old truck and i cleanned the injectors myself with carb cleaner to make sure they are working great. Thanks for your video and helpful solution. To everyone out there, don't panic and go by the elimination process. I started making sure she didn't have a blown head gasket. There's videos about that for prius. Once you are confident, your head gasket is good. Is a process of elimination. Hopefully, you can get your car running with no new engine needed. Good luck to all fixing your cars. Thanks again for the video. To all the cry babies about his video being too long. make your own or go cry to your mama. Lol.

[RhythmBoy]

thumbs up for the really accurate "ratatatat" sound

[danemcbaine]

I have a 2nd and 3rd gen and I've neglected sending some fuel injector cleaner through every year like I used to but this video makes me think it is probably worth it. Thanks!

[nekske]

Very Clear video from the beginning til the end.Thank you for this information.

[chasebagherieh]

Thank you so much Champion. I just did check the injectors and sure enough the o rings were missing or were torn. I did change the complete set of o rings and the rattling and misfire is gone now 100%.

Before that I changed the ign coils and plugs and that didn't change very much the problem.

Best

[naturegirl]

2014 Prius coolant poured into the cylinder. Toyota dealership got me a used 2015 engine installed with 65k miles. So far so good 50k additional miles later. What’s even more shocking is that I’m still running on the original battery.

[madcowusa]

Should I preemptively replace my original fuel injectors and coil packs at 245, 000 miles? What about the PCV valve, it's original too. Don't want to get stranded for a few bucks in parts that I can install myself. thx, great video.

[bobbylopez]

Sorry, meant to post this to the big strain originally…

2013 gen 3 with 185k. First was pulling codes for spark plugs or coils. Changed the spark plugs, still got a rattle although not terrible. Also decided to clean the mass airflow sensor. All was better, still small rattle. Also decided to clean out the manifold and pipe that goes to the EGR…changed the PCV valve just because I was down there and it’s cheap. Now getting a code for a bad mass air pressure sensor, and now the rattle is terrible…like never before! So I’ll change that today and hopefully that will do the trick! Thanks for a great video!

[brianshanahan]

I like the hand gesture at around 3:5x for "spark"

[peterad]

My car is a 3 owner car 275000 miles. Neglected for its second owner. I would have come up with a laundry list of reasons the car is a terrible car in high school but here I am at 40 driving one, it’s a dandy little car not very exciting to drive but never gives up and is a really usable design . Mine has issues with increasingly worse oil consumption and that rattle that I’ve never been able to put a finger on. Good content man, I’ll subscribe and take a look at your stuff 👍 and maybe take a look at my injectors 👍

[CESAR-ioob]

Love the sound effects! Beautiful! 😂😂 Otherwise, great information bro! Thanks a lot!

[jazamaraz]

Really appreciate this video. There's a lot of good information crammed in it and presented in a logical manner. Thanks for making it. I subscribed.

[GraveDigger]

Epic explanation 👍
Pretty straightforward stuff, but I'm going to favorite this if I ever have an issue.

[danielferreira]

I just want to say thank you! This video is a blessing!!