Auris Hybrid 2011 - new owner - maintenance and improvements...

[mtl]

10 hours ago, Gerg said:

The circular rubber sealing ring, on closer inspection, has an intricate channel cast into it to allow the spark plug area to vent (when heating and cooling?). Perhaps you've spotted this.

I have a suspicion that a combination of the windscreen wiper scuttle, the rocker cover plastic cowling, and the trough around the spark plugs can unintentionally direct rainwater to drip onto the coil areas, particularly when parked. 

If the engine is cooling down and the vent hole in the rubber seal is pointing the 'wrong' way, then it could draw any water in the immediate area into the spark plug void as it cools, and the air contracts a little.  This is just a theory!

The cure?  If there is any credibility in the above theory, then you could clean the rubber seal on the problem coil, and turn it so the vent hole points 180 degrees the other direction. 

Thx for sharing, I will verify that. So, the went should be turned towards the front or the rear of the car?

 

10 hours ago, Gerg said:

I imagine you already knew that the brown staining on your ceramic insulator base is a corona effect and is quite normal.

Yes, I was not worried about that ;).

 

[Gerg]

12 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

Thanks for sharing this information 👍 Very interesting and helpful. Can it be the issue of coils been over tighten, they only need very little torque 10Nm which is as soon as the bolt stops spinning. My spark plugs has rust on the threads, the coils looked clean to me. With one has a bit of rust up near the seal. Also is it possible if water enter the tube to go down the cylinder via the spark plug  thread and to cause misfire at cold start? 

If I remember correctly, the coil bolt hole has a steel collar inside the plastic, so over-tightening it only risks stripping the thread in the aluminium rocker cover.

I wouldn't have thought some moisture in the spark plug area would cause a misfire, not least because the rubber coil 'nose' has a snug fit on the plug insulator, but having said that, one poster (Uncle Stinky?) did get rust inside the rubber nose, which did eventually become a misfire (coil was replaced) when it got bad enough.

The theory of water getting in by the rubber washer vent is only a theory.  I would be tempted to turn the rubber washer a half turn from where it was.  On our cars the rubber washers were turned to random positions from the factory.

I think it would also be worth checking for aluminium casting lumps and bumps around where the coil washer sits, unlikely but no harm in checking this.  Other suggestions are welcome!

Here is the rubber washer from our 2013 car:-

The closest I have to the Toyota manual for the Auris is a Toyota manual for a Prius plug-in 2009 onwards.  This is the page on spark plug torque values:-

[TonyHSD]

1 hour ago, Gerg said:

If I remember correctly, the coil bolt hole has a steel collar inside the plastic, so over-tightening it only risks stripping the thread in the aluminium rocker cover.

I wouldn't have thought some moisture in the spark plug area would cause a misfire, not least because the rubber coil 'nose' has a snug fit on the plug insulator, but having said that, one poster (Uncle Stinky?) did get rust inside the rubber nose, which did eventually become a misfire (coil was replaced) when it got bad enough.

The theory of water getting in by the rubber washer vent is only a theory.  I would be tempted to turn the rubber washer a half turn from where it was.  On our cars the rubber washers were turned to random positions from the factory.

I think it would also be worth checking for aluminium casting lumps and bumps around where the coil washer sits, unlikely but no harm in checking this.  Other suggestions are welcome!

Here is the rubber washer from our 2013 car:-

The closest I have to the Toyota manual for the Auris is a Toyota manual for a Prius plug-in 2009 onwards.  This is the page on spark plug torque values:-

Thanks a lot. Helpful as always 👌

These rubber insulators on mine are sticking to the coils and stay in place as they ever been. I had no water or rust issues for now, just was surprised to see spark plugs had rust on the threads, but now remember that this is happening when two different metals are connected each other. Thank you. 👍

[mtl]

2 hours ago, Gerg said:

 

The closest I have to the Toyota manual for the Auris is a Toyota manual for a Prius plug-in 2009 onwards.  This is the page on spark plug torque values:-

That is a great info. Can you share the page nr. of this info, because I am using the same service manual and I was not able to find this. Though it has around 8.000 pages…

[Gerg]

53 minutes ago, mtl said:

That is a great info. Can you share the page nr. of this info, because I am using the same service manual and I was not able to find this. Though it has around 8.000 pages…

Unfortunately, I can see no page numbers or references in this copy of the manual.

The first page looks like this, for comparison to yours:-

I downloaded this manual from Hybridlife.org, a (predominantly) French forum for all brands and models of hybrids.  I've looked today and I can not find it anywhere on that site.  I'm sure it was under a 'Resources' tab a few years ago.  Unzipped, it is about 500MB.  I think it has been withdrawn for copyright reasons.

You had to be registered/logged in to the site to download it.  Can't see it now though!

The full title of the manual is:

Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid ZVW35 Service manual library

But, Google doesn't quickly find a copy of it on another site, sadly.

[mtl]

After 2.5 months and 5.000 miles (7000km) the oil is from optical point of view still in excellent condition. I will recheck the oil condition at 7.000 miles, but I do plan to go for 9.200 miles (15.000 km) oil change interval, which according to my opinion and my use case should be unproblematic. Car is mainly driven 30 miles one way (or longer distances) with moderate speed at 60mph. Practically no city driving, maybe 2% of the distance, 95% of driving is only the driver inside. I would say that are the best possible conditions of use of the car to minimise the wear and tear of the engine and oil.

[TonyHSD]

19 minutes ago, mtl said:

After 2.5 months and 5.000 miles (7000km) the oil is from optical point of view still in excellent condition. I will recheck the oil condition at 7.000 miles, but I do plan to go for 9.200 miles (15.000 km) oil change interval, which according to my opinion and my use case should be unproblematic. Car is mainly driven 30 miles one way (or longer distances) with moderate speed at 60mph. Practically no city driving, maybe 2% of the distance, 95% of driving is only the driver inside. I would say that are the best possible conditions of use of the car to minimise the wear and tear of the engine and oil.

Oil looks good 👍 

Many stressing out unnecessarily and change oil at shorter intervals thinking they will preserve engine for longer but after a certain miles and age any car starts consuming oil. Stick with Toyota recommended intervals which for present days aren’t that long anyway and you won’t have any problems. 

[mtl]

I agree.

Mainly the oil consumption can become a problem with lower mileage cars because many owners disregard the very important fact, that if you drive in harsh driving condition (very low distances, city driving, towing a trailor, etc.) you must shorten the oil change interval.

[mtl]

4 months and 13037km in and I have replaced the oil. I have not added any oil in this time. The oil was almost to the top mark and after 130037 km it was still higher than 1/3 above the minimum mark. And this is with the fact that I have a small oil seapage at the chain cover. As you can see the oil still had the golden reflection, so I would say the oil is just fine. After the oil change there was no different feel of the engine reving.
Car has now 166.000 km. Oil was Mobil 1 ESP X2 0W-20. Car is mainly driven on the highway 50 km one way (or longer distances) with moderate speed at 95km/h. Practically no city driving, maybe 2% of the distance, 95% of driving is only the driver inside. So, for me the best possible conditions of use of the car to minimise the wear and tear of the engine and oil..

Another remark: when I bought the car and made an oil change at 153.000km it had Toyota oil inside with oil service done at Toyota dealer at 140.000km. The oil that went out was completelly trashed. It was a long time that I have seen so trashed oil. That oil did 2000km with the previous owner (only short driving) and 11.000km with me, so perfect routes for the oil.
I do not know what was the reason for the oil to be so trashed. I can list three reasons:
- those 2000km of short distances killed the oil
- the oil was not replaced at the dealer (only billed) because they new the owner will not do a lot of miles to the next service
- Mobil 1 ESP X2 oil is so much better than Toyota oil. Interestingly, I can get both oils for almost the same price
 

[TonyHSD]

Toyota 0w20 oil its actually made by Mobile 1, very likely to be same or similar as yours, however a fuel contamination from been driven on short journeys previously it’s most likely the reason the engine oil was burnt dark colour. Here I just checked mine at 7800 miles since last change and looks similar to yours, it does smell a bit of petrol but nothing extreme so I am carrying on until 10k miles or another 3-4 weeks. 
I did run a wd-40 treatment on hinges and all door seals. Somethings that I can highly recommend to all car owners if their cars are 2 years old or older. 
The red cap wd-40 classic is for the hinges and locks, basically all metal to metal friction including the drivers door emergency key. And the yellow cap silicone spray applied on cloth and wipe all around the rubber seals. This rejuvenate the rubber, displace water and dirt and prevent seal from sticking  when freezing cold. 👌

 

 

[AisinW]

Tony is right. Toyota 0w-20 is made by Mobil1 but they have several revision in the past few years. The newer TGMO (toyota genuine motor oil) has similar characteristic as Mobil 1 ESP X2 with lower pouring temp <-50C. 

Many gasoline engine consume more oil than diesel from low tension piston rings. My prius 06 consume 0.25L per 5k miles at 200k miles even I changed it every 5k miles. But my 3.3L V6 did not consume any oil at 200k miles. So, it is normal to consume ~ 1L per OCI or 10k miles after we reach 200k miles. 

Corolla pre 2006 1.6L and 1.4L, Avensis 1.8L pre 2005 or USA Corolla 98-2002 are very sensitive to long oil change interval and burn tons of oil. 

[TonyHSD]

In the winter when freezing cold and I keep the car in ready mode for hours 4-6 every night although the. Engine doesn’t idle all the time it consumes a lot more oil than the summer. I already added around 1.5ltr or even little more at 7800miles. I know I should probably change it earlier at this time but I am not going under the car right now and it will be in few weeks time. I am also gonna do an egr cleaning and pcv valve replacement. 

[AisinW]

Fortunately I have just big enough garage that I can do oil change indoor. I change it every 6 months  now because I got cheap oil from local people who bought oil but never get a chance to DIY. They have the receipt from reputable online seller.

[TonyHSD]

No worries for mine, I done a smell test and it’s confirmed, the oil is good for another 2000 miles 😂

[AisinW]

Very interesting smell test Tony. I cannot believe my nose as it is clogged most of the time. I found €30 0w-20 full synthetic oil from Kleinanzeigen/Gumtree and  I stocked 20L of oil and some of them will be 5y old in 2026. Part of it from cheap Mannol 10L for $40. 

I found that the valve cover gaskets and gaskets in hybrid cars rarely fail beause it never gets too hot. The V6 3.0,3.3, and 3.5L are much hotter and the valve cover gasket  often become crackers. They are much hotter and even the grass under my car when iddling got burned.  

We should concern more about EGR valve and intake cleaning more often than rubber  gaskets.  Many 2ZR-FXE also have really small leak from front timing cover or oil pressure sensor gaskets.  Mine has leaks too but brake fluid spray once a year is enough without collecting enough oil that collect dust.  Front timing cover is expensive job and often need to remove the engine from the car to get it done right. 

I am wondering how is Tony's timing chain tensioner conditino when it was failing.  Is it stuck or gummy?

[TonyHSD]

5 hours ago, AisinW said:

Very interesting smell test Tony. I cannot believe my nose as it is clogged most of the time. I found €30 0w-20 full synthetic oil from Kleinanzeigen/Gumtree and  I stocked 20L of oil and some of them will be 5y old in 2026. Part of it from cheap Mannol 10L for $40. 

I found that the valve cover gaskets and gaskets in hybrid cars rarely fail beause it never gets too hot. The V6 3.0,3.3, and 3.5L are much hotter and the valve cover gasket  often become crackers. They are much hotter and even the grass under my car when iddling got burned.  

We should concern more about EGR valve and intake cleaning more often than rubber  gaskets.  Many 2ZR-FXE also have really small leak from front timing cover or oil pressure sensor gaskets.  Mine has leaks too but brake fluid spray once a year is enough without collecting enough oil that collect dust.  Front timing cover is expensive job and often need to remove the engine from the car to get it done right. 

I am wondering how is Tony's timing chain tensioner conditino when it was failing.  Is it stuck or gummy?

Smell test it’s a joke of course 😂👌 but the oil looks good and clean, so no worries there. 
The timing chain tensioner had no signs of fault when outside the engine, comparing to the new one they seemed working the same., both empty , no oil inside, when they have oil in then it’s a different story. 
The symptoms when it fails are rattling at cold start very similar to vvti sprocket however with higher frequency and slightly lower noise overall, the sound it’s same as you have a timing chain in your hands folded in two and you are swaying with your hand and the chain links are hitting each other and make a metallic sound. The vvti sprocket noise is more pronounced metal to metal clunk , very similar to bad dmf on vag cars. 👍 
Btw I have all usual oil weeps on all usual places plus small oil leak ( weeping)  between engine and transmission, that looks like main seal but actually most likely it’s not because has been there since 2018 and 60000 miles when discovered, and it’s not going any worse so never bothered to repair and not loosing too much oil almost 5 years and 170k miles on top. 

 

[AisinW]

The timing chain tensioner rattling is something new for me. I never had this issue. The rear main seals rarely leaks in Toyota. Neither the crank and cam seals. But the leaks on the pressure switch is very common. 

Very often, we just wash the engine and keep driving as long as we have no smoke or oil dripping. 

[TonyHSD]

2 hours ago, AisinW said:

The timing chain tensioner rattling is something new for me. I never had this issue. The rear main seals rarely leaks in Toyota. Neither the crank and cam seals. But the leaks on the pressure switch is very common. 

Very often, we just wash the engine and keep driving as long as we have no smoke or oil dripping. 

Well, it is very common fault on many Toyota with 1.8 engine hybrids or non hybrids. You can hear it every time you change the engine oil.
It’s the first thing that happens after you start the car with new oil in., not immediately but 1-2 seconds later and lasts 2 seconds too.  
Happens because the tensioner holds a bit of oil if not faulty and on immediate start there is a pre tension set to the timing chain but then after the oil is still not sucked because your filter is dry and the tensioner becomes dry too and loosened, but then in the next 2 secs the oil been sucked, pressure built in and the engine its quiet again. 
This is how I noticed it on my car as I have 12 hrs break between driving each day and almost every time I start the car next day I could hear the same noise as when I had oil change. Since the change no more rattling. I will do a video to share soon, 3 weeks time. 👍

[TonyHSD]

Here is my promise of the video.
First start in maintenance mode after new oil was filled in. 👍

You can see how brake fluid is moving down in the reservoir when the brake pump is working prior to set the car in maintenance mode. 👌

The timing chain rattling is happening 2 second after initial start up of the engine and only last for a second or so. 

[mtl]

Huh, I have not yet heard this sound on my engine... But yes, it has less than half of your mileage ;).

[TonyHSD]

2 hours ago, mtl said:

Huh, I have not yet heard this sound on my engine... But yes, it has less than half of your mileage ;).

You haven’t probably noticed when changing the oil but it does happen on any car even brand new ones. It’s not about mileage or engine wear it’s how the hydraulic tensioner works. 👍