If you've owned your beloved Prius for long enough chances are by the time you get to 200,000 miles you will have gotten the dreaded knock. We're not talking about the knock at your window while camping, no this one is far more stomach churning.
Most of the time it starts on a cold winter morning after the car has been sitting for a few days. You hop in, press the start button and instead of a nice quiet whirr to life you hear what sounds like a large rodent caught in the radiator fan. You turn it off, pop the hood to inspect and come up empty handed. On the second attempt you notice the car shaking violently as though it's misfiring, and you wouldn't technically be wrong.
What's likely causing the ruckus is a blown head gasket.
Coolant from the pressurized cooling system forces small amounts of coolant through the head gasket leak and into the cylinder. Water doesn't compress like air does which causes the knock noise. Unfortunately, this is a fairly common issue with all 2010-2015 Prius, 2012-2017 Prius V, and we're even starting to see it pop up on some of the 2016+ Prius as well!
Don't panic just yet!
Fortunately if you do some research and find a mechanic that specializes in this repair it could cost you as little as $1,000 to get you back on the road and sipping fuel again! We've had several head gasket failures over the years on our shop vehicles and we were fortunate enough to come across a shop just a couple hours south of us in Sacramento that has done a phenomenal job getting all of our vehicles taken care of and back on the road as quick and painless as possible!
If you're in need of head gasket repair and are anywhere near northern CA give PK Prius Repair a call at (916)755-8895. Tell them Eric from Prius Offroad sent you and they will get you taken care of!