Every time I turn on my car after it being off for a while it makes a weird horrible rattling noise as if something came loose and its shaking violently in the engine bay area when car is turned on. The noise lasts about 2-3 seconds, and doesn't happen again if I have the car on for a bit, unless its been off for a while.

Any ideas on what the issue may be? I have about 23k miles on the car and it's a 2012.

 

Mine does it along with many other members. From what I know it is the lifters, normal operation so nothing to worry about. (I am at 30k)

 

Lifters? So there is nothing I can really do to get rid of it? Sounds so awful and annoys me.

 

Valve lifters. No, there isn't anything you can do and if you take it to the dealer they will tell you it is normal.

 

Guess I have to deal with it... Noise is so annoying. Thanks for the info though.

 

One thing to check is your ballasts for his lights if you added hid's. mine came loose and was rattling so bad but sporadically.

 

What year is your cars? I have 32k km's on my 2013 and zero noises..

 

I have a 2012 with no HID's. I want to say a screw might have fell out from my supertek short shifter and it's stuck some where down there because my throw was loose and I checked to see if everything was fine and it was, except the hex bolt screw was missing and replaced it thinking it might eliminate the noise but it didn't.

 

Sounds to me like your camshaft timing gear is noisy(vvti gear). There is a TSB out for the 2011-2012 TC's to replace it. I've replaced many on various Toyota's with the 2AR-FE engine...a common problem. That said, it will do no harm to your engine.

 

How much does it cost to replace the part/obtain the part?

 

I would guess parts would cost upwards of $400. Gear itself is around $250 plus several gaskets. Takes roughly 3-4 hours of labour to replace.

If you are a 2012 with 23K miles you shouldnt need to worry about cost, warranty will cover it.

 

So if I take it back to the dealership, I should just mention that camshaft timing gear? Or is there a more tact way to go about it, or just be direct?

 

I would make my appointment with the complaint:

"Check for brief rattle noise from engine at cold startup"

The most important thing you need to do though is drop your car off at the dealer the night before to be sure its shut off long enough to make the noise.

What you are hearing is a clearance in the gear which takes a second or 2 to fill with oil at startup. So the longer it has for all of the oil to drain back out of the gear, the better chance of the tech hearing the noise.

I've yet to replace one on a TC but I've done Camry, Rav4, Venza, and Highlander with the same engine. Parts required are identical.

 

I dropped off my car at Toyota last Thursday night and came back at 9 the next morning for my appointment. I had a Toyota tech and service guy with me and I turned the vehicle on myself and verified with the tech that he heard the rattle and he did confirm. I didn't hear back for about a couple days and I called yesterday and was told that the parts arrived yesterday and that they will be replacing them today. I'm basically waiting for a phone call back now.

Hopefully the issue is resolved when I get my car back. I'm also glad that they didn't complain about my aftermarket parts even though the tech said I had a lot of aftermarket parts when I only had an intake, pulley and HID's.

 

cool to see they don't care much for aftermarket parts. this can be a useful thread. knock on wood i haven't had any similar noises yet but mine is only at 14K...

 

To the OP, did they replace the VVTI gear as I mentioned? And has it fixed your issue?

 

Yep, my issue was resolved !

 

Awesome, glad to hear it!