P0A93 code

DTC P0A93 "Inverter Cooling System Performance". This is telling you that the inverter has overheated.

1. In this case it was not OK to clear the DTC and continue driving because the inverter is in distress. I would suggest that you either let the car cool down for an hour or so; or else find a convenience store, buy a bag of ice, and place the bag on top of the inverter in hopes that will help to moderate its temperature. Given your #6 above, at minimum remove all grill blocking.

2. It is not OK to drive the car any significant distance while the inverter overheating condition persists, unless you are trying to destroy the inverter.

3. It is true that 2004 to certain 2007 model year Prius are eligible for an inverter coolant pump replacement under the limited service campaign currently in effect.

4. A correct assumption on your part.

5. If the car will become READY then the inverter is OK. Look at the fluid in the inverter coolant reservoir. If the pump is running then you should see turbulence in the fluid.

6. I would remove all grill blocking. Certainly that did not help the inverter overheating situation. It is quite likely that without any grill blocking the inverter would perform fine at 45 degree F ambient temp, without a functioning inverter coolant pump.

 

Not totally sure about the temperature, but you don't need the engine running to see the turbulence in the inverter coolant reservoir. When I tested mine a few weeks ago the car was in "ready" mode but the ICE was off and I could still clearly see the turbulence to indicate that the coolant pump was running.

 

Yep, as long as the pump is good, and the system is not airlock, you will see turbulence in the reservoir, in Ready and possibly even in IG-ON.

The only way that the car knows that you have a dead inverter cooling pump is when the inverter coolant gets overwarm. Since you have reset the code, the car believes that everything is OK and will operate normally. By removing the grill blocking, you could conceivably drive for a few more months before summer temps get things hot enough to trip the alarm again. But you should get it to a dealer as soon as possible -- and there is little risk in driving it to the dealer.

 

drive the same direction and with the same temparature and see if its overheats again

6) I still had the full grill blocked, top and bottom, outside temperature was 45° F. Is that a problem?
YES ;-) with a full grill block

 

Why? He's already said that he can't see the inverter coolant pump turbulence so it would be foolish to drive it in a manner that risks overheating it again.

Just get the inverter coolant pump fixed as soon as possible.

 

a. The inverter coolant pump should be running at all times when the Prius is either IG-ON or READY.

b. This means that your inverter is still working, but all is not well since the inverter coolant pump is dead.

c. There's probably some time lag before the hybrid vehicle ECU logs the inverter overheating DTC.

As your car is no longer under warranty and you would be responsible to pay for replacement of a failed inverter, I encourage you to make it a priority to have the inverter coolant pump changed sooner vs. later, and to drive the car as little as possible, prior to this repair.

 

On the one hand, since the inverter survived a 70 mile trip, you would think that it should survive 10 mile trips.

On the other hand, should the inverter fail after one of these 10 mile trips, please do not say that no one warned you against driving the car. It's really up to you and your preference for risk taking vs. risk aversion.

 

I expect you mean the fluid in the reservoir is cold... without the pump moving the fluid I'm not surprised... the fluid in the inverter I expect is not cold.

 

Hello every one!

I am the proud owner of a 2001 1st Gen Prius. Finally after 115,00 trouble free miles the Triangle of death came on my data screen. A trip to Advance Auto revealed a code of P3130. "Inverter coolant system malfunction". OK.... So after help from these pages amongst others I found many interesting things. 1) That no fluid flowing through the Inverter cooling reservoir when the key is at the second position regardless of engine temperature is a bad thing. 2) The driver side of the bumper has to come loose. 3) Removal of driver side front wheel and front and bottom portions of fender aprons and splash guards is necessary before the fender can be loosened, enablening you to remove the drives side headlight. After you seperate the FENDER from the bumper where they meet. 4) Getting the air out of the pump to get it to flow was the biggest headache!!

Now you can see the pump and replace it! I was able to successfully remove and reuse the original hoses and clamps. The biggest problem I had was bleeding the air out of the hoses and pump. My last resort finally worked restoring coolant flow and turbulence through the reservoir. I positioned the pump as low as possible and upside down while still hooked up beneath the inverter. BE SURE TO REMOVE THE SERVICE PLUG FROM THE TRACTION BATTERY in the trunk. Kneading and shaking the hoses and pump until coolant flow is detected in the reservoir. Reassemble after bleeding all air from the system through the two bleeder fittings on the small hoses. Finally I erased the codes by disconnecting the aux. battery for about 35 seconds.

 

I'm glad to hear you were successful with the inverter coolant pump replacement.

There is no need to remove the orange traction battery interlock switch since you were not exposed to the high voltage cabling. However if it made you feel better to do that, then no worries.

 

Well Pat, I had my arm up against those three orange Cables coming from the inverter and since they are the same color as the service plug I took the prudent step to disable the HV battery. I must admit though, when I was trying to bleed the air out of the blasted thing while it was running I did have my forearm and wrist against those orange cables. As we can see I lived to tell about it without incident.

I would feel awful if some one were to get fried even though I might just be "lucky".