2012 PIP - Bad Inverter

Not to mention the fact that these voltage inverters are just electronics. They can even --- gasp!! --- be repaired. Yes, that's right, a "mechanic" could actually repair the failed components with a soldering iron, instead of merely replacing the whole the entire thing.

 

I haven't met any "car mechanic" with the ability of performing actual electronic's repairs for an Authorized Automotive Service Center, unless is their part, vehicle and money at risk.
I interpret the $10,000 explanation charge as pure BS from the toxic dealer.

 

The term for this type of repair is A Electronic Mechanic, which differs only slightly from a Electronic Technician. For the most part a car mechanic does not do this type of repair. For the most part he is a replacer. This is not to denigrate a Auto Mechanic, as some are capable of actual repair. With a dealership, it's all a question of time. On the Gen 2 forum there was a case(s) where the inverter was opened up and the offending and obvious, shorted bit or piece was replaced. With most micro Electonic cards this is impossible nowadays.

 

Question of time and ROI; authorized car service centers do not get paid on "parts" repairs, only exchanged parts, and parts with a high ticket value, they must return the cores for evaluation; and in the case of this, one in a life time Hybrid Inverter replacement, I can assure you that a Toyota Team of Field Engineers will be investigating this issue to its fully extent.

 

EETimes had a tear-down article about the Prius inverter. I'd say that sometimes it's fixable, and sometimes it isn't.

Special Issue: Inside the Toyota Prius: Part 5 - Inverter/converter is Prius' power broker

 

. Like anything.

 

For these expensive components, it would seem smart for Toyota to just do a swap at the dealer, and send the problem unit to a specialized center where they could decide if the unit could be repaired and put back in service as a reconditioned unit for someone else down the line, or if the unit should be scrapped. It would be way too expensive to have technicians for this kind of thing at every dealership.

 

Toyota Carlsbad has a good service dept. Toyota Escondido stay away. That's my opinion.

 

That was from the Gen 2 Prius. I did attend some of the sessions where a Portelligent guy (likely the author of the above) went over various systems. I posted a link to pics of the torn down Prius and some of the slides at Embedded Systems Conference Prius Teardown | PriusChat.

The Gen 3 Prius inverter externally is quite different from Gen 2 (see Picasa Web Albums - cwerdna - Prius Connect...). Not sure about the internals though.

 

I would guess the internals are quite different too, because as I recall they shrunk its size by some significant percentage for the Gen 3 Prius.

I would imagine the PiP inverter is different from even the standard Gen 3 Prius, but I suppose I could be wrong. Maybe they designed the new inverter from the ground up to support a more robust, continuous plug-in operation anticipating the PiP being released a few years later.

Glad to hear you got it back and the original estimate was just way off the mark. $2,800 sounds much more reasonable for a brand new inverter replacement.

 

congrats! all the best.

 

Makes me think a good time to sell is at the 3 year mark

 

Why? IIRC, the inverter's warranted for longer than 3 years.

 

I think he is saying before the warranty runs out. One could also buy the extended warranty at that point if a lot of these types of repairs are reported over the next couple of years.

 

Toyota FAQs | Send Questions to Toyota Customer Service

 

Thanks, I wasn't thinking about the hybrid warranty, but rather the 3 yr/36K mile warranty.

 

. Did the dealership give you any hint of why it may have failed?