I have a 2010 Prius with the instrument panel looking like a Christmas tree: ABS system off, red triangle of death, LCD screen announcing hybrid system problems. The DTC codes are P0A94 and P0A7A. These are both inverter-related codes. The inverter coolant pump is pumping red fluid. The traction battery bar graph is at roughly 3/8. The car runs in something akin to limp home mode with a reduced speed that is too slow for freeway driving. The CVT seems fixed at a gear ratio that causes high engine RPM. The engine runs constantly. How far can I drive the vehicle on surface streets in this mode to get it to a dealer? I think the vehicle might be a candidate for Toyota's Gen III enhanced warranty coverage on the inverter, though the malady could be something else.
Lucky you, make the appointment and take it quickly to the dealer. You should have it all covered under warranty. Do not risk overheating and blowing the head gasket.
With P0A94, the car's 12 volt battery is not getting charged. It's powering all of the 12 volt stuff in the car while you're driving. When it conks out, you'll need a tow from there. In my younger days, I had the alternator in a car conk out as I was driving home from Cleveland, and I was able to get home, about an hour from where it conked out, by turning off all the electrical accessories I possibly could. The lights were very dim and it was just beginning to miss as I pulled in my driveway. If it had stalled I would not have been able to restart. That car had a bigger 12 volt battery than a Prius has.
If it’s warranty Toyota will reimburse for a tow? Either way, I’d tow; driving may compound your problems.
How many miles would you need to drive to get it to the dealership? Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
The deed was done yesterday. I drove the vehicle to the dealership on surface streets, a distance of approximately 15 miles. It is not easy driving a vehicle whose instrument panel is lit up like a Christmas tree and a "Danger Will Robinson!" beeper drones constantly. Within the first 5 minutes I turned off my hearing aids. I can't hear squat with my hearing aids off. The traction battery's bar graph quickly dropped to 2 bars but then began to rise to 3 bars after I drove 10 minutes. I think the regenerative braking subsystem within the malfunctioning inverter module still works. The vehicle made the normal regen groaning noise when I decelerated to a stop light. To assure that the 12V battery did not poop out during the trip (was the 12V charge subsystem functional?) I emptied the cargo area and installed another, larger 12V battery in parallel with the vehicle's 12V battery. I wanted to make certain that I didn't walk home simply for lack of 12V battery charge. Bill Testes Toyota (what everyone here calls them) of Carmel, Indiana cheerfully accepted this vehicle for service sometime next week. They mostly deflected my cellphone snapshots of the OBDII screens showing the P0xxx codes pointing to the inverter: "We gotcha covered on the codes...our guys have a better OBDII scanner...we'll get whichu next week regarding what it takes to fix it..." My 34 year old daughter picked me up in the parking lot in my 2006 Prius and then proceeds to punch out one tail light on a tractor trailer truck parked behind us in the dealership lot. This has been Prius Week From Hell.
That was good thinking, and served you well. Yes, there are separate modules inside the inverter housing, and the P0A94 code is specific to the one that supplies the 12 volt power and charges the 12 volt battery, so that was the problem you had to work around. The "regen braking subsystem" is the same as the "go forward subsystem" (just with the electrons moving the other way), so if that had been out, you'd have had no option but a tow.
Bill Testes Toyota did agree to replace the inverter under a Toyota warranty extension. The vehicle is a 2010 Prius with roughly 150k on the odometer. Bless their capitalistic hearts, the dealership's repair estimate also proposed items that were inappropriate and simply based on odometer mileage, not actual need. The estimate recommended new spark plugs, coolant, and oil change when the vehicle received a new motor last month to deal with the infamous head gasket malady. (The leaky head gasket caused misfires so severe that the car tore up its flywheel damper.) I hope some folks at Toyota corporate grimace a wee bit that a $32k vehicle with 150k miles on it needs a new motor, new inverter, and probably soon a new ABS module. The 2010 Prius wasn't Toyota's finest hour after a gangbusters Gen 2.
301,000 I replaced the head gasket that just started to leak. I will turn 318,000 on tomorrow's drive. Original inverter, and brakes, except pads. The only other semi major items were the hubs. Eventually, the struts and shocks... I am super happy with my 2010 Prius!
To preserve a 3rd gen engine requires a regular, thorough clean-up of the carbon accumulations in the EGR. I doubt anyone was expecting that when they bought... And Toyota still doesn't acknowledge the issue.
