My 2001 Prius needs a new inverter. The car will not run. Has anyone replaced their inverter? Any thoughts on doing this?
A car that does not run can be caused by multiple problems. Could you describe how this diagnosis came about? Bob Wilson
The car came to a complete stop while driving, and the "!" warnings came on , both on the dash and the computer screen. The car was towed to my regular Toyota Service Dept. who used their diagnostic tools to determine that's what is wrong.
Thanks! Did they give you an error code? Will you get the old part back? Are they also replacing the inverter coolant pump? How many miles on the car? Did you have it since new? Having an inverter fail is pretty rare so I'm interested in what might have caused the failure. GOOD LUCK! Bob Wilson
Sorry for the delay - I had to wait for the server to be updated. I bought the car in December 2001, from a dealer who purchased it at a Toyota auction. It had been a demo car for another dealer and had 6000 miles on it. I am the only driver since then. There are just over 102,000 miles on the car. I've taken it in for routine service for the life of the car. The car was not in any major accidents. Someone once ran into the back of it when it was parked. The other person slipped on ice, and I had to have the back bumper replaced. The Toyota dealer where my car has always been serviced, sees a lot of these vehicles, and has been seeing them since 2001. My car was the second car in two days, which had this problem, but those were the only two they'd ever seen. Both cars were 2001 models. I think as a test case, this could be a sign of things to come. The car is in very good condition, and is now a secondary vehicle for me, because I primarily drive a company car for my job. I'm not sure I want to invest in fixing it, but figure I must still have some value in the car. The dealer says the part alone is $4000, and they aren't sure what the labor will be. I'm wondering if there is a cheaper way to fix this. They also say they can't tell me if there are additional problems with the car until the inverter is fixed. Since first typing this response, I sold the car to the service manager and he is going to replace the inverter.
A cheaper way to fix the problem assuming that the inverter had indeed failed, would be to install a salvage part. This is now moot since you've disposed of the vehicle. My guess is that the service manager will take the salvage part route.
He says he will put in a new inverter. I'm friends with him, and intend to follow his progress. I told him I found salvage parts on-line, but he prefers to do the new. Since he's a Toyota service manager, I'm sure it will be cheaper for him than me. I have another vehicle, so didn't need to keep the Prius. I'm just really sad to be at the end of the life cycle for the Prius. I'm going to be curious to see if the inverter problem is the common end of the road for all Prii (is that the plural of Prius?).
I think it's already safe to say that a dead inverter is a rather *unusual* end-of-life condition for a Prius, even a Classic. They're fairly overbuilt and well-protected, as a rule. There are also many separate components inside it, which Toyota generally refuses to point-diagnose, treating the whole thing as a black box. The original problem may have also been caused by a cooling issue, perhaps via the inverter coolant pump dying, so ask your writer friend if he winds up replacing any parts ancillary to the inverter as well as the unit itself to get everything fully functional again. . _H*
Since a salvage inverter part is not that expensive and the labor required to replace that is within a reasonable DIY effort, I would not say that an inverter failure would be the "end of road." A more likely "end of road" for the Classic would be a transaxle failure or a traction battery failure. The transaxle replacement requires removal of the engine and transaxle, hence it requires substantial labor content which goes beyond most DIYers. There seems to be a limited supply of salvage traction batteries for Classic, and the prospect of spending $3-4K on a new battery for a car which may only be worth $8K or less would be unappealing.
Re: Inverter Replacement NEED HELP I need some help on putting a new inverter in my 2001 Prius how do I get the old one out? I also need to know where I can buy a new inverter cooling pump. I checked Rockauto but it dosent look like they have one. If anyone has step by step instructions that would be awesome. Thanks
techinfo.toyota.com This is a pretty big job as you need to observe several safety precautions since high voltage is potentially involved. Hence I suggest you spend $15 for a subscription to download the relevant repair manual pages. I buy my Toyota parts from: Champion ToyotaWorld The inverter coolant pump is not very costly there. Good luck.
I have removed and replaced the inverter on out '08 while I was repairing the body damage. It was not difficult at all.
