I blew up the inverter????

if you only put 5k miles on the car in a year, chances are you're not driving it frequently enough to keep the battery charged. the 12v battery is a tiny thing, not like typical cars where it has to have enough power to crank the engine.

jumping a prius backwards usually does blow the inverter. we first reported that from the shop a couple years ago, and unfortunately very few reverse polarity jumps spare the inverter. i'm not saying that you did, but when the situation does occur, the inverter usually bites the dust.

seeing how your salesman (really, why didn't he refer you to service?!) at the dealership instructed you what to do, i think they should carry some liability for having an unqualified individual providing advice on their behalf. especially when they have qualified individuals on site...

have they tested the 12v battery?

 

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I think Patrick and Galaxee both have great points and they should be followed in their respective posting order.
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In my post #20 I tried to outline a scenario that would explain how you could have correctly jumped the car and still had this problem. If you are confident that you correctly connected the jump cables, then you should doubt the diagnosis of a failed inverter.

My guess is that the mechanic looked at the DC/DC fusible link, saw that it popped, and concluded that the inverter was bad without any further thinking or testing. Hence my suggestion that you have the fuse links and the 12V battery replaced, and see if that is sufficient for the car to start.

Or have the car towed to another dealer for another opinion, although that may not be realistic if you are in a less-populated area.

By the way, if you were able to start the car and it ran for 5-10 minutes, that was insufficient time to recharge the battery (assuming that the battery could be recharged.) You would have to leave the car READY for a couple of hours or longer.

 

it really shouldn't take more than a half hour or so.

so ginny, you jumped the car and it ran, but you shut it off. then the next time you tried to start it, it wouldn't start right? so after the jump, you charged it overnight and then the tow truck guy tried to jump it.

just making sure i'm understanding you here.

so your original jump from the other car was successful. you just didn't run it long enough to restore charge in your 12v battery. but, and i'm speculating without the prius tech here (i'm at work, he's out working on a car), that possibly the overnight charge could have done some damage if not set at the right setting.

or maybe the tow truck guy reversed the polarity.

i hope they replaced the fusible link before assuming the inverter was dead. considering there was a 2 day lag time, i have a hard time seeing where they would have just jumped to a conclusion.

 

You go for it girl, I have confidence that you will prevail!

As to the jumping point under the hood. I think that that is a great idea (Not withstanding the problems of reverse polarity!) The advantage is that the jump point is far away from the battery, and hence any arc from the cables can not ignite any stray hydrogen. I still stand by my idea that it would be very simple to install (factory) a reverse current device that would protect the car. You hook up the cables, it senses proper polarity and turns on and energizes the battery. If it senses reverse polarity it simply wouldn't turn on, perhaps flashing a red led warning of reverse polarity. I bet my electronics guru could build one for ~$50. Toyota could do it for ~$.50!

Good luck, keep us informed.

Icarus

PS. I agree with Evan et al about throwing the baby out with the bath water! In spite of your bad experiance Toyota makes great cars, and the Prius is a great car. Given the price of fuel, what else can do what it does.

Don't get suckered into a fire sale either!

 

The simplest approach would be to place a 120A diode at the dedicated jump terminal. The anode would be where one would hook the positive jump cable. The cathode would connect to the existing jump terminal. If the jump cables were reversed the diode would not conduct, hence no harm would be done.

One disadvantage of this simple approach is the 0.7V voltage drop through a silicon diode. Further, this would not protect the circuitry if the car was jumped at the battery.

 

Might the dealer have reversed the polarity, and now are blaming you to cover their butts?

 

I am an attorney (but not licensed in your state). The first thing you need to do is get an expert opinion from someone you have confidence in as to what failed and why. Unfortunately, this is an area where the car's complexity and uniqueness work against it as you will probably be hard pressed to find an independent mechanic with expertise in working on these cars. You might get extraordinarily lucky and find a former Toyota trained Prius mechanic who is now in an independent shop. Failing that, your most probable next best bet is another dealership. The problem is if you sue Toyota and/or the dealer you will have the burden of proof that the part was defective and not caused by something you did. You, as a non-mechanic, will not be legally competent to express such an opinion. Without an expert to support your position, you will lose as you will be unable to meet your burden of proof. You can be assured Toyota/dealership would have the appropriate experts in court My advice is to try to get someone who can qualify as an expert to inspect the car. If you can't find someone, or if you do and they don't support you, then plan b is to make as big of a fuss as you possibly can with consumer affairs, local TV stations, etc. in the hope your "squeaky wheel" is the one that gets oiled. Good luck.

 

GinnyErns, in case this good advice from Patrick Wong got overlooked: try replacing the 12V battery and all of the blown fuses. You may have got lucky, and the inverter might not actually be destroyed.

 

See!! I told you it would be easy. (Ginny, take this post with you!)
The whole beauty of the engine bay terminal is that you don't have to use the battery terminals at all! the manual would warn against jumping at the batter for that reason alone!

A .7volt drop would be fine, assuming you are using a fully charged battery to jump (~12.6 volts) All you need is enough voltage to boot the system. I think that it is about 9v if memory serves. What does such a diode cost retail/wholesale?

Icarus

PS To further my other point for lawyers: I have know of a case that when someone could have foreseen such an outcome AND there was a know simple fix, the manufacturer was found liable. Seems pretty clear cut to me, but I'm no lawyer,,,I don't even play one on T.V.

 

Hi Icarus,

Well, the Mouser Electronics May-July 2008 catalog, p. 474, lists a Vishay 150A diode rated at 400V for a price of $24.10 for qty 1, and $15.67 each for qty 500. This diode is more than is needed for this particular application; however the price is not trivial.

 

To be precise, three fuses blew: DC/DC fuse link, DOME fuse, ETCS fuse.

 

$15.67 for 500. I wonder how much (little) for 1 million? My guess is a bit cheaper!

Icarus