Red Triangle + Many lights + Denial = bad mojo (kinda long)

Please don't try this at home!

Red Triangle (I'll dub Master Caution) plus CEL, VSC, and traction or brake warning light came on yesterday morning on my way to work. Engine was still running and there was no power loss, so I pressed on to work, figuring I'd drop it off at a dealer during lunch. A mile or so further down the road, the brake warning light came on. I could tell I was relying on "reserve braking" and the car was pulling to the right as I braked. Brakes were also much touchier once they engaged. As I exited the freeway, I pulled off to a gas station check under the hood to see if any fuses had blown or anything was obviously amiss. After restarting, I was able to get the VSC and trac/brake warnings to disappear, but not the master caution and check engine light. The MDF was showing the car w/ exclamation point. At this point, I had lost air conditioning though. My thoughts of a dealer became somewhat more immediate, but I needed to get to a meeting, so I pressed on as work was only a couple more miles away.

My mind immediately thought "Inverter" problem :-( I remembered when washing the car on Sunday briefly spraying dust off of various components under the hood and hope that I didn't fry something in the process (I've done that a dozen times before so I can't imagine this is any different). However, I had just gotten gas, so maybe it was gas cap related or bad gas, though that hardly explained the symptoms. That's the problem w/ being technical - one wants to figure it out on their own.

I made it to work and started searching PC for other owners w/ same issue. Nothing exact, but I gave it the shot of turning off/on the power a few times to see if the condition would clear, but to no avail.

Drove the car to/from lunch. I had A/C this time and the car seemed to perform normally, though with what seemed like a slight loss of responsiveness. Master Caution and CEL remained, but other lights never appeared.

Then in the afternoon, a rare flying opportunity presented itself in Scottsdale. I elected to try to make it from West Phoenix, not realizing just what I was getting myself into. As I entered the freeway and reached 60mph, all lights came on. A mile or two later, the brake system light and VSC warning buzzer came on and stayed on. I cycled A/C to see if that was affected and noted the compressor didn't restart and only blew very hot air. Mind you, it was 111F outside. I pulled off again to check, then elected to push on with caution. By the time I got to AZ51, freeway power was surgy at best with the engine hunting between RPM ranges, and battery power coming in spurts. Car made it all the way to Greenway and into scottsdale, before deciding to "shut down" to neutral a few miles from my destination at a light. A few embarrasing light cycles later it restarted long enough to get me 20mph and coast through the intersection, relying on idle engine "power" and neutral. This happened every couple of lights, so I pulled off and gave it 5-10 min to cool and was able to slowly make it to my destination. I noticed when shutting down for the last time, the coolant pump ran much slower, which sounded like 12V may have been pulling from aux battery. Again, strongly pointing to an inverter issue.

A few hours later (after the round-trip flight to Marana, AZ and back), I elected to make it to the nearest dealer (and not bother risking any further damage or idiocracy making the 30 miles home), knowing that if it didn't make it, I was in for a tow. Before departing, I looked carefuly through fuses to see if anything obvious could be "fixed" (nope). Car ran fine w/ A/C this time, but I babied it the 2 miles there. I managed to drop it off at Right Toyota 20 min before they closed. Service advisor stated it sounded possibly like an inverter issue, perhaps the inverter coolant pump (based on the progressive loss of functions which restored after a length of time, this makes total sense). They're starting w/ $110 to diagnose (ouch!), but at least gave me a concession on their cost ($30/day) for a rental car. Of course, I'm at 100,700 miles, so any "warranty" issues would be "good will" at best.

Lessons learned - don't press on w/ nasty check engine lights. Here's to hoping my desire to fly didn't cost me an inverter, and that washing under the hood didn't get me there.

 

Slightly low in the reservoir, but not below the low mark.

Dealer just called. They confirmed it was an inverter coolant pump failure to the tune of $475. They also claimed random misfire codes came up as well and offered an "emissions service" which involves cleaning throttle body, injectors, etc. for $199 (coupon price). Kinda steep, but at 100k miles, I'm aware that the throttle body was somewhat nasty looking upon my own visual inspection, so I conceded. Hearing horror stories of how folks have fried cat's and whatnot doing it on their own, I'd rather have someone else be liable for that ;-)

I asked about coolant exchange on the engine side while he was doing the inverter pump and he claimed that it was the same loop and that it was all getting exchanged. I don't quite agree, but I'll keep an eye on that one (i.e. we'll see how many quarts/gallons of SLLC are on the bill).

Plus side the guy kinda knew what it was right off, down side is they're pushed into the upsell of other stuff :-(. Considering I was prepared to pay WAY more, I'm happy I'm getting off for what I'm getting off with and if this is the only problem I've had out of pocket at 100k, I'm good w/ it. Others may not agree though.

 

Probably right - though the misfires could have originated long before (I recall feeling a miss here and there, but no CEL).

Do misfires store w/o CEL, depending on severity?

I've always taken caution to avoid ignition wires (or in our case, ignition packs) when spraying. Most spraying is aimed at radiators to blow the bugs and crap out.

 

Oddly, I thought I could hear it running, but that noise actually seems to be the throttle servo and not the coolant pump (verified by feeling same vibration on the throttle itself that gets more intense when you attempt to move the throttle). Next time I'll remember to physically feel the inverter coolant lines to verify. When the pump is operational, you should feel a vibration on the line from the pump and coolant flow.

 

Oddly enough, a temperature warning never appeared. Master caution is bad enough, but the driver has little other info that an overheat situation is there if the hot light doesn't appear ;-) Live and learn and count my blessings that my car karma wasn't entirely done for the day.

Anyway, I have the car back. To answer the previous question, they only exchanged the SLLC in the inverter loop (1 unit @ 19.90), so I'll have to have the engine SLLC swapped at another time if/when warranted.

Notes on the invoice say they replaced pump and reflashed ECM. Car felt more responsive, not sure if it's the ECM change or the fuel system cleaning, or just coming out of the Mazda 3 rental w/ the 4 speed slush box is the difference.

I do consider myself lucky and know to directly divert next time. Funny thing is in an airplane, I wouldn't have thought twice about putting it down w/ that kind of warning staring me in the face!

 

Denial is a powerful beast. I'm well aware of the looming longer term effects and will be extra vigilant of anything amiss electrically.

Scangauge is only useful to me in times like this. I don't mind knowing what's going on w/ my car, but after 100k miles, I kinda know what it's doing on a regular day. I'll consider the investment, but doubt it would have saved me any money or grief in the short term (except knowing the DTC and how to respond sooner).

 

We've got two here, which would be worth it provided SG works between '02 and '04. I'm not so sure flying to CA or WA is worth the other two though ;-)

As for totalling, I doubt it. A salvage inverter and skilled installation would be far less.

 

Guess my implication of "skilled" is someone who has equipment to test the inverter for additional DTCs as well as competently handle the inverter coolant loop purging. I know I would not throw it at the average shade tree grease monkey.

Is there any visual examination to visually recognize overheat damage, other than slight discoloration of PCBs, etc.? Obviously I don't have x-ray vision and cannot see within caps, mofsets, etc.

 

I feel you've misunderstood my approach. Our inverters are not unique in their complexity compared to other closed systems. Installation and pulling of DTC's is the limit of any properly equipped, average tech's skills when component-level repair is impractical or impossible. Anything more and their hourly labor cost likely wouldn't be worth going the "used" route. Again, just opinion though.

Either way, I have no illusions of an inverter repair being cheap, regardless of the approach. There are riskier routes and more up-front expensive routes. It's for each person in a situation to evaluate risk vs. reward based on their needs and finances.

I took a risk, and thus far have gotten lucky. My message to others (and you seem to agree on this point) is that not everyone will be so lucky if the same choices are made. Please learn from my initial ignorance, however don't use this platform to continue to attack it.