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2008 Prius - Sudden Warning Lights -Triangle / Check / Etc.

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Jedi2099, Oct 18, 2012.

  1. Jedi2099

    Jedi2099 Junior Member

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    2008 Prius
    On my way home tonight - As i was making a turn near my home i got a bucnh of warning lights that came up. Red Triangle, VSC, Check engine and i belive the Brake Warning (The little Circle with the ! inside).

    The Car drove fine till i got home (only about a mile away at that point). Looked under the hood- nothing that stuck out as being busted but only a quick glance. If i still get the lights in the morning, Off to the dealer. Dont have a Code reader so cant pull aything here at home from the car.

    If i had to say anything else and have no idea if its related or not is the A/C seemed to get abit weak in the minutes before the lights turned on - I remember intentially cranking it up which is something i normally dont do. because the A/C is normally great in the car.

    I have to say in the 4.5 years ive had the car - this is the first time ivee had this kind of issue. The battery died and had to be replaced like 9 months ago but i dident get the amount of warning lights im getting now.

    Based on that little info - Any thoughts on what to have the guys look at if have to take it in?

    Thanks,
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    how many miles on her?
     
  3. Jedi2099

    Jedi2099 Junior Member

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    Have to go peak at the dash but somewhere around 29,000. Im not what you call a high mileage driver. Drives are all city so lots of stop and go and basically short mileage. Think its why the battery died only after 3.5'ish years.
     
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    wow, that's a bummer. sounds too low to be the inverter coolant pump. the pump on miscrms 08 just went at about 50,000 miles i think? but it died and couldn't be driven.
     
  5. Jedi2099

    Jedi2099 Junior Member

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    Upate: Well - I got a call from the local mechanic i normally use for regular stuff - Codes came back as the Inverter coolant Pump.

    Hes not setup to fix it - so referredme to the Toyota Dealer right down the street from his shop and his personal contact there to try and cut down on the the "markup" they might hit me with for the replacement pump and service.

    I was told its driveable in its condition - Distance between shop and my place is under 10 miles - so i was told just to take it back home for the weekend and drop if off monday to fix the pump.

    Why exactly arent the 08's under that recall TSB since i keep reading about pump failures as much as i read about the 07's and back. My car dosent even have 30k miles on it.
     
  6. nh7o

    nh7o Off grid since 1980

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    Hmmm. This is not encouraging. It is odd that some people can go 100K or more with no pump failure. Others seem to get a premature failure. This very scattered statistic points at some manufacturing tolerance being too wide, I would think.

    Just curious, did you hear any unusual sound from the pump, as in a rattling from the bearing?

    Also, the symptom of A/C weakness you noted was an indication that the inverter was overheating, and the controller limits the power through the A/C converter to protect the rest of the electronics. If one notes that situation, it would be time to check the pump for function or weird noises.