Warning lights and gas engine loss of power

Hello -- many thanks to everyone for all I've learned lurking here over the years. I have a 2009 Prius with about 72k miles on it. Today, after about 45 minutes of highway driving, these lights all came on: master warning, the "check" indicator, VSC, the circle brake indicator, and the hybrid system warning on the multifunctional display.

I've had this happen before due to the well known gas cap issue. I stopped, reset the cap, and went on my way. About 45 minutes later, I had a loss of gas engine power. After restarting, the engine worked fine. I turned around and limped back home -- the ICE failure happened a couple more times, always working again after stopping. When the engine was working, the car worked perfectly normally, good gas mileage and all, just as always.

So, clearly something else is going on here other than the gas cap. Since it's Sunday, nobody's open to call. Any ideas what this might be? Any hope it's covered under the powertrain warranty? It's pretty scary when the engine just stops working! I'm dreading a huge repair cost. :/

Thanks for any advice!

 

Both levels are right in the middle of where they should be. The car's cooled down from driving now, so hopefully those are accurate levels.

@JC91006 -- agreed. I thought there was a 10 year/100k warranty for the powertrain, but after googling, it looks like that's only in CA. I'm in MN, and it looks like 8 years/100k here? If it ends up being related to the hybrid system, I hope the warranty will apply.

 

Nope, when the car was running, it was totally fine. Everything seemed perfectly normal. Aside from the very colorful dash, that is... It's worrisome that after searching the forum for about an hour, I can't really find anyone else with exactly the same symptoms. The dealership is about a half hour drive from me, so it will be interesting to hear whether they recommend I drive or get a tow. ^^

 

I don't know anything about cars (single woman), but I attempted to check the inverter pump after some googling about it. The reservoir is sort of on the right side of the engine compartment, correct? Looks like the one in the picture at the end of this page? Inverter coolant level | PriusChat

It was full of fluid. I put the car into ACC mode. Due to how I was parked, the reservoir was partially backlit by the sun, so I had a nice view. I couldn't see any agitation in the fluid, and I didn't hear anything or feel any vibration on the reservoir or the black hose going to it. Not sure what a left strut tower is (sorry), but I didn't hear anything at all running. Does this mean my pump failed?

Lights now are same as the original -- at first, the master warning, MFD hybrid system warning, and "check" lights were on, followed shortly later by the VSC and brake lights.

Since I'm apparently out of warranty, I'd like to take the car to a shop closer to my house (The Foreign Service in Roseville, MN, if anyone's heard of it). Would they have the Toyota scanner you're talking about, or do I have to go to the dealership to get the codes read properly?

 

I did the thing where you press the startup button twice, and the warning lights were all on, so that should have been the right mode for checking this. I looked up my VIN on Toyota's website, and it said nothing was applicable to my car. It would be nice if this were covered by warranty, except for having to go to the dealership. I'll give them a call in the morning and tell them my suspicions and see if they think it would be covered by the recall.

Thanks everyone -- I'll sleep a lot better tonight knowing this is likely a pump and not the entire hybrid system or something awful. I really hope I didn't damage anything further by driving it home. :/

 

Just wanted to post an update. I took the car to the local shop -- they do have the Techstream software. They said the codes do point to an inverter pump failure, so good job!! They also said, as you all did here, that the pump was subject to a recall. This morning, I called the dealership and asked them to look up my VIN -- they confirmed there are no recalls for my car. I'm the only owner of this car, and I'm pretty sure the pump was never replaced. So maybe it's just not part of the recall for some reason? Anyone have experience or tips for getting Toyota to pay for this fix?

 

Well, this is interesting. Turns out the pump was not bad, it was just unplugged. So they plugged it back in, and everything seems to check out!