$1,836 repair at my local dealer!

Hello community,

As most people here I can have come looking for advice...

About three weeks ago my wife and I were driving down the road and the red triangle came on with the nav screen saying "problem" followed by what looks to be a temperature icon. We were about 30 minutes away from town and I immediately turned around and came back. During that 30-minute ride the above symbols we'll come on then they would go off and then come back on a few minutes later than that go off again.

We have an AutoZone at the edge of town so I pulled in there turn the car off pop the hood and checked for coolant. The reservoir was full can I heard the typical whirring sound that it does after turning off your car. We sat there for a few minutes and then decided to just get the car home.

Skip about three days forward and the car is driving fine. That is until the check engine light came on so I stopped at the AutoZone and ask them if they could read the code.

The code that they came back with was p 1151. Which they said was the heat storage tank failure.

This sounded ominous to me of course so I went back home park the car and jumped on priuschat to check out the code and see what others have gun in this situation.

Several of the comments stated that the coolant heat storage tank is not critical Tina driving of the vehicle and should not cause any issues. The tank itself would cost $700 to replace and they felt that it was a needless repair due to the fact that it is mostly for EPA type stuff only. As a matter fact that tank is not even included in later generations because they found that it wasn't an added benefit.

So now I knew what the check engine light was about and so I continue to drive and with no issues for a few days. It was then that the red triangle and temp alarm came back.

At this point I took it into the dealership for them to check it out. The check engine light was no longer but the red triangle had me worried. So I left it there for them to check out.

They call me later that day said they couldn't reproduce the issue and to bring it back in when it was currently having the issue. Oh and by theway, my front brakes were down to the bare metal and needed to be replaced. All in all they had to replace the rotors and put new brakes on. This came to the tune of $1,600.

I took the car home and drove it for a few days with no issue. Then the red triangle came on again. So I took it straight to the dealership walked up to the service desk told him that it was going on right now but it only happens when you're going down the road you can't sit still and reproduce the air it has to be moving. The service manager told me that there master technician was on vacation and to bring it in next week which was about four days from that day.

I left there rather frustrated but parked the car for probably 3 or 4 days and the day of the appointment I was driving it around with no issue so I didn't take it in. Few days later which was yesterday I was on my way home from work and then try and go came on again along with the check engine light at same time this time.

I went straight to the dealership when I got back in town parked the Prius handed the service manager the key fob and told him I'm leaving it here until you tell me what's wrong with the car.

I told him this whole story including researching here on priuschat that the error code I received was p1151 coolant heat storage tank and that it was advised on here that it was not a required feature for the car to drive correctly.

He just called me back about an hour ago and said " hey I found out what's causing the problem. It's the coolant heat storage tank. It needs to be replaced. You're only going to do further damage to the vehicle by driving it this way. Run you $1,836 to get it fixed. If we order the part and the next 2 minutes I can have it here tomorrow and get it fixed for you."

I told him that that was the very thing that I told him when I brought in the vehicle and that it was not an essential part of running the vehicle to which I was greeted with crickets. I told him that I was not going to make a decision today and that I would be in to pick up the vehicle tomorrow and pay him whatever it cost to have the vehicle looked at today.

What I need to know from you here in this community IS F what I had read on here previously is true that the heat storage tank is not essential for driving and if so why is the red triangle coming on?

If I do this repair that will be over $3,400 that I have put into a vehicle that has a hundred and ninety-five thousand miles on it. My concern is that replacing the heat storage tank will fix the check engine light but after that is fixed we will still have the red triangle problem and have to get more work done rather than them troubleshooting and finding out what the red triangle issue is they are just going on the check engine light. Could the two be related to just the heat coolant Heat storage tank or is it most likely as I think two separate problems that they are only focusing on the check engine light and we'll hit me with another charge after that fixed when the red triangle comes back on again...


This is just too frustrating!

 

the $1600 for the brakes and rotors was only the 3rd repair I have had to do in 195,000 Miles so I wasn't too deep into it but now a total of $3400 (If I have them replace the heat storage tank) in a month and a half and I'm starting to question everything...

 

Thanks guys/gals!

Yeah I have pretty much resolved myself that I will not be using this dealership any more...

As jc91006 said, this isn't a typical Prius failure so I think I should be able to get a decent used replacement and I was able to find a coolant heating tank for about $50 at car - parts website

Thanks Patrick Wong for the info and I will try to look up your procedure on purging the air out of the system because the mechanic I take my cars to said he doesn't work on hybrids. He did some minor stuff on my Prius but since the cooling system is tied into the hybrid portion, he won't work on it. Says it's too much of a hassle for him... HA! At least I appreciate his honesty... lol

So, I may pursue fixing this myself or I may not do anything and just check the DTC codes at autozone every week.

I really don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars on a reader if I can help it.

Mendel Leisk, good idea on sending a copy of the break job invoice to Toyota for them to look over...