Inverter blew up and car won't start (no ready) - 2007 GS450h

welcome!

if you are using tech stream, subscribe to the online service manual at tech info.toyota.com for troubleshooting tree.

all the best!

 

I spent some time over there and it was a lot of “did you take it into the dealer” responses .

But this was in the 4th gen RX section, so the GS section might be different.

It they were a bit “snooty” over there.

 

Welcome to Prius Chat .

Some questions:

• Is the orange safety plug seated properly?
• How is the 12 volt battery voltage after sitting overnight?
• Any corrosion on the bus bars?
• All connections are tight?

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

I have successfully handled a highlander hybrid 2006 with such a problem.

You have to replace that inverter again. The inverter you got isn't OK.

You stated something about right hand drive. Is your car a right handed one, or it's the inverter you replaced that's a right hande one?

Can you open up the donor inverter casing, exposing the PCB, and compare with the burnt one?

Meanwhile, in the highlander I worked, that problem made the car suddenly stopped on the highway, when it was driven by the client. Couldn't go into drive and all that.

I had to order a replacement inverter assembly, and that fixed the problem.


Dxta

 

My instincts still tells me problem is from the inverter. Get a used one from a junk yard, and replace.

Do recharge the battery to also see what happens.

You don't need any kind of programming on the ignition system, since you cycled it more than 30times.

Fixed the items, then erase codes.

 

It doesn't need any special kind of programming. I do lots of these stuffs.
Get an old inverter assembly, and install em. It would work.

 

Nice progress being made dude! Replace that inverter like I have said, and should be OK!

 

I'm pretty much in the same position as you (well, still waiting for the inverter, hope it's good as I got a LHD for RHD prices... ). Inverter overheated once during a trip back home - 4 hours at a border crossing in the morning, floored a bit afterwards to avoid a truck overtaking me - the car went into limp mode. Stopped, checked the error, checked for coolant leaks, checked pump, cleared errors, restarted car, went home (~600km) carefully. Lots of flooring back home to make it fail if it was about to - failed right after accelerating hard from 60kph (went out at about ~100). ~20deg. ambient outside. At any rate, same errors as you, but the big battery fuse was fine. I love the smell of BBQ---inverter in the morning

From what I've gathered, the most probable causes are:
1) Overheat due to inverter coolant pump failure (or maybe it's just out of spec - how do we know, can we overhaul them?)
2) Overheat due to air in the system (bad bleed, coolant leak...?)
3) Overheat due to clogged radiator / malfunctioning fan
4) Old electrolytic capacitors go boom - has anybody ever replaced those as a preventative on a HSD vehicle? I mean, it seems like a common practice on industrial equipment, and new inverters cost ~5k euros... (funnily enough 5k for a prius, rx400h, gs450h, probably for lc500h/ls600hl too haha)
5) Overvoltage/current/whatever due to failed transmission - this is what I'm most worried about, as I had a weird noise from underneath when the car was being loaded onto the tow truck - we tried pulling it with rope for ~20 meters before but that got us scared. So at any rate, if the transmission breaks and locks up in a bad way inside, it might overspin one of the motors. I thought that the gs450h transmissions are bulletproof, until I read this:
(can't post links yet, google "lexusownersclub getriebeschaden-und-dadurch-inverterschaden", should be the first result)
It's in german, I went through the whole thread using translate. Basically transmission failure during hard acceleration, took out the inverter as well. The engine was fine apparently. There is no description of what exactly failed (or at least I haven't found one yet, haven't scoured the whole forum). At any rate, common failure is the hydraulic pump, apparently a simple bearing swap tends to bring it back to life. Haven't found another case of transmission failure on these cars, but still...

Bottom line is, I'd read up on the transmission and open it up just in case, especially if there are any weird noises from around there. If something's broken, it might be new transmission time. Check the oil pump

...And most of all, hope that you can enjoy your rocket now

n.b. power button is just the throttle response, as far as I'm aware. The car accelerates at about the same rate when it gets going.

 

Thought I'd share a bit more info, for any that come after.

The dirt cheap inverter that I got works. No weird transmission noises either... not sure where the "clap clap" sound during the attempted towing came from. The new inverter was all wet upon arrival and I think the vehicle that it came from was in a fire at some point... or maybe the package was left outside in the rain during shipment or whatever. At any rate, after a short acceleration burst on the uphill the water on the outside evaporated in white smoke. A week and a half later and it's still going strong - temperatures go up to ~110 Celsius (~30deg. ambient) right as I floor it but then sharply drop to ~80 sustained during full throttle acceleration from ~110kph, hitting speeds that I won't share here. Not sure if the coolant pump speeds up or the radiator fan starts working overtime... or maybe the inverter helps spinning up the engine/providing extra power while the engine revs up/etc - at any rate, with 22deg. C ambient it wasn't getting past 90 (70-80 during light accel/heavy regen, mostly mg1). Was hitting upwards of 120 with a bad inverter coolant bleed, so make sure you do it proper

From what I've read so far it looks like it's the transmission oil pump bearings - harsh and slow shift ups/downs during moderate-heavy acceleration, and both times that I had trouble with the old inverter (the "overheat" message and when it blew up) the freeze frame current vehicle speed was 90kph. I've yet to replace the transmission oil pump bearings so I'm using very light throttle when going from ~80 to ~1110kph (and after decelerating from 70 to 50 - from my experience it seems to shift up at 90kph and down at 60kph). MG1 and MG2 winding insulation measurements are all at 250megaohms so I guess that's good.

Managed 6.7l/km city (after midnight but still stoplights) and 7.5 highway at 110kph (so in between 29 and 33 us mpg) so I guess the rest is fine, even though the battery seems to last a bit less now... need to check the cells for deterioration/rust/etc. First priority is finally changing the rear shocks/springs and the upstream o2

 

I should've checked the transmission oil levels first...

I drained the ATF via the drain plug (didn't even bother looking at the check plug), disconnected lines to oil cooler, removed and disassembled the oil pump and the bearings were fine. Ran a test via techstream - holds the RPMs steady. Filled the transmission (new toyota atf-ws fluid) according to the repair manual over at techinfo (still can't post links, google that with toyota and it should be obvious). Reset transmission learning. Burned off all the remaining penetrating oil/freeze spray around the exhaust bolts (I should've used the impact wrench from the get go but silly me). Went for a test drive - shifts in under half a second during hard acceleration, speedo and sound are just like all of the youtube videos...

Bottom line is, check your transmission fluid level. Manual says "raise the car, KEEP IT LEVELED, open drain plug, ATF should be coming out in a thin line" (do check the manual yourself when doing this, never trust random internet comments without reference ). Wondering if the original inverter blew due to a short from overheating the trans fluid or whatever... I don't know.

P.S. Never ever seen a leak from the car (AC-caused condensation drips aside), so I guess it wasn't slowly leaking out either. I also let the oil circulate around the transmission by "idling the engine" (well, force-charging the battery and revving it a bit in D-mode) and checked the level afterwards - had to add a little.

 

man I so want to buy a gs450h but the repair procedures look super scary! My old prius 04 is running at least 500,000 km now on the original battery so not sure what to look for if I were to buy one used since some of them are for a good deal.

Great report though, love reading these repairs!