Inverter IPM - 15 year Warranty Enhancement ZE3

You can visually SEE that the pump is not working. You can SMELL the inverter it smells like an electrical fire. And here we were not even 9 miles down the road after they “fixed it” by doing the flash with both kids in the car and it lit up and went into limp mode again. Clearly their diagnostics weren’t very good.

 

I understand that, I’ve done 5 of them on the Gen 2’s the problem is the car smells like it has an electrical fire under the hood when on. It’s not a hot engine smell, more like melting plastic. That smell is DISTINCT. I’m not sure if the inverter was shorting out and caused the pump to burn up or the other way around. What I know is that the inverter is not properly working. The HV battery& inverter were running HOT. The inverter was running at 140 degrees. It’s supposed to run around 99. And after this the battery is only reaching 27.6% charged.

 

how many miles?

 

The HV battery is running at 108-115 degrees after this at terminal 1 and 115-128 at terminal 2.

 

121,000

 

Toyota’s communications to dealers about warranty extensions, recalls, etc., are available by subscription to techinfo.toyota.com. Many of them also appear on NHTSA’s website, sometimes after a delay.

For Warranty Enhancement Program ZE3, the warranty bulletin (PDF) refers to a service bulletin, T-SB-0036-16, for the technical instructions. I don’t have a no-cost link to the latest version of that bulletin (Rev2, July 17, 2020), but NHTSA has the previous Rev1, January 31, 2019 (PDF), in which the parts list and illustration of the damage location (step 1.B of the repair procedure) are the same.

For Safety Recall J0V, see the Technical Instructions (PDF), revised August 29, 2019, and Dealer Letter (PDF), revised June 28, 2019.

The technical instructions refer to the Repair Manual (more info) for removal and installation procedures.

 

Maybe time to talk to Toyota corporate? Dealership might have fried your inverter (or damaged it) with their bandage.

 

I've seen plenty of reports here where the electrical-burning stink is the pump. Doesn't mean it always has to be, but it's a Usual Suspect.

 

This is super super helpful, thank you.

 

Old post, but I think it was a hard acceleration on my part that caused (something) to fail... I'm hopeful that it's the IPM.. it has all the exact symptoms.. and NO, I don't always drive it hard.. this was an unusual case.. but I didn't think it would break like it did. (not even a tire squeal)

 

Some feller did that months ago and his got replaced for free. He was at an intersection with no other cars, and wanted to feel the g force. Best scam ever on PC, want a new inverter? Floor it.

 

THANK YOU, THANK YOU for posting this. I wanted to post my experience on the my 2011 Prius 115,000 miles that just had its IPM inverter go out. I've had multiple Prius most drive to 250K-300K+ so I thought when all the lights came on it was possibly a bad cell in the Hybrid battery, even with that low mileage. I had it brought to local shop and they quoted me $3500 to replace the IPM inverter and water pump. Thanks to all the posts here on Prius Chat I found out about the big recall for 2010-2014 Prius concerning the IPM inverter. As far as I can tell the previous owner DID NOT do the recall and when I put the VIN in the Toyota website for recalls it doesn't show. So I thought I might be out of luck, but as long time Toyota owner I called Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1-888-270-9371. They said I needed to bring to a Toyota dealership before they would talk to me and that it "might" be covered. I asked them to give me a case number which they did. I printed out the ZE3 letter (I had to do a save as, and open to be able to see properly) and put my case number on the first page (I didn't bring the 2nd page that would have specific VIN# or recall sticker) and towed my Prius to the dealership. I asked them to do a diagnosis and told them I believed it was the IPM inverter and should be covered under this extended warranty. They texted me a $4000 quote with codes P3004 and P0AOD. Since P3004 is on the letter I went in again in person with the letter and said it should be covered. Two days later it was replaced and no charge (not even for diagnosis). You rock! I've had a couple battery go out but wish I had taken a picture of all the warning lights I got (including the Check Hybrid System), it was more than what I remember for just a battery. Here is the NHTA file about the recall too, I had it ready in case they gave me pushback but didn't need it.

 

yes, I was the same as you when ours went out at just shy of 72k miles. We are the original owner and did have the ZE3 letter.. even then they wouldn't say for sure until they had the car on the diagnostics... (so the wait and the worry)

We also own the 2012 PriusV... which we bought new.. I've had both recalls done since we got it.. so, it's up to date.. but I picked up a strange whine (sounds like the electric motor wine) when we accelerate down the ramp onto the freeway.. since the second recall was done. If I back off and go lightly, the whine goes away.. I've looked thru our paperwork, but have not seen the same ZE3 letter.. rather I have others.. one talked of the ECU module, but not an Enhanced Warranty Letter.. (got one for the engine knock and the master brake cylinder)
IDK how to tell if my VIN on the V is inclued in any sort of IPM Warranty Enhancement without calling them I guess.

 

THANK YOU!
I am sure this website and your postings just saved me some major dough.

I recently started doing my own maintenance on our Prius. When this same issue happened to my wife's 2013 prius (105K), I started reading all your posts about the IPM and ZE3.

I went down and bought my first Onboard Diagnostics scanner from Autozone and found that 2 out of the 5 codes listed in the ZE3 letter were popping up. Armed with this information, we had her car towed to the local dealer and I showed him the letter and explained it appears to be the issue.

They called the next day and confirmed it was the issue and was covered under the warranty. I am pretty sure I would have had a different outcome if I wasn't armed with this information.

Thank you all for the valuable information.

 

Today my 2012 Prius 2 showed P0A94 code which i believed is (inverter MG ECU failed). I took it to Toyota of El Cajon here in San Diego and I was told the the repair will be covered under the warranty. The Inverter will not be replaced but repair parts/ kits only. I'm glad for this group chat because it gave me the idea to bring it to the dealership hoping that it will be covered under warranty. Just FYI the car had a safety recall E0E-REFLASH MOTOR GENERATOR & POWER MANAGEMENT ECU-PRIUS back on 5/2014 with just 35,000 miles on it. I also have read about the Warranty Enhancement Notification- ZE3 through this thread!
Great job prius owners for this discussion!

 

@Mr Jones

So you just got the J0V update?

Pay attention to how much power it has and see if you notice less power output.

I can tell from the update that there is oess power to the wheels than before the J0V update.

But that is why your inverter blew up because you did not get the latest update which is the J0V.

 

If I'm not mistaken, P0A94 is specific to the DC/DC converter rather than the MG ECU. Either way, they are both components inside of the inverter assembly and the repair is covered and the job is more or less the same. (The MG ECU is on top.)

 

Based on my understanding it is only up to 2014 Prius. The lastest year 2015 is not on the list

 

The current (as of this writing) Customer Confidence Program is written up in documents 23TE02 and 23TE03, which can be retrieved from NHTSA like so:

23TE02 23TE03

Between them, they both cover any Prius built from late January 2009 (model year 2010) through late November 2015 (model year 2015), and any Prius v built from late August 2011 (model year 2012) through late November 2017 (model year 2017).

There is no mileage limitation and the coverage extends to 20 years from the date of first use.

If the trouble codes include P0A94, P0A1A, P324E, or P3004, the coverage falls under 23TE03; if they include P0A7A or P0A78, or the cause was a "thermal event", or the cause is unclear and can't be shown not to have been a "thermal event", the coverage falls under 23TE02. The unlimited mileage and 20-year window are the same for both coverages, and the repairs are the same, so the two different coverages only help keep statistics on which kind of thing went wrong.

Both coverages were also clarified, as of June 2023, to confirm that they do apply to cars that have had salvage, total loss, true mileage unknown, or other similar titles. (That's better than some of the normal warranty coverages, which don't apply then.)

 

Chapman F,
Following the link to this tread and the links/info you provided, my Prius V is currently being taken care of at the Dealer. We're praying that all will be fantastic and no issues after they have completed the replacement.

Thank you again for the invaluable information you have provided to so many! ...sincerely appreciated!

Travis