2008 Prius - P0A37 code

You say you don't see inverter fluid moving in the inverter reservoir. But is the inverter reservoir filled with the pink stuff to the full line. If you touch that reservoir after a good run is it warm like higher than your body standing temperature 100° 104? It should be then you can touch the hoses coming out of the bottom of the inverter just a head towards the front of the car of the reservoir that fitting should be relatively warm not overly hot but certainly not cold and then over by the inverter pump both hoses coming in and out of the pump again should be warm 104 to 112° or something like that after a decent run.

 

I think you're mixing up inverter cooling which is the silver box on top of the transmission that charges your HV battery versus the transmission itself getting cooled or the transmission fluid.

 

Top up the fluid and see what happens

 

There isn't a code that sets "to replace the inverter coolant pump". There is a code for when the inverter is not being cooled effectively - P0A93. It just so happens that more times than not the inverter is not being cooled effectively because the pump failed. It is not unheard of for the inverter coolant pump to fail but not throw a P0A93 code. You just need to confirm you have power at the plug to the pump but the pump is not running. It is quite easy to hear and feel if the pump is running or not.

Definitely.

 

When you're in the trip condition and you have this light or this code pop up if you pull over and touch the pipe the metal pipe coming out of the bottom of the inverter just a head towards the grill of the car of the reservoir for the inverter touch that pipe go across to the left headlight get behind the left headlight and touch the two hoses from the inverter pump in and out are they about the same temperature let's say around 110° or less something like that? In 40° weather in my '09 I could probably drive for 3 hours that would be from where I live in Orange county North Carolina to Charlotte 300 miles almost before that light would come on at those temperatures now when it's 75° in the spring that'll come on in 45 minutes maybe less during these conditions. I drove around without an inverter pump with a new one sitting on the floorboard for a couple of weeks at the end of winter coming into spring to see how long I could drive with that coolant not pumping etc It seems that the coolant would still move a little bit just because of the effect of the coolant getting warm and rising or something No it wasn't circulating like it was being pumped but it was still moving. So it rarely tripped the light and did anything until it got much warmer and then I changed over to a completely different style pump and I haven't thought about it since it just works.

 

No I didn't have a code or I don't remember what it was if I did what happened in my situation when the thing finally overheated got hot enough outside and the conditions were just right It turned the green car red on the MFD and I knew immediately when I saw that that the inverter pump was not pumping or something and I got out and checked the inverter pump and sure enough it wasn't running not able to run was getting power through the plug just not working That's all I was saying.

 

You're in Rhode Island correct so it should still be fairly cool there seriously unless you're flogging down the highway at pretty good speed 65 etc You shouldn't be able to overheat anything in the weather that should normally be in Rhode Island this time of year you'll actually have trouble having good heat I'm just joking but generally that would be more of a problem than making an overheat condition I mean unless your thermostat is slam shut completely and you're trying to set speed records I would say Heat in Rhode Island at this time of year wouldn't be it. And quickly flogging up the hood after a good run touching all your coolant hoses for the inverter and the regular radiator should yield no problem to hold ie no high temperatures to make your hand move nothing to worry the car at all.

 

This just started happening on my 09. I bought 4 qts of atf ws to do a change thinking maybe I have a leak and I’ll find out once I pull the fill plug off.

When I pulled the fill plug off, about 4 qts of atf ws emptied out. When I pulled the trans drain plug, another 4 qts came out. I had the drivers side cv axle replaced 9 months ago and the mechanic said my atf was low and had to add a couple of quarts but didn’t charge me.

I had them replace the inverter coolant pump a year preemptively but now I’m wondering what caused the p0a37.

 

Did the shop install a Toyota pump? There have been all kinds of reports that many aftermarket (non-Toyota) pumps have poor reliability.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

That's a lot of trans fluid coming out of they're. When the fill plug comes out and the car is level nothing should come out of the fill plug It's kind of like checking the rear end gear oil on her car or truck rear axle. Having four quarts come flying out of the fill hole at its removal generally the car would be slightly lifted up during this operation that most places so now level the car how much more came out That's how you want it to be when you replace it when the car's level nothing should be coming out of the fill plug if you were to stick a pipe cleaner or something like that in there It should just be touching the fluid at the bottom of the threads of the fill plug hole. All that extra fluid could be some of your problems.

 

how can they get an extra 4 qts in there?