Cooling system issue after a mechanic's OOPS!

best thing to do would be to read the trouble codes with a prius aware scanner

 

It would not be a bad idea to go through the proper procedure for refilling the cooling system: fill the reservoir to B, put the cap on, run the engine up to temperature and several minutes longer, shaking some hoses, then shut things off and check, after it is fully cooled down, that the level has moved from B down to FULL.

 

He should replace the water pump and thermostat and properly fill and
bleed the system. HE caused it, HE should pay for it!
If he doesn't, get a lawyer, you'll win.

 

Thermostat needs to go back in on this model if you're scared of the workings of the thermostat and don't want to ever deal with it doing anything foolish you can modify it but that's for another day. Your water pump impeller may in fact be splitting and be bad it's a real easy to check it's a two or three bolt operation somebody needs to have a look in there while you can If you call up the pump with Toyota or quality automotive software and you hear the pump chunking out that's what you're hearing the impeller's moving a little bit stopping moving a little bit stopping moving a little bit because the plastic that shrouds the metal magnet or the metal pickup of the impeller is coming apart from age and the type of plastic it is and what have you when you pull it out you'll be shocked to look at it it looks like h a l e You can buy a new one for $30 on Amazon if I'm not mistaken and when you get the new one and look at it to the old one you'll be like holy Jesus you'll drop that impeller in plug up the pump before you bolt it to the car call it up with the software make it run a few speeds see that it's turning it's quiet un call it from the software shut the mess down bolt it all up follow the procedures above fill it to the b mark drive it around run it till it drops to the f mark or what have you and see what you have from there just pray to goodness that the overheating and whatever did actually go on is not affected anything and you're not going to have the dreaded head gasket problem at 200k You are due.

 

I cannot remember what your mileage is but this is what's expected is going to happen to 2010 to 2015 or so 2ZZ engine Prius so there's always that You're actually a little over the mileage for that to happen if you're above 185,000 mi so I guess you could say you could consider yourself lucky. But I guess this is a decent resolution for both of you and yes at that mileage the water pump would be nearly finished generally speaking but it's electronic it could have lasted another 5 years oh well letting the water run down that low there's still water in the resi. It's low but it's still there so all below that reservoir is still full and has the water gets hot it's going to expand and lift up into the resi. So it's not dry but the impellers go bad not from being dry just from the heat and years of time running the impeller sheds its plastic and can't spin in its bore. It's like a mag drive pump for a pond or a washing machine pump out pump so there's always that I don't generally leave caps off so I don't have this problem but I have removed the resi cap on a few generations threes to stop pressure on the water to keep it from pumping into the cylinder creating all the problems and for a while at worked till leak got worse and then the car gets parked and phased out because it's not worth fixing for us anyway.

 

He's correct for the labor. He's mostly wrong for the parts failure.
"Uncontrollable failure part"??? 90% wrong. It is controllable.
It also works off pressure, which you were not getting, causing the coolant to overflow.
Since there is less pressure on the impeller, it will spin faster, and faster.
There needs to have the back pressure to push through.

And when it got low, coolant wasn't flowing causing the engine to over heat.
Which is very possible to have caused more damage, head gasket, warped head, scored
cylinder walls, etc......
Since you had NO problem before the work, it's not likely the coolant pump just failed.

Any other engine damage will depend on how soon you turned the car off when the light came on.
How many miles you have on it is minor.

You final decision on what you pay, is up to you.
I personally would never go back to this person. What will he tell you next time to get money
out of you to make up for the money he didn't get???? How much extra labor cost will he charge?
How much extra will he raise the cost of a part?????

 

Ask for the trouble codes and then post them here.

 

Always change water pump, thermostat every 100k no matter what. With a stuck pump, it is almost for sure there's some head gasket damage. At 200k, I would save money for some big repairs in your near future.

 

The water pumps are as fragile as some seem to make them out to be.
Mine was at 267,000 when I was going to change the empeller, but it was fine.
Until I dropped it as I was putting it back in, and broke the plastic. So I installed the
new one I had.
But if the engine has over heated. It would probably be a good idea to replace the empeller.
That's the weekest part of the pump, because it's plastic. And the white parts seems to slit.

 

Yeah your HV battery is an isolated and it's pointing to the inverter area I think I have to look at the chart again.

 

This may help you with the P0AA6-614 trouble code. The diagram below is for a Gen 2 Prius, but I believe the Gen 3 Prius is the same for the location of the 614 INF code. @ChapmanF can correct me if I am wrong.

 

Mostly the same. One change in Gen 3 is that the A/C inverter circuitry moved from inside the inverter box to inside the A/C compressor itself. That means in Gen 3 the 611 area has shrunk to include only the compressor's own innards, and the 614 area has grown to also include the orange wires going to the compressor.