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2001 prius issues helpppp!! experts

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by statultra, Jul 18, 2007.

  1. statultra

    statultra uber-Senior Member

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    ok today i took my chances with the car and took it for a 25 mile drive on a highway heres what happened.

    as operating temperature increased, 20 minutes into the drive the master warning light illuminated, with the car and exclamation point on the MFD, at this same time the 12 volt converter was disabled and i was running solely on residual power from the 12 volt battery ( meaning i couldnt use a/c or battery would dip below 10 volts ) also at this time the HV battery fan came on at full blast, cooling what seemed to be a very cool battery. What was really hot was the inverter, of which i could most definitely cook a darn good steak on. Well getting back to what i was saying, i waited a mcdonalds parking lot, opening the hood letting air blow on it, then i proceeded inside the vehicle and erased the problem of which DTC's i could not retrieve due to my scanner only reading engine DTC's. This leads me to believe its a problem with cooling the inverter, is that correct? if so could i possibly flush the inverter cooling circuit with water (leaving the drain plug opened and flushing water through the system )

    but the thing that stumps me is why would the hv battery fan come on? makes absolutely no sense to me....

    the fluid doesnt flow directly into the motors or inverter right? it goes through water jackets?
     
    #1 statultra, Jul 18, 2007
  2. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(statultra @ Jul 18 2007, 10:19 PM) [snapback]481370[/snapback]</div>
    Check the inverter coolant tank to the upper left of the inverter. If it is dry, your problem is obvious.

    The second thing is to check the inverter pump. Turn the car "on" but not to start. Open the hood and see if you hear a pump noise down on the driver side, under the inverter on the frame. This is the inverter pump and if it is not running, your problem is obvious.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #2 bwilson4web, Jul 19, 2007
  3. FL_Prius_Driver

    FL_Prius_Driver Senior Member

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    These all appear to be symptoms of an overheating inverter.
    1) The 12V converter shutting down would be one of the things to secure on overheating since it is cooled on the same loop as the Inverter transistors.
    2) Telling the battery to go to max cooling could be a ripple effect of putting the entire car in a fail safe condition. The HV battery overheating has possible safety concerns and getting overtemp indications in the inverter may justify max cooling for the HV battery. Alternatively, the battery current to the car has just been cutoff abnormally and the battery ECU may always go to a failsafe mode when there is a big mismatch between expected current and actual current, or an unexpected transient. There are a lot of remarks in the technical manuals about the ECU's putting the associated items into a fail safe mode....and a cooler battery is a safer battery. Note that the battery blower is entirely controlled by the battery ECU but powered by 12V.
    3) The inverter is just a bunch of channels in an aluminum heat sink. See
    http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/ginv/
    for pictures, including some partial cooling flow blockage.
    4) Make darn sure the pump is always pumping and the cooling fans are operating when the coolant temp gets above 131F. The only thing left after that is for passages to be blocked.
    5) You have contributed to the thread
    -- http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=3...=0&p=473678 -- so I know I am not telling you a lot that you do not already know.
     
    #3 FL_Prius_Driver, Jul 19, 2007
  4. statultra

    statultra uber-Senior Member

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    the pump is running im 100 % sure, the inverter resovoir is full, but everytime i open the bleeder plugs air comes out but the pump doesnt make any noise of air flowing through the system ( again im sure its flowing because i opened the bleeder plugs with pump on and it was flowing ) Does the car have a failsafe if the temperature reaches a certian amount would it shut down the 12 volt converter?, do you think theres any damage? i drove in this condition for 20 miles but the 12 volt converter wasnt working, i was running on straight 12 volt battery so i couldnt use my a/c or anything or the battery voltage would dip below 10 volts. I just hope the inverter / converter is still good...
     
    #4 statultra, Jul 19, 2007
  5. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(statultra @ Jul 19 2007, 09:31 PM) [snapback]481971[/snapback]</div>
    This part has me confused:

    1) "open the bleeder plugs air comes out"
    2) "opened the bleeder plugs with pump on and it was flowing."

    In #1, was the pump on?
    Has the inverter coolant been replaced lately?
    Were clear plastic tubes used during the bleeding to route the coolant from the bleeder nipples back to the coolant tank?

    Bob Wilson
     
    #5 bwilson4web, Jul 20, 2007
  6. FL_Prius_Driver

    FL_Prius_Driver Senior Member

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    1) I'm a little confused (stop laughing). I got the impression (from other posts) that all the air had been removed. No air should be coming out at all.
    2) The pump motor may be running, but that does not necessarily mean that it is pumping. Keep that in mind. If the pump is sucking air in, then that could explain a lot. Look for leaks on the intake hose. (Real hard on a Prius). More advanced mechanics pressurize (very carefully) the suction side of a pump and look for fluid spraying out. You may or may not be able to do something like this. Everything you are describing points to the inverter cooling system, but this is opinion. Follow facts.
    3) Electronics can withstand very high temperatures (150 C junction temperatures) so the standard electronics practice is to sound the warning at one temperature, shutdown the electronics at a slightly higher temp. If done right (and Toyota is known for doing this right), no damage should occur, unless done very repetitively or the car continues to be operated. (e.g. Treat it like an oil low pressure light. No damage if stopped and fixed. Big damage if ignored.) Note that an inverter shutdown takes out everything HV, including the 300 to 12 V DC/DC converter.
     
    #6 FL_Prius_Driver, Jul 20, 2007
  7. statultra

    statultra uber-Senior Member

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    i pressurized the system without the pump running using a powerful hand pump ( i think its used on hvac ) as soon as i did this it literally let out air in the tank, i then proceeded to run the pump and the noise of the pump started to sound really different ( more flowing through the pump noise if thats what you call it ) so the pump runs faster now, before it ran very slow like it had some goop or something. Im gonna take it on a 30 minute test drive today..
     
    #7 statultra, Jul 23, 2007
  8. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(statultra @ Jul 23 2007, 11:28 AM) [snapback]483603[/snapback]</div>
    Hobbit had reported finding some goopy stuff in his inverter investigation. I wonder . . .

    Bob Wilson
     
    #8 bwilson4web, Jul 23, 2007
  9. statultra

    statultra uber-Senior Member

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    i opened both bleeder plugs with the pump off, and i pumped clean LLC into the plug on the right, and i had a hose connected to the other bleeder plug taht went into a bottle, as i was pumping it in the toher end came out with thick goopy red stuff, and on the bottom of that was the normal LLC ( or i thought so ), after i did this the pump ran much faster and todays drive was perfect, im leading to believe that you HAVE to use LLC and if any debris or other fluids enter the cooling circuit it will be very bad for the pump ( creates this weird goop i dont knwo what it is ).


    ill post pics of the goop stuff tommroow i have it sitting in a apple juice bottle in the garage
     
    #9 statultra, Jul 23, 2007
  10. taxi

    taxi New Member

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    Sounds like a problem i had in my 2001. The guys at Toyota told me my inverter coolant pump had flaged out. cost me a new one, about $NZ 100.\
    They didnt say any thing about goop though. Hehe, being kinda new to them they prob freaked out themselves
     
    #10 taxi, Jul 23, 2007
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