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Lots of warning lights after 3-5 hours driving

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by elally, Mar 23, 2009.

  1. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    I have enough client work - checking MCC bus bars, industrial transformers, utility transformers, etc - that its a straight forward depreciation for me

    This one will make you drool

    ThermaCAM® P45HSV - FLIR Systems

    Ok, wipe that drool off your chin ...
     
  2. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Your welcome.

    The 3 codes of: Inverter cooling/Gen temp/HV Batt Malfunction all point to an overheating Inverter. When the Inverter output starts to fail it will probably throw the 2 NO Com to ECM/Batt Energy CM.
    I don't believe any malfunction of any module will throw those first 3 ominous particular codes.

    Have you owned this car from new? I wonder if you might have air in the Inverter Cooling system? BTW, where do you live?
     
  3. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Ohh, that is nice. Tell me the truth: I bet you have that strapped to the top of your Remington 700.

    Tom
     
  4. elally

    elally New Member

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    Yep -- owned the car from new. I'm in New Jersey near Philly.

    Lights came on again over the weekend and took it to the dealer this morning. Turns out the inverter pump is toast. It must have been intermittently failing until now -- my visual check showed coolant moving and the dealer said the pump was working last time I came in with the error codes.

    I'm just out of warranty, but Toyota is taking $100 off the repair. Final cost will be about $220 plus tax. The dealer had to order the pump (should arrive later this week) and they said I could drive around until then.

    Thanks again to everyone for your help!
     
  5. JayGoldstein

    JayGoldstein Member

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    As an owner of an 06, I'm curious about the odds of having the inverter coolant pump fail. Does anyone know what percentage of Priuses have this problem?
     
  6. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Well, no, I don't

    :evil:

    But you certainly have now given me the idea. Thanks!

    Where the hell is the nearest clock tower??
     
  7. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    I would NOT drive around until the pump arrives! You're putting unnecessary stress on the inverter, which is a +$4,000 touch if it fries itself
     
  8. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Jay

    Not sure if we have the stats for that. However, there is no doubt that as the 2G fleet ages, we will see more failures. Any hint of a failure, that pump is out of there

    the "other" Jay
     
  9. tundrwd

    tundrwd Member

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    Too bulky for the top of the Remington. Suggest one of these:

    Weapon Sights - Sniper Scopes - Rifle Scopes - Morovision Night Vision

    Kinda' expensive, though.....

    PS - I can't actually see this from work - it's a "no-no" site for our web proxy software.....
     
  10. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Nice, and far cheaper than my FLIR thermography system.

    If you're involved in that sort of work, a decent FLIR for performing client thermography of MCC's, bus bars, utility transformers, etc, will easily cost $14,000 and up
     
  11. ggood

    ggood Senior Member

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    So, what is Patrick's prize for being the first one with the right answer? Does he get a PriusChat t-shirt or something? :D Kudos all the same...
     
  12. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    I agree that it would not be wise to drive the car any distance while in this condition. It would be better to arrange a loaner if you can. Otherwise, at the first sign of overheating, please stop.
    Thanks for your comment; I won two Prius Genius T-shirts, one at PCD (very heavy competition there) and the other at PC LA, so its all good. :p
     
  13. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    I won a tee for being the most sinister PriusChat member ...
     
  14. ecprius

    ecprius Junior Member

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    I had to have my inverter coolant pump replaced this past weekend.
    I was on I-5 when the Red Triangle, yellow VSC and another yellow trouble light came on. The MFD displayed "Problem" and I heard a long beep.
    Since everything else seemed fine (engine ran smoothly, battery charged normally) I drove to the next exit which happened to be a rest stop. I turned the ignition off and on a few times and the VSC light went out, but the Red Triangle and MFD "Problem" stayed. There was also a brown car with an exclamation point in it (Hybrid System trouble).
    I called my dealership and described what happened, and the technician said if it was him, he would drive it to the nearest dealership. He also said that if the steady lights start blinking, I should pull over and call for a tow.
    I drove to my dealership, ~30 miles away, at about 62mph. They pulled DTC P0A93 (Inverter Coolant Pump) and said the pump was no longer working. My water pump had been seeping for a month or so, so they said I needed both pumps replaced, as well as a new serpentine belt. All the parts were in stock and the total bill was $1,066. My extended warranty expired 15,000 miles ago so it wasn't a freebee for me. I checked the paperwork and verified that I got the "new and improved" pump.
    I was hoping not to have any major repairs until at least 200,000 miles (haha)! Oh well. Now I'm hoping for no more problems until at least 250,000 miles on the odometer. :)
    As my wife said, "Any breakdown you can drive away from is a good one" (although I realize to took a chance by driving it so far after the lights came on).:doh:
     
  15. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Last summer we saw many posts regarding failed inverter coolant pumps. Now we are seeing these failures being reported before spring has sprung and the weather has heated up. I think it would be good preventive maintenance to replace this pump at 100K miles if not sooner.
     
  16. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Patrick, it sure does appear so ...
     
  17. elally

    elally New Member

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    Hi folks,

    Here's a quick update on my earlier problem....

    The problem happened again after my last post. I took the car to the dealer with the Inverter Coolant Pump service note in hand. They pulled the codes and determined that the pump was bad and split the cost to repair since I'm out of warranty -- final cost was $214 plus tax.

    I got the car back, but couldn't see that the pump was actually moving coolant (no wave action in the reservoir near the inverter). I took it back and the Prius tech there insisted that the pump was working -- he said they had the pump running while they replenished the coolant to verify, and insisted that I would rarely (if ever) see any wave action. What took the cake is that he swore that the Prius was designed so the inverter wouldn't overheat and that he's only replaced 1 in all his time as a tech. Needless to say, testimony in these forums contradicts that. I couldn't help but wonder how long he's been a Prius tech.

    Anyway, I left the dealer and later that day had the problem happen again on my way to work. It happened yet again on the way home, and this time I took it to the sales manager at the dealer. He provided a rental car gratis while they investigated, and this time they determined that the Body Control Module had failed. The car had been in an accident (damage to right rear corner) and they believed this caused the failure. Normally cost to replace would have been $1357.86 plus tax, but the body shop that did the repair took care of the bill.

    I pick the car back up tomorrow and hopefully this will be the end of it. In hindsight, I'm glad I got the pump replaced, since my VIN was in the range covered by the service note and I would hate to have to replace the inverter!
     
  18. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Interesting. After you get your car back, a few questions for your consideration:

    - Does your service invoice for the body ECU replacement show what DTC had been logged? Normally that ECU remains in the background and is not the cause of the type of trouble that you reported.

    - At this point, have you had both the engine coolant heat recovery pump and the inverter coolant pump replaced?

    - Do you notice any change regarding turbulence in the inverter coolant reservoir now?

    - Can you at least hear the inverter pump running? Make the car IG-ON (where all instrument panel lights are on, not READY) and place your ear near the driver's side headlamp. You may be able to hear the pump, and should not hear any air bubbles.
     
  19. elally

    elally New Member

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    Hi Patrick,

    Thanks for your follow-up questions!

    The invoice shows code P0A93 was logged. The description reads PERFORM PIN CHECK AS PER FLOW CHART AND VOLTAGE CHECKS AND GROUND CHECKS FOUND THE BODY CONTROL MODULE WAS BAD DUE TO A BAD GROUND

    So far just the inverter coolant pump. The dealer says (3 weeks later) they're still waiting to hear from Toyota on whether the coolant heat recovery pump will be partially covered.

    Inverter pump is working fine since the BCM replacement. I can clearly hear the pump and see turbulence -- neither were present before the repair.
     
  20. galaxee

    galaxee mostly benevolent

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    hmm. this makes about as much sense as replacing a coolant pump for something that doesn't sound much like an overheat condition. i guess we'll see what happens.