Drives Perfectly but inverter failure?

Hello Everyone,

I am new to the site and new to Prius ownership. I am based in England but this site seems to have the best and most extensive knowledge. I am hoping someone can offer advice. We bought a 2007 prius t spirit last week for my wife based on my father in laws reccomendation. I was slightly cheaper than going to a dealer as we were told it had been stolen and recovered. The only items missing were the nav DVD reader and amplifier. At the time the reverse parking camera worked. New amplifier and DVD were bought and installed. The camera stopped working and even were the new parts were disconnected. The dash had the warning triange, brake warning light and VSC light on.

We took the car to the dealer. We have now had feedback to find it most likley might have been involved in a flood our warranty is invalid and we have no recourse towards the seller. I know you might think how could this have happened but my father in law we very directive and convincing in his assumption it was a good buy. The dealer has advised there are several fault codes they were reset but the second they turned the ingition back on the faults returned shortly afterwards. He thinks the inverter needs replacing which is a fortune! Strange thing is the car works perfectly with the HV battery charging and everything to do with driving working fine.

The only issue is the warning lights and the MFD display at present most functions work eg bluetooth and cd player. Nav is not working and when engaging reverse the screen flickers. There are 2 warning symbols on the screen a battery and red car with exclamation mark on it.

Can anyone assist dealer states focus has to be the HV system even though it works fine with the charging / usage on the MFD working fine.

Thanks in advance

Nick

 

I have absolutely no recourse towards the seller. There is nothing I can do have checked carefully but in the UK it is hard to pursue such a matter.

The strangest thing to me seems how apart from the Nav and the flickering MFD when engagin in reverse and the warning lights it it working perfectly. It seems illogical for the dealer to suggest replacing such an expensive component due to a warning light?

Regards

Nick

 

Just heard back from the Dealer today. They are reluctant to work on the Prius and if they did they would insist on me signing a disclaimer to state anything they fixed might not work once we have the car back.

I still cannot get away from everything seems to be working fine! They have stated they found some dirty connectors under the drivers seat which confirms the car was flood damage. I have spent the last 24 hours researching and there seems to be 2 points of view those who state there is nothing you can do for a flood damaged car and it should essentially be broken for parts and those who state as long as the engine is fine and the car is allowed to dry out properly it should touch wood be fine.

Can anyone advise I know responding to questions regarding flood damage is not easy but I guess I am mostly interested in the fact that virtually everything works fine yet it could still have numerous problems and the dealership are concluding this from the warning lights!!!

Thanks

Nick

 

Thanks everyone for the responses. The dealer has stated the water obviously came into the car. There was evidence of a couple of the connecters feeding the nav and amp being dirty but not corroded. He did say there were other connectors under the carpet which would probably be the same but he had not been able to go into that yet.

I do think it is concerning the dealer would go through a process of just replacing things without being certain. He did say any connectors on any of the wiring looms cannot be cleaned due to having very small pins and the connectors themselves cannot be replaced so any which are corroded will mean the wiring loom must be replaced!

Can anyone advise of the connectors in the floor of the Prius? Apparently there are 2 banks of connectors at the base of the a pillars and all of those are fine. It has been a steep learning curve in terms of when it looks to good to be true. Father in law claimed to have done all the checks which he had not.

I am going to try and find a Toyota specalist in Kent but think it is unlikely especially anyone who has the expertise to work on the Prius. Dealer did say they have 2 prius techs and they were working on it but the fault codes are making it hard. I will try to get the codes from him on Monday but an fearful of upsetting them as they are not keen to work on it if I can not find anyone else. Below is a list of the warning lights.

VSC
Brake warning light [abs does work have tested it]
Red triangle with exclamation mark

On the MFD
Red battery
Red car with exclamation.

Thanks

Nick

Cheers

Nick

 

I have no idea what caused the flood but the dealer seems to be trying to confuse me on one hand he states there was no evidence of water at certain points eg connectors / loom at the base of the a pillar but he then mentioned there are numerous connections on the wiring loom in the floor?

One other point of note regarding condition was we did notice it seemed there was a flat tyre on the rear but all the tyre pressures were checked and okay. The sound was something between sounding like a flat or having a large stone caught in the tread.

Thanks

Nick

 

It is not the one which sold on Ebay if I knew it was flood damage would have never bought it. Yes when I refer to wiring loom I guess that is what in the US you would call a wiring harness.

Have just heard back from the Dealer this morning. They are not prepared to work on the car. Something about their liability. If they did and we were involved in an accident as we left them they would be responsbile. Now feel totally lost and deflated. They have advised we try to sell the car in an auction to someone else and do not disclose what is wrong with it! I am not going to do that I think it's immoral and although it happened to us would not want someone else to go through this. Have sought legal advice but solicitor confirmed what I already knew there is noting towards the dealer we bought it from.

Have tried Toyota UK to see if they can persuade the Dealer to work on the car but they will not. Did consider viability of replacing parts from a damaged Prius but the Dealer has frightened me claiming the HV system can be lethal if not worked on by someone highly trained.

We are at a loss Dealer wants us to come and collect the car I could ask them for the fault codes but not sure if that would help as he claims they include stating there are problems with the HV, inverter / converter. I know we have been incredibily stupid but they thought they would plug the car into their diagnostic and reset the faults............before we found out it had sustained flood damage. Hardest thing of all is it drives perfectly.

Help

Nick