Help with a 2011 Prius Three check hybrid system" light

welcome! did they find any trouble codes? i suppose it could be almost anything, 12 volt battery, inverter pump, yadda, yadda, yadda. fortunately, you're still covered under the 8/100 hybrid warranty.

 

Probably an inverter problem, there was a recall on this and failures are possible

 

I had a 2011 Prius. I got a letter from Toyota concerning the inverter. If I remember correctly they extended the warranty on mine for about 15 years. You may want to check in to that when you can just in case you have an inverter problem in the future.

 

Tiffany,
odd that they didn't find anything. for something as major as a hybrid check engine, loss of power, and all that jazz, you'd think that a bunch of Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) would have been saved. Those are pretty indicative of what dies, when something did die.
If you ask, the dealership will give you those codes. And possibly a shifty look, related to what happens when one lifts up a rock and looks underneath.
Based strictly on your story so far, I see two possibilities:
First, there may have been no trouble codes. Weirdly enough, this points at something: A dead or dying 12 volt battery, the one in the rear of the car to the right of the spare tire. There have been a number of reports that when this battery goes bad, all sorts of bad behavior then ensues, up to and including what you've seen. And there have been further reports that some dealerships haven't caught onto this failure mode when it happens, either. The 12 V battery is a more-or-less standard lead-acid type and there's standard test gear that can determine if one is on its way out. But somebody has to actually hook up said gear and check, and that may not have been done. Ask.
Second, there may very well have been DTCs, but the dealer did a controller reset after reading them and now they're gone - and they can't make them come back. As an electronics troubleshooter myself, I have a favorite saying: "I hate intermittents."
The hybrid transmission train, including the inverter, is covered by warranty, true. But it's all pretty blame expensive and it's a good bet that Toyota wants specific documentation on what's wrong, both to drive replacement of the correct part and for the dealership to get reimbursed for the repair. A missing failure means the dealer can't do the troubleshooting they want to do and makes them mad, because they know you'll be back with a head of steam if they get it wrong. Under these circumstances calling in a senior Toyota troubleshooter is probably called for, both to identify and get permission to replace the likely failing part.

If the senior techie is being called, then he/she likely knows about the battery issue, too, and can settle the whole business one way or the other. If it's the battery you'll end up paying since it's a standard wear item. And your car is about the right age to lose one, too: mine died last year, and I've got a 2010. If it's something else, you're likely covered by the warranty.

Let us know how it all works out. Good luck!

Kbeck

 

I have heard about $300.00 for a battery at a Toyota dealer.

 

I don't think a bad 12v battery would cause these symptoms. Either you ran out of gas or you had some other issue.

 

I haven't read of too many failures on late model 2010+ Prius. Only somewhat more common (and this is a "rare" common lol) failure is the inverter, which has been recalled and offered an extended warranty.

 

going back to honda may be your best option if they tell you nothing's wrong.

 

You should have gotten a recall notice regarding the inverter. And if you got lost in the shuffle, a responsible dealership should have checked for recalls, I gather you're getting the maintenance done by one. In your communication with the dealership did they mention the inverter recall, was it done?

Not to freak you out, but there were a few instances, owners got the recall done, and found their mpg dropped. The recall is mainly a software update, with the aim to protect the inverter from sudden/extreme loads.

FWIW, we had the recall, and the only thing I noticed was a slight increase in the car's willingness to shut off the engine, run on the battery only. If anything, the mpg went up a bit. The problems seem to arise from the software update process, it can go well, but not always. Just speculating though.

 

Our 2011 Prius 3 was included in the recall.

Tiffany, it sounds like most of your problem is due to a poor dealer service department. It should not have taken several days to determine that your inverter had failed.

Do you have another dealer in your area that you can take your business to after this problem is taken care of? This current problem should be covered under warranty.

Also, check with your car insurance company/agent whether you have car rental included on your policy.

 

Don't give up yet. They will fix it.

 

Tiffany,

Now, that is a pile of horse****. You've got a 2011 Prius; the update didn't show up until 2014; of course your car was subject to the recall. The only cars not getting an update were (a) those on the dealer parking lot, which were updated by the dealers, and (b) those built after Toyota had changed the firmware. I hate to tell you this, but if they told you that, then they're a bunch of incompetents or worse.

Let me give you a bit more detail on what all this was about.

Under the hood, the inverter is the big electronics box directly to the right of the gasoline engine. This is the box with all the heavy orange wires going to it. In the basement of the inverter are a flock of big, high-power transistors. These transistors take energy from the battery and convert it into three-phase AC waveforms suitable for use with the two electric motors that live in the hybrid transmission. In addition, there's a few other transistors that can either pass the current to and from the big hybrid battery pack (that lives under the rear seat) at the same voltage as the battery, or can perform a "boost" operation that provides for a higher voltage and power, mainly when one is pushing the gas pedal down hard.

These transistors pass large quantities of energy. As with all engineering, some of that energy ends up being dissipated in the transistors (losses.. engineers are always fighting losses. ). In an effort to keep those transistors from turning into white-hot slag (no, I'm not kidding), they are mounted onto a pretty advanced heat sink that has coolant running through it; further, in a larger attempt to reduce heat, the naked silicon die are soldered directly to that heat sink and the whole business potted with insulating material. This is all clean-room stuff with people wearing bunny suits, and transistor bond wires going every which way. Advanced, like I said.

In any case, Toyota discovered that a small but significant number of Gen III Priuses were having problems with that transistor mount. Based upon the documents Toyota gave to the US Government, it appears that under the right onset-of-high-acceleration conditions, the rate of thermal expansion (i.e., heat something up, it gets bigger, no joke) of the transistors and the underlying heat sink were Not Quite The Same, leading to cracks in the solder.. And eventually, a transistor might literally fall off. If one were lucky, the check engine light would come on but one would be able to limp to the side of the road. If one were not lucky, arcs and sparks would fly (we're talking up to 600VDC here) and the inverter would be kaput. In the middle of a road with traffic that's a serious safety issue, hence the recall.

As near as anybody can tell, the recall changes the engine controller/inverter software in such a way to reduce the energy dissipated into the transistors in that onset-of-high-acceleration condition. People report not much of a change in driveability. However, it is possible that, even with the recall change, a transistor or two might have been on its way out before the recall change went in, so Toyota has graciously extended the warranty on the hybrid drive train, to, like, forever.

Now, when this recall went out, everybody ran down to their Toyota dealers and got their firmware upgraded. (Except for you, apparently, no offense. ) Part of the recall involved an inspection, which some of us believe was electrical in nature, the idea being to try and identify an inverter with damaged transistor/transistor mounts. Based upon the long wait times that swiftly appeared, it seems that a fair number of Priuses did have damaged inverters, and Toyota promptly went into overdrive trying to keep the supply chain full.

There are also reports that the inverter repair has changed over time; initially, the entire inverter was apparently being swapped for a good one. As time went on, it appears that more troubleshooting steps were added and portions of the inverter, rather than the whole thing, were being replaced. This is all based upon peoples' reports here on Prius Chat; Toyota plays the cards close to the chest.

In any case, once an inverter gets replaced (and there were some people who, at one point, were waiting a month for a new inverter!), the car drives as good as new. So, hang in there.

KBeck.

Tiffany, not that I want to support a large corporation (I usually say bad things about them), it sounds like your trouble is with that dealer. There are reports on Prius Chat of dealers who handed out loaners, gratis, when something like this popped up. I would suggest you call Toyota corporate and complain. And, if you have, already, my apologies.

And while 7 days might sound like a pain.. There was at least one person on Prius Chat who, during the heyday of this recall, waited a month. So count your blessings, I guess.

KBeck.