Inverter Coolant pump failed

60 months/39,000 miles for mine. That dealer or another might cut you some slack if you beg. If not try calling Toyota USA.

 

What did it cost to repair????
Mine has 62K

 

A THOUSAND DOLLARS? I find that hard to believe. And four hours to install it?

I had it done to a 2005 Prius, under warranty, and I sat in the lounge for a couple of hours at the most.

I would demand that it be replaced under warranty. First, if you are ONE MONTH over the 5 year warranty, that would be outrageous. Second, these pumps aren't good one day and bad the next, they are failing over a long period of time. It just may take it awhile before the outside temperature and other factors combine to set off the lights. Third, this is a part of the hybrid system, and most definitely should be covered under the hybrid system warranty. What is the name of the part??? INVERTER coolant pump. Is the INVERTER part of the hybrid system? Does the INVERTER need to be cooled? OK, essential part of the hybrid system. Fourth, if they won't do it under warranty, do not have it fixed until you complain to Toyota directly. If necessary, I can find another thread where they fixed I believe the same part for a person under warranty. Toyota knows there are a bad batch of inverter coolant pumps out there, but they're not telling you. If nothing else works, I would claim that it was also part of the emission system, and covered. Also, you should be able to drive it as is, as long as you're not going through Death Valley. My dealer allowed me to drive for a couple of weeks while I waited for the part. And when I asked him about it, he said, "Do you think I would let you drive it if it would hurt the car?" Of course not, this is a good mechanic there at Winter Haven Toyota.

 

What the heck are they replacing? The inverter coolant pump is listed as $116.09 MSRP/discount price $88.23 at Champion ToyotaWorld.

The labour charge sounds about right though, as the pump is behind the left-hand headlight (i.e. driver's side in the US) - the service manual says to remove the front bumper completely, then the headlight. Then you have to drain the coolant before disconnecting the pump and replacing it. Then refill coolant, bleed the cooling system, before reassembling everything.

Since the cooling of the inverter power electronics is vital to their continued operation, I would say that the coolant pump should be covered under the hybrid part of the warranty. I don't know whether, as yet, anyone has tried to claim on this.

 

It's counter-intuitive but Toyota is quite explicit about this. The inverter coolant pump is under the 60 month/60K miles power train warranty, not the hybrid warranty. But $1000 for replacement is ridiculous. Try another dealer.

 

Her name was Michelle Steiner. She called the Toyota 800 number to complain. Hers was 27 days out of warranty. As she was talking, the dealer called her and said that they would do it as a "one time courtesy" for her.

Also, hobbit, a well-respected authority on these cars, has documented the shortcomings of these pumps at http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/ipump/ if anybody would be interested.

So, a design flaw from Toyota, including (my understanding) a bad batch of pumps which has been documented to specific serial number series, and just a short time out of warranty. Definitely worth complaining about, and for $1K I would be complaining loudly.

 

My 2005 lost its inverter pump at 63,000 this past spring. It cost almost $1,000 for the part and labor. The dealer told me it was not covered under the warrenty.

I truly think with all the posts of failed inverter pumps, particularly for the 2005 models, that it should become a campaign issue for Toyota. I know others disaggreed with me when I said I bought a Toyota over a Saab or Mercedes because I thought the repair costs would be more reasonable. The $1,000 was a steep repair bill for me and it really surprised me. I was prepared for a $300 repair, not one three times that amount. I also had a bad battery...the big expensive one on this car... that just stopped working in the first year. I was grateful that Toyota took care of THAT one. But I am really having second thoughts about investing in a Gen III now. I'm really concerned about how costly it will become to maintain.

Before bashing me here, please know that I am a huge Prius fan. I have bought three of them and haven't driven anything else since 2000. I love how they drive ....completely addicted to my Prius. I think I just got spoiled with my first one, never had one expense. This last one has had lots of weird problems...always costly. So I may wait a year or so to take the plung on the Gen III. I'm sitting back and watching Toyota work out all of the bugs now that so many people are driving one.

 

By the way, it is not necessary to remove the bumper and headlight to gain access to the inverter coolant pump (and I do not recall reading those repair steps in the Toyota repair manual. The manual did say to remove the engine under covers, which I found unnecessary.)

I've recently posted a "how to" on this forum.
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-.../65173-how-replace-inverter-coolant-pump.html

My guess is that 2 hours of dealer labor time would be fair.

 

I just posted on my inverter pump failure. I have the extended warranty, and the charge for the inverter pump itself was $309.29

I chose to replace the fluid, which added about $200 to the cost - but my car has 90,000 miles on it.

 

Just to confirm, yes labor included. (I think they are $104 per hour labor charge.)

 

I wouldn't replace the inverter coolant pump until I note that the code appears when the inverter is not powering the A/C. Summer 2008 the DTC for the inverter coolant pump kept popping up in my '04. Georgia is hot and I always ran the A/C on "MAX."

So, this summer I always set the thermostat on 75, 78 degrees, etc. Not a single DTC for the inverter coolant pump.