Inverter Coolant Pump takes a dive

I wonder if the pump would exhibit any early symptoms that could
warn an owner that failure is imminent...
.
When I power up the car, I can hear it running through the
firewall. I think if I didn't hear that little humming I would
know something was wrong, but at that point it would be too late
as far as a proactive changeout.
.
_H*

 

First of all,

Thank you Galaxee for posting that TSB.

I read that TSB and it states for model years 04-06 and was released on January 26, 2007.

I went back and re-read all the posts here, and all models reporting problems were 2006 and prior until I read jermyban's post. He reported having it replaced on his 2007.

So now I'm concerned because I have a 2007 and have noticed the sound of the pump to be "more odd than usual" after I power down the car.

Am I correct in thinking that the pump in question, is the one that you can hear after powering down the car?

Am i correct in thinking that the TSB dated January 26, 2007, could also apply to vehicles after 2006 time period even though it doesn't state that?

Also, I have the scanguage II installed, is there anything I can monitor to maybe inform myself of a possible upcoming failure?

Thanks!

 

I wanted to post an update to this. I took my car to Toyota for 30k maintenence. The service tech was so good that he heard my inverter pump noise and placed an order for a replacement (covered under warranty). I was so pleased that he detected it.

 

Driving down the road today, my cars dash lit up with the warning triangle, the check engine light, the circle with the exclamation mark inside, and the VSC light on.

I turned the car off, then back on. The only two lights that stayed on were the warning triangle and the check engine. I took it to Autozone for the free code read. It came back Inverter cooling system error.

So i take it to Fred Haas Toyota in Spring Tx. They charge me $93 to tell me its an Invertor cooling system performance error. I ask them how much to fix it, and they tell me they dont know whats causing the code and that it'll be upto $388 to diagnose the offending part.

I paid the $93 and drove out of there. The Lights are no longer on, but im assuming they will come back eventually because the problem is still there.


Here are the codes that were present when first read;

B1200 - BODY ECU COMMUNICATION STOP
B1207 - SMART KEY ECU COMMUNICATION STOP
B1271 - COMBINATION METER ECU COMMUNICATION STOP
P0A0F - ENGINE FAILED TO START
P0A93 - INVERTER COOLING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
P3000 - BATTERY CONTROL SYSTEM
C1310 - HV SYSTEM MALFUNCTION

They cleared all codes, the C1310 and the P0A93 Returned.

Should I have Toyota change the Inverter coolant pump?


Btw My car is an 05 with 168k+ Miles. No problems at all until today.

 

Pump fail = expense
inverter fail = f&^^ing big expense
Prevent inverter fail with pump replace

 

[quo
I turned the car off, then back on. The only two lights that stayed on were the warning triangle and the check engine. I took it to Autozone for the free code read. It came back Inverter cooling system error.

So i take it to Fred Haas Toyota in Spring Tx. They charge me $93 to tell me its an Invertor cooling system performance error. I ask them how much to fix it, and they tell me they dont know whats causing the code and that it'll be upto $388 to diagnose the offending part.

I paid the $93 and drove out of there. The Lights are no longer on, but im assuming they will come back eventually because the problem is still there.


Here are the codes that were present when first read;

B1200 - BODY ECU COMMUNICATION STOP
B1207 - SMART KEY ECU COMMUNICATION STOP
B1271 - COMBINATION METER ECU COMMUNICATION STOP
P0A0F - ENGINE FAILED TO START
P0A93 - INVERTER COOLING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
P3000 - BATTERY CONTROL SYSTEM
C1310 - HV SYSTEM MALFUNCTION

They cleared all codes, the C1310 and the P0A93 Returned.

Should I have Toyota change the Inverter coolant pump?


Btw My car is an 05 with 168k+ Miles. No problems at all until today.[/quote]




Please be aware that the Code P0A93 is not monitoring the pump flow performance but is monitoring Inverter temperature. P0A93 means the Inverter overheated. When the pump fails it no longer cools the Inverter. C1310 means the Inverter overheated to failure/crowbar and system saw no charge to Hybrid battery pack from Inverter. A very bad thing. The only reason your not being towed into the Toyota Dealer right now is its winter and maybe your not driving alot and have not yet destroyed the Inverter. If it was the dead of summer you would not get far. Continued driving will eventually destroy the Inverter. No Inverter no power. The Inverter out of warranty is very very expensive. Usually $5000 Dealer installed. Poor Ginny.

 

The car is at the dealership right now, New inverter pump installed is ~$360. + coolant (so maybe $400?)

Thanks for the heads up on the c1310 code, i had no idea. I was able to drive on the battery and a combination of the battery and engine on the short drive to the dealership this morning. The inverter is charging as usual so hopefully I didnt damage it. ray:

 

Maybe the dealer didn't tell you all that because they *wanted* your very expensive inverter to fail.

 

no, they just wanted a lot of money to test the system and come up with a diagnosis.

 

Great! My intent was to scare you a wee bit and not have you end up with an arm wrestle at the dealer over an Inverter 5 g's which is a losing battle.
Thank god its winter!

I am very interested in this thread. I have come up with an Inverter coolant pump failure alarm for my 07. Its very simple & cheap and foolproof.
I bought a Stancor STC-120 thermostat and a very small & loud 12 volt car alarm horn on ebay. The STC-120 is a 2 terminal thermostat that is mounted directly to the inverter sinking its heat and presents a short across its terminals when a temp. of 113F is reached:

STC-120

My Inverter never reached more than 92F in the dead of summer. I hypothesis 113F is a good place to start for emergency heat warning. I may be wrong. 12 volts ign wired to one side of the thermostat other side to 12 volt horn. Upon emergency temp reached of 113F thermostat closes and presents 12 volts to horn and horn sounds. Alerting me to pump failure preventing overheat damage to Inverter. You might say why?...I'm under warranty..who cares...I'd like to know a major malfunction has just occurred under the hood and know exactly why before I even pull over. Besides its only $25.00 for my kit. I would imagine this kit would be a great addition to all Gen1's and could save a Gen1 owner's the cost of replacing an Inverter. Its our car's Achilles heel for sure. Pictures to follow.

 

What were the symptoms? Did you get a warning indicator? I was driving on the interstate and the warning display came on and the engine stopped. The engine would start but then stopped after running for 30 sec. Could my problem be the inverter coolant pump?

 

Yikes! My 2005 with 68K miles on it just did the same thing. The dealer just called me to say it will be over $600 to repair it. I'm completely shocked. Is this a part that should be covered under the power train 100K warranty?

Its been awhile since this was posted -its now May 09 - if any of you have any suggestions on how to inquire if Toyota will cover any of the cost, I'd really appreciate it.

 

Sorry to bear bad news, but the power train warranty is only 60K miles, 5 years.

 

Yep, I'm starting to see the trend too. My 2005 with 68K miles on it just did the same thing last night. The dealer just called me to say it will be over $600 to repair it. I'm completely shocked. Is this a part that should be covered under the power train 100K warranty? Has anyone thought to ask Toyota to start a campaign on this part (or whatever they call that when enough people have the same problem and Toyota assumes the responsibility to replace at their expense)? Toyota has proven to be very honorable in that regard for my first two Prius.

Inverter Cooler Pump failed @ 68K miles on 2005 Prius

Same Prius - main battery (yep, the big one!) failed at 25K and had to be replaced.

I'm starting to wonder about this car...all big problems, all very expensive problems!

 

What noise are we listening for, mine makes a fan noise, not noisy after shutdown for maybe 60 seconds?

600 is not bad own a Benz and BMW and tell me 600 is bad

 

I had absolutely no noise at all. Just the warning lights and suddenly having hot air come out of my a/c that was running nice and cool on a 97 degree day.

So $600 is nothing for a Benz or a BMW? That is why I bought a Toyota - I had hoped for much more reasonable repairs. I made the mistake of buying a used SAAB for a college daughter. Nightmare. Every repair was over $1500 and their were many. Never again.

 

Some of the parts *should* have the same warranty as the battery, but appear to only have the 3/60 warranty.

The problem with all this technology is that its a learning curve for the carmaker. Do all the lab and field testing you want, only real world use proves it

I'm thinking of The Stall, as my '04 experienced that problem. How did *that* slip by??

In the end, the car is - overall - proving reliable. That isn't much comfort to somebody who does have a very expensive problem

 

The only suggestio I can make has been made several times before. call 800-331-4331 and open a case file. Give them all the details on your problem. Don't argue, just patient persistence. In subsequent calls, provide details illustrating that this is not an entirely rare problem (1st person reports at PC).

Find out whether the inverter coolant pump upgrade was related to a TSB. Research that here because my memory of the details is incomplete.

During your several patient persistent followup calls, indicate that you are discussing this issue with thousands of others on PC who are either Toyota owners or potential customers. You wish to report to them that Toyota goes out of its way to support their flagship vehicle.

Often, this approach leads to full or partial funding of the repair. I'd like to say more often than not, but we lack a compilation. In any case it seems to me to be your best option now.

Be sure to report the results. If you get satisfaction I'll give you another job to do, to close the loop.

 

yea , even other dealers not stealer ships just for rotors and brakes 1500.00 LOL it crazy and my 2006 SLK Benz, to fix the hard top convertible 6K .... I love my prius