$5000 Transaxle assembly

I posted a warranty page for my US 2009 before. Here it is again:


It does include Motor & Generator (the main components of the transaxle) in the CA emission warranty. And since the dealers are supposed to only replace the transaxle as a whole unit, not the individual motor/generator, one could argue that the transaxle should be covered.

Not sure if this info applies to the OP's issue but hope it helps someone. Good luck!

 

I guess we'll never know if the OP's motor winding was defective or he could have prevented the failure with ATF change at 60k miles.

 

Should be hitting 30K here in a few weeks. Looks like I just added another spring break project to the list.

 

I have just noticed the information given by Fotomoto is for a gen3 2009 Prius. In the UK the Prius guaranty for that year was a much poorer guaranty "ask Grumpy cabby" MelS car is a 2007 gen2, is the guaranty any different for the gen2.
Again I would be taking this to something like the small claims court as given the evidence know one except Toyota would agree that the motor generators are not part of the hybrid system, and it would be cheaper for them to settle with know bad publicity than not. Bear in mind that Toyota themselves say the electric motors/generators in some states and other countries are part of the hybrid system.
In the Guaranty shown by Fotomoto the hybrid components are not listed, the only component mentioned is the HV battery.

 

Other than a minor error in your analysis (the three ATF refreshes cover 240,000 miles not 180,000 miles) I agree with your financial analysis.

But if I sold insurance for auto repairs, I would require reasonable maintenance to be done or the insurance is void. Toyota does not care if the Tranny dies at 200k to 250 k miles since they treat this as indicating the "life of the vehicle" and they will not have to pay for the out-of-warranty repair - I will. My Prius deserves proper maintenance as it continues to give me good service.

JeffD

 

Fotomoto's guaranty was for Texas but for a gen3 2009 Wimpy's guaranty was for California and you have 20,000 miles left on your guaranty not 2000, but it is the wording of the guaranty that you should be challenging as it is obviously misleading, and vague also not consistant.
If you look at Wimpy's guaranty for California at the small print below the red arrows it says "8years or 100,000miles" but in California it is 10years 150,000miles

 

MelS, I'm really sorry to hear about your car's failure. As you stated, you..
purchased the car new in July '07, it's now 4 yrs 5 months old
had it maintained by Toyota on schedule

Car dies, leaves you stranded at night at 79k miles
Toyota states it needs a $5k transaxle replace at your cost..

that transaxle might have a 1 year warranty after repair.

What did you do wrong to warrant a $5k repair on such a young car? Nothing.

I suppose Toyota has a program 'Toyota Extra Care' that might have covered this, to what, 100k miles? They don't require an ATF change before then, so a transaxle could fail at 110k miles. Then customer would be out cost of extra care and the $5k.

I think Toyota needs to eat a bunch on this, figure out why this occurs and modify the service and / or warranty schedule.

$5k out of pocket in your case is ridiculous. Actually half that would still be ridiculous.

 

Is the case closed with the dealer and Toyota Corporate?

 

MelS,
It is possible that the tranny fluid itself is causing your short. Here's what I would do If I were in your shoes.

If possible, just have the dealer change the tranny fluid, reset the codes and see what happens. I know this may be a waste of money but it might be a gamble that pays off.

My reasoning for this is the following: The tranny will give off small particles of metal from the gears and other components. If this is allowed to saturate the fluid, it may cause the fluid to become conductive (causing a short). To account for this, there is a magnet on the bottom of the tranny which is supposed to catch all the particles. If the magnet is not in place (manufacturing error maybe), it could cause the problem.

This is something to think about. I'm not an expert but, I am a thinker and this is just my thought (and what I would do). I highly recommend running this by Seilerts and Patrick Wong (who are experts).

Not having a tranny fluid replacement interval in the maintenance schedule is a fatal error (imo) on the part of Toyota's maintenance engineers. They do a lot of good stuff but we all make mistakes.

Pls run this by Patrick or Seilerts (or other competent authority) as it may be too late (the tranny too far gone) to try this.

 

I should have mentioned that the 7 year 70K mile coverage is for PA and WA only. For other states adopting the CA emission standard it's 10 years 150K miles IIRC. And for US models 2009 is gen 2, not gen 3. Europe may be different.

 

MelS, still a tough pill to take at $2k, but much better than before. It's good to know JeffD is up to 219k miles on original transaxle. Don't mean to muddy this with 'how long has JeffD's hybrid battery lasted', but I'm sure hybrid battery is part of what you're weighing too.

 

Here is one luck guy who got free replacement under CARB warranty:

 

MelS good to know Toyota are pitching in but I can understand it still leaves a bad taste. I suppose we should all look more closely at the fine print when we buy, but I suppose some manufacturers will always have devious ways of misleading customers.

 

I would think that if there is a problem with fluid, either new or old, being in contact with the windings, then the conformal coating has been compromised. That will continue to be a problem.

I just changed my ATF, at 35K miles, and it was already pretty dark, and there was a good fuzz of particles on the magnet, as shown in other posts. It feels good to get that stuff out of there. I will be curious to check it again in 10K miles to see how it has changed. I live in a hilly place, so the hybrid system gets a real work out.

 

My HV battery died at 195k miles. I put in a ReInVolt for $1600 and $400 for installation. My old battery had 27 of 28 good modules which I balanced and sold to 5 people to successfully fix their HV batteries getting back over $600. Next time (not for a while) I'll get a salvaged battery and fix it up (test and re-balance all 28 modules) as a replacement for less than $1000 installed.

JeffD

 

You need to look at the footnote and see which items are marked with that footnote. The "motor" and "generator" do not have the footnote, therefore they are covered under a shorter warranty period. In any event that warranty does not apply to the OP.

Since it is clear that the OP's transaxle failure is not covered under the relevant US Toyota warranty (it doesn't matter what the California or UK warranty is, or what the warranty might be elsewhere in the world), and he has already tried unsuccessfully to get relief via the Toyota Customer Care center, then his options are:

1) pay $5K at the Toyota dealer
2) find an independent who can install a salvage transaxle from a low mileage wrecked 2G vehicle, or
3) get rid of the car at a low price since it is not working.

I personally would pursue #2.

 

Same here. Got my '07's transaxle fluid drained and refilled at 40,000 miles. I figure that during the breaking-in period is when the majority of the metal filings from the gears will accumulate in the fluid.

Once the gears have worn in, I think the amount of metal filings will decrease. I'm going to do another WS fluid drain-and-refill at 100,000 miles, and hopefully there will be less metal filings on the magnet this time around.

Hoping my '07 will last till at least 2017.