Inverter Coolant Pump takes a dive

Whoops. There went mine. On my 2006 (which my son drives) it was night time in Texas but still around 90 degrees and the dash lit up, no A/C, no cruise control, etc. 48,000 miles and the dealershipis fixing it.

After 3 trips to the dealer they finally figured out that my inverter pump is on its way out. Interesting to note is that my warning messages were intermitent and the dealer said their diagnostic did not reveal any error codes. They finally kept the car for a few days and drove it some when the warning indicator came on, they quickly hooked it up and wouldn;t you know it was code P0A93. Charging me $420 for the replacement, I asked for a break and they are giving me 10% off labor, should be just under $400 based on what folks say the cost of the part and coolant are. Worth it to me as I don't have the time to do it myself.

~67K miles

Isn't the invert coolant pump covered under the hybrid warranty (8yr 100k miles)?


Edit:
Dang, I was hoping that the coolant pump was under the hybrid warranty, but it looks like the inverter coolant pump is under the 60 month/60K miles powertrain warranty, not the hybrid warranty.

Perhaps you could call Toyota and have them help you out - since your sorta close to the cutoff date?

Mine just went out yesterday on the freeway. Same thing as others, lots of lights, now the pink fluid doesn't flow when the car is cold and I press the power button until it is orange.

Anyway what's the part number? I am a DIYer and want to see if I can track one down tomorrow to replace it with.

Thanks!

See #98 above.

thanks I must have missed it. gonna try and find it tomorrow.

This is one item I wouldn't try to save too much money on. There are some oddball pumps out there, some rebuilt ones, etc., that claim to be compatible, but I'd just call the Toyota dealers around and see who's got one and how much they are. For a while they were very hard to get, but I think supply is pretty good now. There's an excellent thread at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-.../65173-how-replace-inverter-coolant-pump.html that gave a good source for the Toyota pump for $78 (price may have changed, and shipping might bring it up to your local dealer's price), and an overall excellent description of how to replace it. Good luck.

Called my local store Toyota of Orange, they wanted $139.24! Then I went to parts.com and found it for $80.22 and had it overnighted for $29.99 plus $2 handling fee. So $112.21, saved almost $30 and will have it tomorrow. Thanks to this site! I'll get this fixed for around $150 with coolant and parts instead of the $497 plus tax the local dealership would charge.

Keep us advised as to how you make out. Hope the repair goes smoothly for you.

PS you got the right kind of coolant right? And are you going to change the coolant for the ICE while your at it?

Yup I'm using 00272-SSLC2 according to other posts about it. Should I do the engine coolant also while I'm at it? It's a 2004 but just passed 35,000 miles.

I think you can wait for a while. That project will take considerable time because its not easy to purge air out of the heater core loop and the coolant heat recovery canister, suggest you look for my recent post in this forum on that topic.

I just changed the engine coolant on my 2004 at 98K miles. The coolant visually was in good condition, almost no solid material in the fluid.

Thanks Patrick. You're awesome. You make newbies feel welcome and not ridiculed for asking questions.

Wow, that seems awfully early for a failure of the inverter pump. I see your in CA. Have much of those 35K miles been in very hot weather? Just wondering why the pump might have failed so early.

Probably that bell-shaped curve thing.

Not sure. Just bought it a month ago.

IIRC, there is a TSB out on the earlier inverter coolant pumps. Since you have a 2004, I'd bet that the inverter pump was one of the old ones and that's the reason why it went out so early. The new one should work much longer.

Yeah, I read about that, so I think this one will last me to 150k and I'll change it then if I still have the car. BTW you look like a teacher I had in high school.

Mine died this week, 2005 with 85500 miles. Fixed for $265.

My 2004 with 105,000 miles showed the big red triangle and assorted other lights when we were traveling out of town. Managed to make it to a dealer, where I was told it was the inverter pump. My cost was about $480, including coolant. They had the pump in stock, which made me think they've seen that problem before. No additional charge for diagnosis.
Already had the mechanical water pump replaced on the gasoline engine -- it was leaking at around 70,000.

I just had mine replaced on my 2006 that has almost 93k miles on it. On Friday of last week, I had been driving home (in 108 degree heat) when I got the triangle, check engine light, and the non-helpful single word "Problem" on the MFD along with the expected (and very unpleasant) loss of air conditioning. As luck would have it, I was up a hill about 1/2 mile from the dealer. So, I pulled over and checked under the hood to look for smoke or any obvious "stop now" warning signs. Finding none, I started it back up, and coasted down the hill to the dealer, arriving at 5:57, exactly 3 minutes before the service department closed for the day. I picked up a loaner and went home. The next day, I got my car back with a new inverter coolant pump, paid for by the Toyota Extra Care Platinum warranty.

It seems kind of wrong to be so excited about a breakdown, but I was just loving this one. First of all, it was just so fortuitous to be in exactly the right part of town, just at the right time to still make it in to the dealer, and just on the right side of the warranty expiration. I'm normally at least a half hour from the dealer, my pizza could have taken 5 minutes longer for me to pick up, and the pump could have just as easily lasted a few thousand more miles to fail on my dime. Second, since I was planning on paying to have the inverter coolant changed at 100k anyway, it's like I'm getting scheduled maintenance done for free. The same thing happened just 1000 miles ago when I had the engine water pump and the left axle seal replaced, getting automatic free fluid changes for the engine coolant and the transaxle. In fact, I bought a new belt for 19 bucks and had them replace that too, since they have the belt off to do the water pump anyway.

So, to really calculate the return on my extended warranty "investment" I've got to include the money it would cost to change the engine coolant, inverter coolant, transaxle fluid and the belt. Easily several hundred right there that I've saved by being lucky enough to have just the right breakdowns at just the right time. So, now, considering any other scheduled maintenance that needs to be done soon, can anybody suggest anything else that I might be able to "break" before the warranty runs out? Or, more seriously, other common failures for which I should be looking for warning signs?