New Tansaxle? Oh, no!

Hi--

I'm looking for some advice. Below is my long story:

Our '06 Prius wouldn't start, so I had it towed to the dealer. He says it's the Transaxle, which will cost $4767 installed. I arranged to get back to him on Tuesday, so I have some time to seek out alternatives.

The car has 67,000 miles on it. The Powertrain warranty would have covered this, but it ran out at 60,000.

The car was in a serious wreck before I bought it August a year ago, but it seems to have been repaired well. Well, except...

On this and two prior occasions, the car stopped running within 30 minutes after leaving a full-service carwash. On the two prior occasions, the car was in the Toyota shop for several days.

The first time, the repairs they tried cost $350 and we thought it was fixed.

Several carwashes went by without incident.

The second time, the car was in the shop for two weeks (at my convenience). When I picked it up, it worked fine and the bill was zero. The service manager had no idea what had happened. I suspected they had fixed an earlier mistake of their own and simply didn't want to tell me about it.

Again, several carwashes went by, and a couple of long trips in driving rain. No problems.

This time, the third time that the car failed right after a carwash, I took the time to write down the situation (see below) and had the car towed immediately so that it could be diagnosed while it was still wet. The service manager got his staff right on it and came up with the above recommendation to replace the transaxle. Ugh.

Next Tuesday, I plan to go down there and try to start the car. My hunch is that the car will start. Perhaps there's some torn gasket or some housing bent from the accident that's allowing carwash water to leak into the electronics. Perhaps after a few days it'll dry out.

I discussed investigating this possibility with the service manager and he explained that he's not equipped to do that kind of research. He explained that, when the diagnosis is as clear as this one, he really has no option. The computer scan of the car says

MIL "ON" DTC P390 or P0AAC, Information Codes 526 and 613

This translates into

R&R Hybrid Vehicle Transaxle Assembly

Which, in turn, translates into

$4767 and three-quarters of a day

That's the extent of analysis he's prepared to perform.

I asked about used transaxles, maybe from a car that was totalled without damaging that part? No, he said, dealerships don't deal in used parts.

What if the car does start on Tuesday? Who might be able to help me research my hypothesis? Are there any repair shops in Los Angeles besides Toyota dealerships capable of tackling a Prius?

And if it doesn't start? If our car weren't a Prius, I'd be walking the aisles at Pick-A-Part today with some reputable mechanic at my elbow, wrenches in hand. But where am I going to find a mechanic I'd trust with my Prius?

All right. There's my beef. I'd appreciate hearing from you any ideas you might have. Or sympathy.

Thanks for reading.

--Gil



Re: 2006 Prius

To: Toyota Service Manager

Our car won't start. The Ready light won't come on. Instead all the warning lights are on: the Red Bang Triangle, and the five Yellows: Skidding Car, Bang Brake Shoes, ABS, VSC and Check Engine.

Yesterday, I had the car washed. 30 minutes later the Check Engine light came on, so I drove it home. This morning, all the lights came on besides Ready. It'll shift into Neutral and Park, but not R, P nor B.

I think WATER GOT IN SOMEWHERE and messed up the CAN bus.

This has happened before. Can you help us figure out what got wet in the carwash?

Poking into System Check Mode, the five system lines initially show OK, but, when you touch the LAN MON button, you get

EMV CHEK
NAV1 CHEK
AUDIO NoErr
G/W NoErr
DSP-AMP CHEK

...and the following codes when you touch the CHEK buttons:

EMV
01- DB 190- D8- F
01- D5 190- 51- B
01- DB 178- F4- F
01- DB 110- 4F- C
01- DA 178- FA- 1
01- D9 178- FA- 1

NAV1
01- 33 - 00- F

DSP-AMP
01- D6 - FF- 1
01- DD 110- 72- 2
01- E0 190- FF- 1
01- E1 110- FF- 1
01- E1 190- FF- 1
01- E3 - FF- 1

--Gil

 

Well, the computer spit out the following text right after the diagnosis:

"This repair is covered under the Toyota Powertrain Warranty. This warranty is in effect for to 60 months or 60,000 miles, whichever occurs first, from the vehicle's in-service date."

I feel that the service manager would surely have let me know if other factors pertained.

 

OMG! You're right! The DTCs are P3009 and P0AA6. My apology. I must've been upset when I copied those. So the whole line on the printout should read:

MIL "ON" DTC P3009 or P0AA6, Information Codes 526 and 613

Now that's encouraging, if only to hear that you think they might exist! I hadn't even looked because I thought the Prius was too unique for independent repair shops. Thank you for letting me now that I was mistaken!

--Gil

 

I am going to post this on a separate thread:

Can anyone recommend an independent shop that specialize in repairing Toyotas in the Los Angeles/Glendale/Pasadena area?

--Gil

 

Thanks, Seilerts. I've written to Avi via email and I plan to call him today. Somehow I can't imagine a car repair shop owner sitting at his computer. Best of all -- he's right near here! I could walk home.

>There's a potential that someone who knows what to look for will be able to find the source of the short and fix it for just a few hundred bucks.

That's what I'm hoping. Thanks for the encouragement.

>Seems like this is not the only story of a Prius that codes after visiting the car wash.

I'd sure like to hear about them.

>MTA: As always, check the 12V battery -- I remember now that you have to leave the car in N while inside the car wash and that is enough to wipe out a 12V battery on its last legs.

I have read about that. In this case the battery is less than a year old and the car drove fine for 30 minutes before it coded. [I like that verb!]

Thanks for your suggestions, Seilerts.

--Gil

 

It started. Of course.

I went by the Toyota dealer this morning and asked to visit my car. The service manager and the chief tech accompanied me. It started right up. They fully understood when I said I wanted to take the car to an independent mechanic. They warned me to be careful, but they didn't charge me. I thanked them for the time they spent on it this week, and I bought each of them a token gift I think they'll like.


This essay was a real eye-opener:

http://www.evtalk.org/368/ridiculously-expensive-hybrid-repairs/


Now I'm looking to start a relationship with a local independent mechanic whom I can pay to spend some time looking under the car for where the water might be getting in. Toyota dealer technicians are under too much pressure to do that. A local mechanic won't really need to understand Priuses (Prii?) to do that. But he should probably wear gloves to be safe.

At least I can drive my car around looking for him.

I imagine so!

>f it turns out that the transaxle is toast, you might try writing to Toyota corporate and asking for financial help since the car is so young miles wise.

Thanks for the suggestion, Sagebrush.

Another alternative I have found in my research is that salvaged transaxles are selling on eBay for $1K and $80 shipping. Now those are some numbers I can deal with.

Thank you all for your advice and encouragement. I'll be taking your notes with me to my new mechanic.

--Gil

 

Oh, now that's some good information! Thanks, vertex!

--Gil