I have been through the reboot threads and have found nothing matching my symptoms. I put 6,100 km on my Prius in the last 10 days - S.E. British Columbia to Yuma and back. During trip the triangle came on along with the engine light and the car died with just enough time to get it off the highway. Dark out, wife and kid in car and a bit freaky. Got out manual and read to switch car on and off and problem would probably go away. Did this a few times and got engine working adn some electric power but with lights still on. Finally got to drive 10 miles to a shopping mall and let the car sit for about 1/2 hour. Started car and all lights off and running fine. Had car checked at Toyota in Havasu Lake City early next day. Codes told the technician there could be a problem where electric and gas engine work togethre but there was no smoking gun. He drove it hard and said that he could take it apart and look BUT would probably find nothing. On that advice I chose to drive it home - 2 long days - and nothing else happened. Does anyone have some idea of what may have happened?? I really do not want this to happen again. On the plus side the dealership was extremely straight forward with no rip off what-so-ever. I did not even have to pay for the tech or shop time - best thing ever!
Was your '07 one of the early '07s that had the inverter coolant pump recall? Did this happen when you were in the desert part of your trip? If the inverter coolant pump is having problems, the inverter will not be cooled properly, and you would get the symptoms you describe. Notice the car worked again after you gave it half an hour to cool down. Fix would be to get a Toyota dealership to perform the recall repair (inverter coolant pump replacement).
+1, inverter cooling pump. That fits the description exactly. Because the car "dies", i.e. the DC converter shuts down and then the 12V battery is quickly drained, it tends to erase the code. It is possible that, since your car is Canadian, the tech in Arizona did not have access to your service information.
Hard to say what happened without the logged DTC. Although it is possible that the OP's car has an inverter coolant pump failure one would think that failure would become apparent during his return trip from AZ to BC. I suggest the OP look at the inverter coolant reservoir for fluid turbulence, when the Prius is READY. Lack of such turbulence is evidence the pump is not working.
