06 completely shut off while driving. Electrical fire smell.

inverter pump maybe? that's under the hood though. cat? not sure that would shut down the car.
maybe there are some other things in the back i'm not aware of. how about the battery cooling fan?

 

Check main fuse(s). If so, need to find out why.

 

Inverter cooling pump shorted out and popped the AM2 fuse under the hood. The pump is behind the drivers side headlight. If you check that area it will likely be the source of the smell. This has become such a common problem now days, I bet we see 3 or 4 a week that do this exact same thing.

Replace the pump and the fuse and you'll be back on the road.

 

This sounds like the same thing that happened to me last Thursday in my 05. I got a red triangle a couple of hours before and I was sitting at a traffic light when there was a burning smell and I got smoke wafting up outside on the passengers side. It shut down and would not restart. Strangely the radio/hazard flashers/door locks still work, 12 volt stuff, and the headlights work. Try to start it and it just shuts down again with only the squares around the transmission selection showing on the dash. With 408,000 miles on it I suspect it's done.

 

Are we going to get a second recall? The pumps are still shorting out, the danger is still out there

 

Or you could spend $125 on a new pump and keep on driving it. I could understand your "time to retire the old girl" attitude if it was your hybrid battery that died but that's not the case. This is probably one of the easiest and cheapest DIY repairs on this car. Just fix it.

 

I just helped a member fix this pump yesterday, pinched the hoses and it's a breeze.

But if you take it to the stealer, it'll cost $500

 

Is it likely that it was the pump itself that was the source of the smoke?

 

Yep, sure is likely. Likely popped the AM2 fuse too, so make sure that is checked and replaced, if necessary, after you replace the pump.

 

That pump was part of a service campaign a few years back where the dealer was replacing them for free. I don't think thats available anymore. Maybe your car has never seen a dealer and was on the original Inverter coolant pump. Mine was replaced FOC by the dealer then.
If your car has never seen the dealer theirs also a few other TSB's out for the car and you can take it to the dealer and they will scan the car for free for available technical service bulletins.

There was a steering TSB also. That ones kinda important as the steering can fail while your driving.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I did replace the inverter pump and the AM2 fuse and it's running great now.....except the A/C compressor doesn't seem to be working anymore. not sure what's happened there, a/c was fine before this event.