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Damage to inverter - freezing weather

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by laika108, Oct 23, 2023.

  1. laika108

    laika108 New Member

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    Hey all,

    This morning I had the RTOD pop on my 2007 Prius during my morning commute, whereafter I pulled off the road, shut her off and she won’t shift into anything but neutral since. It threw some codes related to the inverter (P0A78 and P0A94), so I’ve been troubleshooting around that. I've checked the connection between the control ECI and the inverter, that’s all fine, and I don’t have techstream to properly test the inverter itself. However, I did notice the pump wasn’t working.

    What’s notable about this morning is that it was the first time we had freezing temps. If the pump was a preexisting issue and I ran the car for the 10 or so minutes until it died, while it wasn’t running antifreeze, could there be significant damage to the inverter? I’d happily replace the pump, but if there are pricier repairs down the line, I’m not in the place for that.

    Thanks!
     
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Generally no I mean if it sits overnight and if everything freezes solid which is probably not likely unless you're in I don't even know man Alaska or something but in a extreme cold weather the inverter probably won't even get warm enough to throttle back your power and whatnot like it would here in North Carolina so you could essentially drive a good portion of the year in the cold countries without an inverter pump essentially the only risk would be the standing water freezing in the inverter and blowing out the cooling jacket in the inverter which would be catastrophic and that situation that might even be more viable to just let the coolant out of the inverter while it's this cold .
     
  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Is there a chance it wasn't running antifreeze?

    I remember in the old days, sometimes people in hot areas would skip the antifreeze and run water, or at least in the summer, and try to remember to refill using antifreeze before winter (what used to be called "winterizing").

    I didn't think that was still a thing anywhere. It never was a very good thing, because the "antifreeze" also raises the boiling point, and also contains anticorrosives that are important to protecting the engine and cooling system parts. A Prius engine in this area should be running 50% mix (exactly the way premix Toyota SLLC comes) year round. Have to get down close to −30℉ for that stuff to start to slush up.
     
    Tombukt2 likes this.
  4. laika108

    laika108 New Member

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    That’s a relief. I’ve also read similar experiences to mine where a bad pump did shut down their car, so I’ll move forward with the replacement.

    There is antifreeze in the reservoir now. Practically full. I’ll be careful getting the mix right when I refill it, thanks for the heads up!
     
  5. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Generally the absence of the pump or unplugged pump won't shut the car down and just tells the system that the pump's not pumping and now the system is going to be monitoring itself looking to get warm and then throttle back inverter output or what have you well if it doesn't ever get hot enough then it won't do that no matter what the little red car on the display says that's just there to let you know that something's wrong which is the inverter pump is unplugged and not pumping this is never shut my car off I had this problem in the summer in North Carolina and drove the car on a 2-hour trip and didn't notice any throttling back I was on the highway and I guess all that air flow flying through the front end and what have you at 70 mph kept everything cool enough I guess.
     
  6. mr_guy_mann

    mr_guy_mann Senior Member

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    Generally, a bad pump either shorts and pops the AM2 fuse, which "kills" the car immediately (no power to the dash and several ecu's), or the pump doesn't pump & the inverter gets warm (sets P0A93) then eventually limits function. Might not get too hot in winter at all.

    A bad pump isn't going to be causing your problems.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.