$2400 repair: Junction box & water pump

There is a inverter coolant pump, which was the "recall".

 

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...pair-junction-box-water-pump.html#post1499853

Per http://priuschat.com/forums/toyota-...tsbs/89220-water-pump-recall.html#post1255411, 2nd gen Prius has four water pumps, not of all which run all the time.

Can you be more specific about the "expensive battery"? Are you talking about the HV battery pack (the large pack in the silver box) that weighs ~100 lbs. or the 12 volt?

How many miles on the car?

Did you by any chance jump the car improperly and reverse the polarity? If so, you could've possibly blown the inverter, which apparently has a 4 digit price tag.

More details about the consequences of reversed polarity jumping (Patrick Wong is one of our resident repair experts):
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...i-messed-up-what-do-i-do-now.html#post1207131
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...885-12v-battery-adventure-warning-lights.html

 

Post the DTCs (error codes) the mechanic pulled from the car's computers
Have you replaced the inverter coolant pump (under warranty or otherwise) ?
When was the last time the 12 battery was replaced ?

 

The water pump if it is leaking must be the engine coolant pump, an easy job any workshop should be able to do. The junction box relay if that is what they called it is complete BS.

The pump would not stop the car from starting. The other problem is obviously electrical and should through some fault codes that we kneed to now. It is possible that when you tried to jump start the car you may have connected it up wrong (reverse polarity) if that is the case serious damage can be done, but this is not always the case. Try to get the fault codes and or some more detail.

Good luck

John.

 

^^^
I've never heard of this as an emerging problem.

As for them calling Toyota, yes, dealers sometimes do this (sometimes at customer request) to see if Toyota is willing to cover part/all of the cost of some expensive out of warranty repair, out of goodwill.

If you have a part # for the parts they claim need to be replaced, that'd give us a better idea of what's going on.

 

Welcome!!
Unfort the main anti-freeze water pump is a generic leak problem for our models. You can see this by pointing a flashlight down by the fan belt pulleys as pink liquid or pretty pink salts. Mine is leaking at 105K and I am adding Toyota special antifreeze to watch leak rate. Right now my fluid level is holding well but I am confused if there could be air in the system giving me a fake level.

So that pump problem is expected and your main recourse is cheaper service. The guys here tell me it is DIY doable - medium difficulty level. Pump costs 60 bucks or so but you put new antifreeze in and all that.

The other stuff is unlucky as I have no repairs up to 105K miles.

 

Yes the pump is just the standard coolant pump for as you say in the US gas engine.
There is no relay on the Prius that is any where near $1000 let alone $2000 allowing $400 for fitting. I am thinking they want to replace the box with the fuses and relays complete under the bonnet (sorry hood).

 

I wouldn't even worry about the pump till I got it running. I think its the main fuse, and if you had to jump it, a new 12v.

 

I strongly suggest you look elsewhere. $800 for the engine water pump is outright highway robbery. The cost of parts is about $175, for the pump and 2 gallons of coolant. Labor is about 2 hours, even though most techs can do it in an hour. With tax, it should be no more than $450-$500. This is definitely a repair that you can put off for a few weeks, just top off the coolant reservoir with a gallon of Super Long Life Coolant from the parts counter.

Given that they are grossly overcharging for the water pump, it is quite likely that they are trying to take you on the electrical repair.

 

I agree with this. The only proviso would be if the other work (necessary to get the car running) just happened to involve draining the engine coolant, in which case it would make sense to do the pump at the same time. At this point however, this doesn't seem to be the case.

 

Re: $2400 repair: Junction block & water pump

Hi Jennifer. A slow coolant leak is a fairly common issue, but it's not a critical problem, so long as you check the coolant reservoir from time to time and never let it run low. It's certainly not the cause of your current (apparently electrical) problem. I think you should get the immediate (no start) problem fixed first, and then you can shop around for the best price on a water pump replacement.

Given that the problem was co-incident with the jump attempt I think that this was the most likely cause. Once you've needed to jump it the first time you are probably going to need to jump it again soon, so don't get frustrated, just get a new (12V) battery.

As others have pointed out, the most likely fault after a failed (reverse polarity) jump is either the main fuse or the inverter. If it's just the main fuse then it's a fairly easy fix. If it's the inverter then it's costly. I'm not convinced that the current diagnosis of "junction box relay" is a good one, nor am I convinced that you're getting a good price. I think you should get a second opinion on this, even if it requires forking out some extra money on a tow.

 

BTW. Just a thought. Is it possible that the service techs were actually referring to the "inverter" all along but are just calling it a "junction box relay" because they didn't think the customer would understand what an inverter is? This is definitely a strange one. If possible Jennifer, could you get them to point out under the bonnet exactly what it is that they propose changing. If it's the big silver box shaped thing to the left (to the right looking from the front) of the engine, then it's the inverter. If they point to the smaller black box nearby then it's something in the fuse/relay box that they are talking about.

 

The inverter is covered to 100,000 miles, at least in my 2010 California warranty Prius. Of course, the warranty wouldn't cover damage caused by an improper jump start. Not sure if they can tell whether you improperly jump started the vehicle.

Sounds like Repair One is to replace the 12V battery, but the other people in this thread know more about that than I do.

 

49 state, 8 year 100K. California is 10 year 150K.