How do you remove the hoses from the inverter coolant pump?

If possible I suggest driving the vehicle 20 miles or so through varied terrain then bleeding a final time. You want to make sure all the air pockets are out of the system.

 

I did The Job last weekend and I didn't have bent longnose pliers handy, just regular slip-joints. What I did was unbolt the pump first, slide the bracket aft to get it out from under the wire harnesses, while turning the whole thing counterclockwise (seen from above) to pass it a bit in front of the inverter, then tugged it out into the empty headlight space. The limiting factor was the suction hose (the one attached to the center of the pump) but it's rubbery enough that I could pull and stretch it until the clamp was easy to reach. The trick was I had to sustain that pull. My plier jaws were too narrow to cover both tabs on the split side of the clip, but I found a small piece of random metal to lay across them, then used the pliers over that. It would have been easier with three hands, but after a few tries I got the knack.

After that, unhooking the discharge hose was easy.

Two years ago when I did my last coolant change I used the evacuate-refill technique (used by AirLift, etc.) on the engine, but chickened out after reading something here about the HV cooling system possibly being too flimsy for it.

This time, I had watched the Luscious Garage youtube vids of them happily vacuum-filling the inverter system without a care in the world, and I decided to try it this time. Success! The pump made virtually no air noise from the first instant I turned it on. I ceremonially opened each bleeder and let one not-very-big bubble out, but that's a point I spent something like two hours to reach the last time.

Last time I had also had some frustration with fluid/air leaking around the threads when the bleeders were open--especially frustrating on the side that's in suction when the pump's on, because that means the air goes in.
I had the idea some months back to coat the bleeder threads with Hylomar HPF and so I did that while the system was drained, and it seemed effective at making sure the flow path was through the bleeders and not around them. It wasn't a very extensive test because I didn't need to work very long at bleeding, but I got no leakage that I noticed.

It's been a few days and I should probably check for any last straggling bubbles.

-Chap

 

Happy to hear of the outcome on the pumps its a job to do and the feeling of doing it is quit rewarding.jim