2001 P3130 P0300 car dies randomly and power steering goes out

Mine was doing the same thing yesterday - first the PS went out, another 100 yards it died. I got the 3130 code. It was because by 12v battery was dead and couldn't supply enough juice to run those accessories. I replaced it with a $22 U1R battery from Walmart and all that went away. FYI, that's a lawn mower battery with different terminals designed for the cable to bolt to them. I just took the existing cables, removed the green insulators(?), and used the existing bolt and nut to attach to the new battery. I bent the negative cable end to be able to just use one side of it. The positive one I just spread open enough to fit the battery terminal in between, line up the holes and bolt it on. It's easier if you take the cables off and bend/install them on your workbench. The negative is just screwed to the trunk and the positive one has two wire connectors that pop off to free up the cable end. That battery is also shorter, so put something underneath it in the trunk - I used a couple of short strips of some plywood I had laying around, and a third piece on top, under the hold down bracket.

 

The car dies when its hot outside and its been driving in the city when the engine is warm, correct? And when it cools down the car will start and drive again until it gets hot. If this is the case the likely problem is the pump that cools the hv battery is dead and you need to replace it. Open the cap on the pink coolant reservoir on the center top of the motor. With the engine running look into the coolant. Is it moving like a stream or is it still? If its not moving you need to replace the pump. Its behind the headlight on the drivers side. There is a vid on youtube on how to do it. These pumps wear out about every 100k miles. You have two cooling systems in that car. One for the engine and one for the hv battery

 

BTW, if you want to see whether my guess is right, just get a spare 12v car battery - any type will do - put it in the trunk and jumper cable it to the existing 12v battery, then drive around. If you have a scanner that will clear the codes, do that - a 3130 should come back pretty quickly. Don't go too far in case you do have a bad inverter coolant pump or you'll overheat the inverter and cost a lot of money to fix. If the code doesn't come back, or any of the symptoms, there's your problem.

 

I'm only a couple of weeks into learning about these cars, and yours is the obvious answer to the 3130, and certainly one to be aware of, but what about the PS fail? These cars don't have PS fluid, so the pump couldn't cause that. His just sounds so much like what happened to me this week, and the battery fixed both problems. Definitely don't want to ignore the pump though.

 

Let's just say that you don't trust easily, lol.

 

any update?

 

Your issue is the inverter pump failing. Same with ajnelson above here in this tread.

STOP driving the car immediately if you see that warning light come on. Otherwise you risk destroying the inverter. The burned up pump also probably killed the 12v battery. The pump is really easy to replace. Cost you maybe $80 on ebay. The pump is behind the driver side headlight. Take off the headlight and there is it! However do some more research on dos and dont before using the car again. It is extremely important to get ALL the air bubbles out of the inverter cooling system BEFORE you turn on the engine again!

 

The pump being talked about here is a cooling pump for electronics.

The car doesn't have PS fluid because the power steering is electric.

Powered by the electronics.

That are cooled by the pump.