1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

2004 Prius inverter

Discussion in 'Newbie Forum' started by GHam, Jan 29, 2022.

Tags:
  1. GHam

    GHam New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2022
    1
    0
    0
    Location:
    98290
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Hi I'm new to this not sure if I'm doing it right. I have a 2004 Prius, referb battery pack put on last year. Dealer just told us our inverter is bad. This is what we were told. your Prius inverter was quoted at $5695 plus tax ..arrgghhh ,, $4783 part and $912 labor.. let me know if you want to order it up :(. Is this typical? The car was given to me two years ago from my mom. It has 186,000 miles. The car isn't it worth it, but could it extend the car longer?
     
    #1 GHam, Jan 29, 2022
  2. Travis Decker

    Travis Decker Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2015
    139
    115
    0
    Location:
    Portland OR
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius
    Model:
    II
    get a used one dime a dozen. also post fault codes here
     
    #2 Travis Decker, Jan 30, 2022
  3. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2016
    6,193
    5,891
    0
    Location:
    Columbia, SC
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    yup. They are available very easily and inexpensively ($50-100ish) in the used parts world. I have 3 sitting in the shop, just in case I ever need one.

    Interested in seeing what the actual codes were, as inverter failure is fairly rare on the Gen 2s. Not unheard of, just fairly rare.
     
    #3 TMR-JWAP, Jan 30, 2022
  4. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2012
    11,056
    4,499
    0
    Location:
    Pacific Northwest, USA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    We periodically get people who pay the stealership a fortune for a new Gen2 Inverter only to find out that it wasn't the source of the problem because Toyota Stealerships tend to replace the most expensive parts on the car before doing a more through diagnosis to maximize rather than minimize how much money they take out of your wallet. I've had numerous experiences where all the error codes point to a bad inverter and then after further study the problem turns out to be elsewhere. And I live a couple hours south of you if ever need more help?
     
    #4 PriusCamper, Jan 30, 2022
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    23,796
    15,436
    0
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    I'd sharpen that a little more by saying that there scarcely are any trouble codes that "point to a bad inverter".

    That's the key thing about diagnosing a car based on trouble codes: the codes don't tell you a specific part is bad. They tell you an ECU noticed a specific thing. The specific thing is in the repair manual (more info) under "detection condition" on the first page of troubleshooting workup for the code.

    The job of the diagnostician is to find out why that ECU saw that specific thing, and not to go swapping any given part until it's been shown that a problem with that part was the reason.
     
    #5 ChapmanF, Jan 30, 2022
    PriusCamper likes this.
  6. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2012
    11,056
    4,499
    0
    Location:
    Pacific Northwest, USA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Exactly! Once you study how many different functions the Inverter performs it's easy to understand why. It's kinda like having a problem with your liver. There's so many things a liver does that there's gonna be lots of testing on many different systems before they determine an accurate diagnosis. Of course if you were a Toyota Dealership you'd just sell the patient a liver transplant instead and if you were wrong and it was something else, it's ok because you don't have to give all the money back for being wrong.
     
    #6 PriusCamper, Jan 30, 2022
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)