A prius related victory

Hello. First time poster here, and I wanted to share a story of conquest I recently through. It's a little long, so forgive me.

My girlfriend drives an 08 prius and the check engine light came on. I ran the codes and got the p1121 code, leading me to here and doing some research, resulting in me thinking it was the faulty coolant control valve. Wanting a second opinion, because it isn't my car and I'm no mechanic, I took it to a local place for a diagnostic. Here's where it gets crazy.

The guy took 2 days diagnosing my car. When he finished he told me that it would cost $1000 to replace the broken parts. I asked him if it was indeed the coolant control valve, and he said no, and that it was actually a failed inverter water pump and inverter module. He charged me $250 to tell me that. I resisted the urge to tell him to go piss up a rope. He also didn't quote me the hourly rate when I dropped the car off, and it's my fault but I didn't sign any paperwork. So, I paid the guy and drove away.

I went back on priuschat, learned how to test the inverter pump and lo and behold, it was working fine. There was turbulence in the inverter coolant reservoir, and the line was passing liquid. I called him back and told him that the pump seemed to be working greatr, and asked if he had mistakenly misdiagnosed it. He said no, "my guy did it and the inverter pump failed, along with the inverter module." I was suspicious, and fumed all day, turning it over in my mind. Obviously this guy works with cars all day, and I have never even changed the coolant, let alone diagnosed a hybrid's engine problems. I needed to do the work myself because I couldn't afford the insane price tag of the fix. But I also didn't want to replace parts that weren't broken.

I decided to call him back one last time. I said to him, "Hey, you're sure the inverter pump is bad? because I really think it's the coolant control valve, which it is showing codes for. He doubled down, and told me what he had previous. I hung up, ready to start buying and replacing parts. Then, 10 minutes later he calls me back. Says, "Hey, you know what? I think it is the coolant control valve, you're right bro sorry about that. I'll go ahead and refund you the money for the diagnostic."

Long story less long, the guy was completely scamming me, having me do repairs that weren't needed and my check engine light would have come back on, and I would have gone back there and he probably would have made up some other felonious problems to beat my wallet. What a charlatan. So I came back on prius chat and found
https://priuschat.com/threads/p1121-coolant-control-valve-replacement-with-pics.102648

I ordered the part, took the old one out, and it was indeed stuck like many have shown. I fixed it, drained and replaced the coolant while I was about it, and the 08 is running like a dream.

Anyway, I wanted to say thank you to all who put in the hours making posts on here and discussing, because armed with the knowledge you gave me, I was able to put it to that donkey and fix my own damn car. If you're in Pasadena, don't go to Crown Automotive, or you may go into debt trying to keep your car on the road.

 

Thank you for the welcome. Right yes, I was thinking about the BAR. Do you think I should make a complaint? I certainly don't want him to do it to the next person. I would quote your reply but I haven't posted enough it seems.