Codes p0a7a, p0a94 (yep, when it rains it pours)

Our adventures continue
Gen3 Prius, over 2k miles into a 3.2k trip, out in the middle of rural Idaho.
* Repaired HV battery is working great
* Patched up HG leak, working vreat
* Oil consumption, not too bad.

Then, 20 miles from our overnight (Burley ID), the warning lights lit up. The car is clearly not happy.

Codes p0a7a and p0a94 seem to indicate a serious Inverter problem.

Good news: I drove at 45mph to our place. No HV motor.

Bad news: clearing codes doesn't do anything.

Research leads to questions:

* Apparently there was a recall/tsb on this. Any chance Toyota would honor it on a 206k mile 2011?
* Any chance this is minor or easily repaired?
* Anyone know which dealers ins ID or N UT are good (or any other Toyota specialist)?
* Could it be safe to drive 750 miles at 45mph w/o the Inverter? (avoiding freeways)
* What is the gas mileage of a prius running on gasoline only?

Any questions I *should* be asking? (yes, seriously considering how to just replace this ride )

 

That is awesome news. Time to make some calls...

 

Wowwww. Never heard of non-recall agreements this good!

• Toyota already has extended the inverter warranty to 15 years/unlimited miles. In Jan it should shift to 20 years.
• It includes some towing and rental if needed. The dealer thinks only $35 a day, nice but 1/3 of cheap rental cost...
• The hard part: no dealer is allowed to stock spare ($4500?!) inverters. Each one approved and released. Overnight delivery but 2-3 days overall.

So, we rented a cheap car to finish the drive home (I have a crucial non-moveable appt), and then my sweetie will drive back to pick up our car.

Too funny: got a great rental discount, then the agent said "I'm so sorry, that rental is not driveable. Would it be OK if I substitute a 2022 Prius at no charge?"

Hmmm... 1500 miles of driving, 50 mpg or 30 mpg...."yes Ma'am that would be fine."

Too bad Avis won't let us keep it. LOL

 

They claim even with a complete inverter failure, it can go 60mph.

I suspect the reality is more like:
* mostly depends on HV SOC (state of charge) at time of failure.
* from experience, it appears the regen braking can charge the HV a bit, even with dead inverter.

When inverter died we were at 54% SOC. 60 miles later, 26%.

Is the inverter part of keeping the 12v charged?

 

Interesting!
This is from the new settlement agreement:
"Toyota confirmed that the Recall Software ensures that Subject Vehicles will enter fail-safe mode in the event of an IPM or Inverter malfunction or failure, and that Toyota is aware of no incident in which a Subject Vehicle equipped with the Recall Software was unable to travel ~60 miles per hour after entering fail-safe mode."

 

I assume you had the software fix... If so, the class action people would probably like your story

 

They have done several SW fix recalls (none of them solved the real problem of course.)

We are now headed back to pick up our fully repaired Prius.

* Toyota decided to have the dealer repair specific parts rather than replace the whole inverter. Of course this added delay, increasing my rental time/cost... Now over $900.

* I asked the dealer if there is a national number could call to discuss my growing costs, and see about reimbursement. He gave me a number...

* I ended up speaking with a Sr manager. He could not *guarantee* they would cover me, it expressed his understanding of my predicament, and said "Pete (you aren't trying to rip us off); just do what you need to do, and submit your expenses. I am sure we will take good care of you."

At this point I can't really expect more than that. Will report on the final outcome.

 

BTW, my "fail safe mode" experience: yep, the Prius could go 65mph...

...downhill.

From a stop, uphill? Maybe 5-10mph while flooring it. It took several minutes to get anywhere close to a reasonable speed. I would NOT want to drive in failsafe mode in the Western Rockies.

 

Let me wrap up this story (potentially to be augmented if the class action produces any reimbursement for us.)

Ultimately, even being very careful on costs, and paying $0 for the actual inverter repair...

• Toyota's delays to minimize their parts cost ended costing several days of time, during which we were paying for the rental car
• We ended up paying for nine days of rental, a few days of motel, and some meals, beyond what we would have paid anyway for our in-progress trip. Over $1k total.
• Toyota's final response: we're sorry, we have no program that can reimburse your costs.
• The upcoming class action resolution apparently doesn't allow for more than a few hundred dollars in other costs. They never considered the case of people having an inverter fail while in the middle of a trip.

So we do have a repaired inverter. We're also out over $1k for now, and hoping to recover a fraction of that. Not happy.

 

In that sense, I'm grateful that we basically DID have a "limp" mode. Drove to our intended motel. Next morning drove 40 miles back to the dealership in a bigger town. And a friendly customer in the waiting area gave us a ride to the car rental area at the airport!

AFAIK, we now have an improved, more reliable inverter. (If not, I had better not bother replacing the engine next month!)