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Hybrid Cooling Pump Replacement

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by wellsrw, Apr 23, 2008.

  1. wellsrw

    wellsrw Junior Member

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    This relates to my 2004 with about 70,000 miles. Last weekend, while accelerating onto the expressway, I got the red triangle and check engine warning, vsc warning and abs warning lights on the dash and the hybrid system service indicator icon in the MFD. I stopped, turned off the power and restarted. The warnings stayed on for two days, then went away. Everything seemed to be working normally even with the warning lights on.

    Also, during last two weeks, the air conditioner, while in auto mode, has intermittently stopped putting out cold air. This seems to happen on longer trips, 30 miles or more, but not on short trips. This has happened a few times, but after the car is parked for a few hours and restarted, the A/C works normally.

    I went in for service, and of course all of the warning lights are gone and the air conditioner is working normally. Toyota service ran diagnostics and says the hybrid cooling pump has to be replaced.

    I didn’t know there was such a pump. Has anyone encountered any similar problem, and can these two problems be related?
     
    #1 wellsrw, Apr 23, 2008
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Yes, this is a reasonable diagnosis. Many posters have reported that the inverter coolant pump has failed. When this happens, especially when taking a long drive in hot weather, the inverter will overheat which will cause the DC to DC converter to produce less voltage than normal. This causes the various warning lights to come on.
     
    #2 Patrick Wong, Apr 23, 2008
  3. wellsrw

    wellsrw Junior Member

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    Do you think the A/C issue is related or a separate problem?
     
    #3 wellsrw, Apr 23, 2008
  4. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    The A/C issue is also related to the overheated inverter. The A/C needs the inverter to convert DC produced by the traction battery to AC to power the air conditioner compressor.
     
    #4 Patrick Wong, Apr 23, 2008
  5. wellsrw

    wellsrw Junior Member

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    Makes sense. Thanks. It's being replaced now.
     
    #5 wellsrw, Apr 23, 2008
  6. finman

    finman Senior Member

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    Will that be a warranty item? Hybrid component 100,000 miles or 8 years? In Cali it'd be 150,000 miles and 10 years. Wait, you're in FL...sorry.
     
    #6 finman, Apr 23, 2008
  7. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    The inverter coolant pump is covered under the powertrain warranty which is 5 years/60K miles. See TSB EG001-07, bottom of first page.
     

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    #7 Patrick Wong, Apr 23, 2008
  8. wellsrw

    wellsrw Junior Member

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    I bought the Toyota Platinum 7 year / 100,000 extended warranty while the car was still under factory warranty. The extended warranty is covering the replacement.
     
    #8 wellsrw, Apr 23, 2008
  9. finman

    finman Senior Member

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    Thanks, Patrick! Again, you are providing answers and input that make PriusChat the best.

    Odd thing...to me anyway. Would have thought "inverter" would be a hybrid/emissions component. Or am I thinking of a different coolant pump (not cooling), the one that feeds the thermos upon shutdown/startup?
     
    #9 finman, Apr 24, 2008
  10. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Thanks, finman. The inverter with converter is warranted under the hybrid vehicle warranty of 8 years/100K miles (15 yrs/150K miles in CA & PZEV states). However the inverter cooling pump is not listed as a covered item under that warranty, nor is it listed as a covered item under the powertrain warranty. So it is good news that the TSB allows that item to be covered for a longer duration than the default 3 years/36K miles. (Of course, since the OP has supplemental warranty coverage, this is all moot from the OP's perspective.)

    The coolant heat recovery pump is not covered under the federal emissions warranty (per my 2004 booklet). It might be covered under the powertrain warranty since the "water pump" is an included item under that warranty.
     
    #10 Patrick Wong, Apr 24, 2008
  11. chris_wass

    chris_wass New Member

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    I just had the same issue with the inverter coolant pump this past weekend on my 2004 with 56K miles when it hit 109 degrees outside. My repair was covered under warranty as well.
     
    #11 chris_wass, May 21, 2008
  12. jkash

    jkash Member

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    I had the inverter coolant pump go out over the weekend and the AC also stopped working. The service manager told me they were totally unrelated. He said that the AC unit was low on freon. They added freon and serviced the the AC unit as well as replacing the pump. Both are working fine now, but my mpg dropped 7 mpg on the display during the service.
     
    #12 jkash, Sep 21, 2010
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