inverter water pump recall

if you haven't done the recall yet, they should replace your water pump....not inspect it

 

Sounds like you are not the original owner.

According to Lusciou's Garage, (LINK to article; read carefully)
Inverter pump will only get replaced only ONCE, under one of the two campaigns:

• Limited Service Campaign (good through November 30, 2013)
• IF NEVER CHANGED, then eligible for the recall campaign (number C0U)

If your car was still eligible, dealer would be salivating to perform the work:

1. free to customer (who would say "NO,")
2. free easy money for dealer

Consider entering your VIN at Toyota to check if you have any outstanding eligible recall's or Limited Service Campaigns. If you feel otherwise, the Toyota website above, lists a phone number.

 

Did you even attempt to read the article from Lusciou's Garage?
The article contains a PDF link for the Limited Toyota Service Campaign (which ended 11-30-2013; "PDF of the Technical Instructions issued to dealers, T-CP-A0N-A510-D, now obsolete."). This document lists the affected model years and the VINs.
There was also a PDF link to the newer recall campaign (Technical Instructions issued to dealers, T-CP-C0U-A510-D). This document also shows the affected model years and VINs.

It might be your 2007 is not part of the affected VINs, of the limited service campaign and the recall?

Did you even go to the Toyota VIN checking site? The link was provided above? Try plugging your VIN, to see.

If you are still not satisfied, call the Toyota Customer Care number that is supplied on the Lookup Safety Recalls & Service Campaigns by VIN.

 

You cannot look up VINs from Hawaii cars at Toyota USA's website. Hawaii is not serviced by Toyota

 

Would the VIN ranges provided in the two Toyota documents be applicable to Prius' in Hawaii?

Guess they just need to call Toy Customer Care?

 

as long as he inspected it, you're good to go.

 

Personally, I'd go back to the dealer, or preferably another dealer, if you have that luxury, and ask them either to replace it under recall or explain to me in detail why it doesn't qualify. Taking their word for it that it was inspected and is fine would not be acceptable to me. But that's me.

If you do find out why it doesn't qualify, please post again and enlighten us.

 

The more I read about the inverter cooling system, the more uncomfortable I am with it. I wish they'd have found a way to make it air-cooled with a heat-sink.

 

I would guess you have limited recourse.

This is what I would do. You have free will to do whatever you want to do, as some may disagree with my tactics.

1) Find that invoice dated on/before 11-30-2013.
This is to establish a eligibility under the expired Limited Service Campaign (LSC). If not, the dealership should be able to pull the record from their archives; doubt they will do this for you as competency has been disproven. Hopefully you had brought it in inquiring about the inverter pump recall, and the invoice states something to this effect. Also, the invoice notes the action(s) the service tech performed: replaced a bolt, when the inverter pump should have been replaced.

2) Raise Hell (only if you have the invoice).
2a) Contact corporate Toyota about the failure of this dealership and what you want (honor the expired LSC, using a different dealership that is hopefully more competent). They didn't replace the eligible inverter pump during the LSC, when vehicle was in their possession last (based off of the invoice). When vehicles are processed, VINs are supposed to be checked for outstanding recalls and LSC; this assumes dealer entered the VIN correctly into the Toyota database and on your invoice.
2b) Contact your State regulatory agency that oversees automotive repair shops. Tell this agency your story and what you want. They will contact the dealership to get their side of the story, then make a determination of what is true, and corrective action to be taken by dealership.
2c) You have already contacted the dealership; they will probably do nothing.

 

1. OP lives in Hawaii according to his/her profile. In Hawaii, Toyota vehicles are sold by Servco Pacific which is Toyota's distributor there. Servco Pacific plays the same role as Toyota Motor Sales USA in the continental US. In addition, the Toyota dealerships are owned by Servco Pacific, so the distributor and retail outlets are vertically integrated. In the continental US, dealerships are independently owned.

2. Therefore, the Toyota service facilities in Hawaii are part of Servco Pacific. As a result the OP has no real choice with regards to dealer service facilities.

3. The bolt that was replaced likely was part of the steering shaft assembly, and this was a mandatory recall.

4. The PriusChat string which provides the dealer instructions is here:
LSC A0N - HV (Inverter) Water Pump; Dealer Letter and Technical Instructions | PriusChat

5. Notice that the dealer instructions show the number of affected cars in Hawaii. This seems to imply that TMS USA expected the LSC to apply in Hawaii.

6. A Limited Service Campaign is not the same as a mandatory recall. That is why the LSC had an expiration date. If the campaign was mandatory, there would be no expiration.

7. In any event, since the LSC was a TMS USA program, Servco Pacific may or may not feel the need to follow suit. Since the LSC has expired (and Servco Pacific may not have been adhering to it anyway), OP has no "rights" that I can see unless it is documented that s/he inquired about the inverter coolant pump prior to the LSC expiration.

8. However it would not hurt for the OP to contact the Servco Pacific service management to politely inquire into their policy with respect to the inverter coolant pump and if it is different from TMS USA policy as described in the LSC, what justifies that different treatment.

9. From a financial perspective, this is not a really huge issue - the dealer service dept price to replace the pump is probably $300 or so. So the OP has to decide whether it is worth his/her time to beat this horse for an eight-year-old Prius.