New Engine and New Hybrid Battery...really?

Wow that's a run of bad luck.

The original problem would have been a blown inverter. It was probably caused by an undetected hybrid coolant pump failure. This in itself is a fairly common and inexpensive problem to fix, but occasionally can lead to an inverter failure if left undetected/unrepaired for too long.

The thrown engine rod would have been a completely unrelated event, this is a very rare problem.

The present issue however is most likely not an unrelated event. It was probably caused by something that happened either immediately after the engine failed or while it was at the mechanics being repaired.

The first thing I'd do is to find out from the current mechanic exactly what symptoms the car is presenting with the bad hybrid battery. It may simply be that the battery has been discharged too far to be able to start the engine.

If the HV battery was previously ok then it shouldn't go bad by just sitting for two months. Did you continue to try and drive it after the engine blew, that would flatten the HV battery. Otherwise the shop my have done something to discharge the battery. There are several things that could cause this, including repeated attempts to start the new engine with something not connected correctly (making it unable to start).

Clearly the current mechanic doesn't have the means to try charging the battery so I'd look around for an independent hybrid specialist that can try giving the hybrid battery a charge before looking to change it.

 

Your car has logged 197K miles. It is not unreasonable that the traction battery will fail after logging that much service especially since you routinely encounter mountainous terrain. However it is unlucky that you had multiple four-digit repair bills spaced closely together.

There typically is no advance warning to a traction battery failure. One day your car is performing fine, the next day the instrument panel looks like a Christmas tree and you need a new battery. This is because when one of the 28 modules within the battery gets outside a prescribed voltage tolerance, the battery ECU will log a failure code. The powertrain will perform in a degraded fashion to reduce battery overheating and encourage you to take repair action.

There are alternatives to installing a new traction battery. You could buy a used battery from a salvage yard or a "remanufactured" battery which is made up of used battery modules. That might save you $1K or so.

You'll have to decide whether it makes sense to continue to put money into your car or give up. There is a reason for the "end of life" concept regarding automobiles. At some point it becomes silly to pay four-digit repair bills on a car that has little resale value.

Typically the auto industry EOL standard is 10 years or 150K miles, whichever comes first. Although it is certainly possible to find Prius that have logged more than 150K miles, the owner of such a vehicle should not be surprised when expensive failures start to happen.

 

197K is an excellent run in any car especially a Prius that's lived in the mountains it's whole life. And on an engine which has spent its life on dyno oil.

A Prius although a very low maintenance car still requires very vigilant monitoring of the few things under the hood. Oil level...Inverter Coolant level and if the Inverter coolant pump is actually working...and ICE coolant level. You have to check those every fill up. If you had checked those my money is on what Uart said which is the I Coolant pump failed and you have been driving the car for quite a while with no Inverter coolant. Finally hit a very hot day and a mountain and the dash lights up and boom Inverter failure. Very easy to check this pump. Put car in ready and take the cap off and look for turbulence. I check mine every fill up. Just put your hand on the INverter and you can tell by how hot it is.

But if they did replace the Inverter you sure got that cheap as it retails for closer to $4000.

And your engine logged a low oil pressure cel. That means you were very low on oil. The car burns oil does it not? Should be keeping a very careful eye on that oil level like any really old car. No oil it will throw a rod or seize up. So that one's on you bro.

Post back the exact details of the service receipt and tell us exactly what they did.

BTw, I doubt the trans fluid has been replaced either because as far as the dealer is concerned its a lifetime fluid and NOT required to replace so at 200K your looking at end life of the transmission too.

9 years and 200,000 miles in the mountains is an incredible run so not sure what you mean by recourse. Complain to Toyota you only got 200K?

 

Hi Ed, that's also what I first thought when I read that it logged a "low oil pressure" warning. On second thoughts however it's possible that it only logged that after the rod punctured the crankcase causing it to take a dump!

 

My take on this is that the garage fitted the (new) engine and for some reason could not get it to start discharging the HV battery to the point it will no longer try.

The problem is now the only way unless you have a good electrical knowledge is to have it charged by Toyota with there special charger. Or fit a new, rebuilt, or second hand battery.

Do you have the fault codes for the battery failure as these would confirm one way or the other?

One final thing. Has the garage refitted the HV safety interlock correctly as this is a very common problem if it is not slid into place completely.

John (Britprius)

 

An excellent point. I agree that is a reasonable possibility.