Over temp !!!

So at 3 months and 4700 miles on the OD my car threw an over temp indicator driving to work. 5:30 am about 60-65 degrees with a passenger driving over the Santa Susana grade which is a 2 1/2 or so mile grade it starts showing the over temp indicator. I had not plugged in the night before and had only been in the car for about 7 minutes. I was driving somewhere around 70 miles an hour and that stinker ICE was screaming like it always does. As I backed off the throttle the lamp went out and I cruised it to work. I checked under the hood at work and sure enough it had spewed coolant around the pressureized coolant tank. I drove the car home without incident at night (50 miles).

Needless to say I'm really annoyed and have lost all confidence in this car. Worst of all it's at the dealer. 3 month old car being hacked into.......

 

The coolant came out of the pressure tank tank. It's an indicator of an over temp scenario. It could be a number of scenarios, thermostat faulty, bad water pump, collapsing hose, large debris in casting or radiator.......
Who knows, but I did drive it up the grapevine, which is a long upward grade with my wife when it was brand new ( 3 months ago) with no incident.
One of the most annoying things about this car is the lack necessary information. You've got countless screens of unnecessary information about barrels of oil and graphs etc. and not ONE frigen display showing the vitals of the car. Clearly stating this isn't a car for individuals who actually understand pertinent information.

 

Couldn't handle the silence so I went to the dealer's shop. The mechanic was actually really nice and did appear to be the sharpest tool in the shed. He is waiting to talk to Toyota Corp. on Monday. He explained one potential scenario, but wants to confer with the mothership......
Anyway we'll see what Monday brings, if anything.

 

I'd agree, except it would have showed up a long time ago. Certainly not on a cool morning. I've been up longer grades at high temps with the AC on.

 

So in a nutshell, it's not a temp sensor. That could be a possibility if the car hadn't actually overheated, which if you read my initial post, it clearly did. I was hoping that would be the case initially, but no go.

It seems that my car has a unique scenario, however yes I have lost complete confidence in the car. No matter what the final result, I won't trust the car to not leave me stranded. This isn't some fear based on a lack of any mechanical understanding. It's a simple fact, this is a very complicated design, with systems far in number and sophistication over most cars. My first thought which I proposed to the mechanic was to strap the car to a chassis dyno and put it through a load test. In this way they could simulate the conditions I was under. He explained that due to the sensitive nature of all the systems in the car, this was not possible. My first thought was, I am so dumping this thing once it goes out of warranty. Sadly that will be sooner than my total payoff stream...... I refuse to get suckered into an extended warranty plan....

Anyway, as I expected, not a peep from the dealer today. Maybe I'll give them a call tomorrow. What is really annoying is that the dealer isn't offering up a loaner vehicle. In truth I don't need one as I have a number of vehicles, however I really think it's bad form. What if this was my only car, what if I couldn't afford a rental car?

 

The wife picked up the car for me today, unfortunately I wasn't available to talk to the mechanic. So apparently as I suspected the cooling system is not as simple as most vehicles. It turns out coolant flows via a valve into the mid pipe/ catalytic converter assembly. The computer controls this, I suppose for start up warm up. Apparently the valve was sticking intermittently. Essentially superheating the coolant and causing it to boil over. I looked up the part number online and it shows up as a catalytic converter/ pipe assembly. Roughly 2k in price. They drove the car a total of six miles so I'm still a bit suspicious. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I had initially wanted to buy the scan gauge to monitor the cars vitals, however based on posts I've read here, the plug-in Prius throws check engine lights when the scan gauge is connected as a permanent tool.

Regarding the reliability issue, I understand the car has shown to be exceptionally reliable in general, (I researched this prior to purchasing) however the plug- in variant seems to have a higher incident rate than the garden variety Prius. I felt that the smaller sample size may have skewed things a bit, but I'm proof that problems do occur.

Time for a test drive.....

 

Really not sure what your point is? As I stated, I researched the Prius to no end prior to buying the car. I did note that the Plug-in had a lower reliability rating in Consumers than the regular model Prius. Your particular example is not only not a Plug-in, but a different generation as well. Again as I stated earlier I noted the less than stellar rating of the Plug- in but figured it may have been a statistical error based on a small sample. I'd love to believe that my car is also an anomaly, but I'm not happy with the current issue. It's something that will always loom in the back of my mind.

Anyway,, I took the car out for a pretty serious load test up an extremely steep incline close to home. As far as the basic cooling system goes it appears to working as advertised. Tomorrow morning will be the real test as the vehicle temp should be low enough to engage the cold start mode that theoretically caused the problem....