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Prius went into limp mode on freeway, IPM failure

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by Quattro, Jan 20, 2017.

  1. Quattro

    Quattro Member

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    While drive at CA freeway speed (65mph), a loud clunk and the car went into limp mode. Luckily no one was behind, or it would have been disastrous. Limped out of the freeway and have it towed to a nearby dealer.

    It's the infamous Inverter Intelligent Powertrain Module (IPM) failure. Give credit to Toyota for extending the warranty so everything is covered, including rental. But losing power at 65mph is not fun at all. Stay safe.

    Car is 2010 @ 75k mi
     
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  2. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Would be interested to know if it's related to the TSB to update the software to reduce the likelihood of overheating the inverter.

    Let us know!
     
  3. Quattro

    Quattro Member

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  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Had you done the recall tideland mentioned?
     
  5. Quattro

    Quattro Member

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    At last service, they only did the airbag recall, not the software. Maybe it was lower priority and the service guy was never flagged.
     
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    is it a recall, or tsb?
     
  7. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    The software update to protect inverter was in March 2014, I see a number: SOSH-230-1A.
     
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  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    was it a recall, or tsb? there is a difference, in the u.s. anyway.
     
  9. Quattro

    Quattro Member

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    It's a recall, NHTSA campaign # 14V053000
     
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  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    yikes! not something to ignore, like my airbag recall, i guess.
     
  11. m.wynn

    m.wynn Senior Member

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    E0E re-flash was a recall, Feb. 2014, designed to lessen current on the IPM under high load. Problem is, by 2014 there were plenty of Gen 3's that had endured plenty of hammering prior to the re-flash. So we still see plenty of IPM failures to cars that have had the recall. I wonder about mine every time I've got the pedal mashed on the floor, which is more often than I like to admit. I had almost 90k on my 2010 when it got the E0E. Thus the warranty enhancement, ZE3, 15 years/unlimited miles on the IPM.
     

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  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    what would they have to replace to eliminate the problem, is it expensive?
     
  13. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    They don't replace anything physical, just reprogram the acceleration, so there's not a sudden/heavy load on the inverter, make it less abrupt.
     
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  14. m.wynn

    m.wynn Senior Member

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    The short answer to your question is they would need to replace all IPM's in Gen 3's manufactured before the E0E.

    I'm no EE but my understanding is that the IPM is just a circuit board, mainly consisting of 3 good size capacitors, that lives in the inverter. With the original software spec, current under high load is enough to crack leads, or a lead on these caps. When this happens the car goes instant game over. Again, this is my dumbed-down idea of the goings on but I'm pretty sure it's in the correct solar system. With the ZE3, they are replacing just the IPM, not the entire inverter. So it begs the question could they have just replaced IPM's at the same time as they did the E0E in the first place? And the answer I spose, is sure, if they'd been willing to pony up. Instead they kind of leave you with an IPM that may or may not fail down the road. Post E0E, less current is fed to the IPM. If you haven't previously fatigued your IPM to the point where the new, lower current load can finish it off, you're ok. For myself, with a car that saw 4 full years and 90k miles before the E0E, it's easy to wonder if I have a compromised IPM. People consistently tell of terrifying IPM failures, so it does seem to be a real safety concern.
     
  15. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    agreed, seems like nhtsa dropped the ball on this one.
     
  16. BZzap!

    BZzap! Senior Member

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    I really get a kick out of Mendel's politically correct statement, "makes it less abrupt". The fact of the matter is that it makes it a slug.
     
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  17. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Any worse than other cars that go into limp mode? Or snapped timing belt mode?

    BTDT, on both. Uncomfortable, but not a disaster unless an aggressive driving culture makes it into one.
     
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  18. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I didn't notice any difference in acceleration, though I pretty much always take it easy. What I did notice: it seemed to sliip into electric-only a bit easier. My wife mentioned the same thing, and I hadn't said anything about it to her.
     
  19. m.wynn

    m.wynn Senior Member

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    Good point, fuzzy1, and I'm with you in that sudden vehicle shut down isn't a huge deal to me personally, being a very comfortable driver. But to the driver for which it brings on panic, things could go sideways if quick and correct navigational decisions need to be made under stress. This could no doubt be compounded by your "aggressive driving culture" point. In that respect, I think it was irresponsible of Toy to not just throw new IPM's in as they performed E0E's to generally eliminate the IPM as a safety concern.
     
    #19 m.wynn, Jan 22, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2017
  20. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    Before the software update, if you travel on 2-lane roads, for example, and needed to floor the accelerator to pass a vehicle quickly, the acceleration was instantaneous and surprising for a Prius.

    After the update, when you floor the accelerator there is a definite lag with no acceleration and then a steady rate of acceleration. The initial pause will catch you by surprise if you were use to the instantaneous acceleration.
     
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