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Reddit Sent Me: Yesterday my 2010 Prius with 130k broke down. Dealership says $3.5k to fix. Legit?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by MartenR, Apr 2, 2017.

  1. MartenR

    MartenR New Member

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    Hello,

    Yesterday my 2010 Prius with 130k miles and I broke down. "Check Hybrid System" I had it towed to the Toyota dealership. They said they need to replace the Charging System Inverter (woman said the code came back Component failed) for $2408 but warned that they cant guarantee its not the entire computer that needs to be replaced

    So the cost for the entire computer replacement is $3343 + $500 for labor. So if I risk paying the cheaper price, I might have to pay the more expensive cost on top. Has anyone had this issue? Any advice would be helpful. Thank you!

    I am a little tech-unsavvy so sorry if I didnt post the above details right.
     
  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Most inverter failures have been covered by an extended warranty by Toyota. You may want to ask about that
     
    Mendel Leisk and Aaron Vitolins like this.
  3. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    How many miles on the car? OR has CARB warranty but I am thinking although it is 150k miles on some things such as battery, it is not full CARB so it falls back to 100k on some things,
     
  4. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    I'm with JC. Toyota had a recall and or some extended warranty for the inverter system for the gen 3 at some point.
     
  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    March 2014 is the date on our inverter recall; this is in Canada. We didn't get warranty extension, but I believe in the States they did.
     
  6. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    lf you find the inverter is not covered under warranty, then find an independent shop specializing in hybrids that will install a used inverter for you.
     
  7. MartenR

    MartenR New Member

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    Is it possible that its the 12volt battery and not the inverter at all? Thanks!
     
  8. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    It is worth checking, especially if the failure happened when you were trying to start the car. If the failure occurred while running on the highway, then a failing 12V would be far less likely as the 12V battery would merely be getting charged by one of the inverters, not actually powering anything.