Gen3 Prius Inverter Died

[johalareewi]

While accelerating, the dashboard lit up with a check hybrid system message and the car lost all power.  However, it was still able to 'coast' and I was able to pull into a layby and call out Toyota rescue.  Long story short, after being recovered to MrT, the diagnosis is dead inverter.  Cost to fix approx £1700 but should be covered by the toyota extended warranty.  Might be done by the end of the week subject to parts and labour availability.

 

[Duffryn]

Just out of interest, how many miles are on the clock? And, by extended warranty, do you mean the one the HHC provides?

[johalareewi]

125,000 miles (6.25 years old).

The warranty is the Toyota Extended Warranty (not the Hybrid Health Check).

[FROSTYBALLS]

The Hybrid Health Check provides a warranty extension on the Battery - extracted from the Toyota GB website:

"By having the Hybrid Health Check conducted as part of an annual service or as a separate check, customers will benefit from a Hybrid Battery extended warranty which gives them an additional one year/10,000 miles (whichever is soonest) warranty, which can be renewed up to the 10th anniversary of the car’s registration with no limit on total mileage".

[johalareewi]

Toyota have approved the warranty repair. Parts on the way. :)

[PeteB]

Didn't that happen to Grumpy Cabbie?

[johalareewi]

19 hours ago, PeteB said:

Didn't that happen to Grumpy Cabbie?

Sure did, but his Prius was just out of the manufacturers warranty (a mere 3 years on early gen3)..

[Ancient Nerd]

Yes, the weasel warranty. Never to be forgotten.

Toyota made a big thing about the longer warranty no longer being necessary, so would be three years from then on. 

I took them at face value, but within a few months, the long warranty was back, first as a marketing exercise, then permanently.

They have no idea how offensive it was to receive emails and post from them extolling their five year warranty, while I had this weasel version.

Fie comparison, a few years earlier, I had a Citroen Xantia, which I'd bought with a two year warranty. Nearly two years later, Citroen increased the warranty to three years. I had a problem in the third year. When I came to pay for it, I found that the warranty had been extended.

[Heidfirst]

16 hours ago, Ancient Nerd said:

I took them at face value, but within a few months, the long warranty was back, first as a marketing exercise, then permanently.

Only in the UK afaik. Iirc the rest of Europe is still 3 years.

[johalareewi]

When MrT re-introduced the 5 year warranty (in the UK) it was in response to the stuck accelerator issue and covered all Toyotas, not just Hybrids.

And the gen3 Prius price went up a bit.

My 2009 gen3 with 3 year warranty + 2 year extended warranty worked out slightly cheaper than a 2010 gen3 with 5 year warranty.

Anyway, back to the dead inverter.

MrT is still waiting for all the parts to arrive :(

[johalareewi]

Yay.  Inverter fixed and Prius is back on the road. :) :)

[Classic Iron]

4 hours ago, johalareewi said:

Yay.  Inverter fixed and Prius is back on the road. :) :)

Good advert for having extended warranty !

Did they give you any idea if this was a common failure or were you  just unlucky ?

[FROSTYBALLS]

 

22 minutes ago, Classic Iron said:

Good advert for having extended warranty !

Did they give you any idea if this was a common failure or were you  just unlucky ?

Think this is only the second instance appearing on TOC.....

[johalareewi]

17 hours ago, Classic Iron said:

Good advert for having extended warranty !

Did they give you any idea if this was a common failure or were you  just unlucky ?

It isn't that common but MrT did recall gen3 prii to mod the software to be kinder to the inverter (after GC's died).

My gen3 is the same age and model (and colour!) as GC's and also does a lot of miles so I guess the inverter had been toasted a little before the recall which might have shortened its life a bit.

One of the reasons I got the extended warranty was because of GC's trail blazing. Figured it was just a matter of time before the same happened to mine.

[johalareewi]

After a few weeks on the new inverter, my prius seems to have a new lease of life.  The HV Battery seems to 'hold its charge' a lot longer and the mpgs are noticably higher than they were before the inverter died.

For example, my last mile home (daily commute) can be done without using any fuel if the HV SOC is high enough.  Before the new inverter, the SOC after doing the last mile would be 2 or 3 bars and would often trigger the ICE into firing up.  With the new inverter, the same trip leaves SOC with 4 or 5 bars.  Also, the daily commute mpgs were in the top 50s before, and are now mid 60s. I know it is getting warmer but that didn't have the same kind of increase last year.

Will be interesting to see the fuelly stats after a few tanks.

 

[YarisHybrid2016]

Interesting observation regarding the HV Battery!