2004 Prius - Inverter Pump Failure

[erch]

Hi Brian from Ohio. Bought my 04 Prius in May 2010 and really love it.
About 10 days ago I was driving home from work and got the lovely triangle of death symbol + other misc. things. Went to Autozone and they pulled a PAO93 code or something like that. Inverter Water Pump Failure.
Before I went to Autozone I called the dealer. Told them I had just gotten back from vacation and the car had set for 7 or 8 days. My dad put gas in it - he might not have tightened the gas cap the dealer said. Go ahead and drive it for a few days. The code will probably reset (we can't get you in for a week anyway - Germain in Columbus).
That is when I took it to Autozone to get the code pulled.
Went to River Valley Toyota in Lancaster Ohio and they said they would look at it in 2 days. Had it towed there because I have AAA and didn't want to hurt the inverter.
It has now been 8 days. NO PART.
They said there is a critical shortage of this part and they could not find it anywhere in the US. They had to order it from Canada.
The car has 62000 miles on it. I have been without it for 10 days.
I called Toyota today and they are looking into it.
Why is it that everyone else that has this problem gets ther car fixed the next day and their dealer has the part but here in Ohio we had to go to Canada for it?
Just curious as to if the dealership is just clueless. Nice people but it's one of those places where they don't worry about getting things done in a hurry.
Thanks. Great and informative forum.

[tumbleweed]

Some of the 2010s have this problem also, different pump same problem. In the case of the 2010 they have issued a TSB. It would be nice if Toyota would stock the parts that they know are prone to failure.

I am planning a trip to the Southwest desert country this fall. I sure hope I'm not stranded 1500 miles from home with no parts available to fix the car.

If you do a search of the Gen2 forums you will find other Gen2 owners who have had this failure also.

BTW welcome to Prius Chat, wish it were under better circumstances.

[mgm_az]

Originally Posted by erch

Inverter Water Pump Failure.

It has now been 8 days. NO PART.
They said there is a critical shortage of this part and they could not find it anywhere in the US. They had to order it from Canada. The car has 62000 miles on it. I have been without it for 10 days.
I called Toyota today and they are looking into it.
Why is it that everyone else that has this problem gets ther car fixed the next day and their dealer has the part but here in Ohio we had to go to Canada for it?
Just curious as to if the dealership is just clueless. Nice people but it's one of those places where they don't worry about getting things done in a hurry.
Thanks. Great and informative forum.

Feeling your pain !

My inverter coolant pump went out on my 2005 @ 82000mi this week while I was on the way back from CA (I live in AZ). Now it is stuck at a dealership 4 hours away. The repair tech keeps telling me that the inverter pump is on national backorder and no nearby dealers have any. I finally found one at an AZ dealership yesterday and Fedex-ed it out there myself. We'll see how long it takes to get installed and what else has been damaged. The parts guy here in AZ agreed that this is a "rare part".

Reading this forum, I can see that folks have been reporting these pumps failing and on backorder all the way back to 2007 (probably earlier).
You'd have a hard time convincing me that any "world class" auto manufacture couldn't figure out how to boost their supply of a problem part in 3 years time !

Something is very wrong with Toyota here - not a confidence builder at all !

[jdenenberg]

There is an old TSB on the Inverter Coolant Pump for 2004 and early 2005 Prii. The design of the pump has changed so the new one should be more reliable. I replaced mine at 150k miles when changing the coolant (for the second time) to avoid a problem on the road. The dealer had no problem finding the part as it was in stock in the parts department.

JeffD

[hill]

Originally Posted by erch

Hi Brian from Ohio. Bought my 04 Prius in May 2010 and really love it.
About 10 days ago I was driving home from work and got the lovely triangle of death symbol + other misc. things. Went to Autozone and they pulled a PAO93 code or something like that. Inverter Water Pump Failure.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . snip

Welcome to PC, though it's on a sour note. As the inverter pump is part of the HSD system, I'd find out if it falls within your hybrid's 100,000 mile warranty. It's not just the traction pack that gets warranted for 100K miles.

[bxij]

Inverter pump died last Tuesday (Aug24), hot day in Phoenix, Riverview Toyota said part was not available in US, back-ordered with eta mid-September. I found a new one on ebay, got it Friday, will install myself today. My Prius has 65K miles. I guess you need to carry a spare.

Originally Posted by erch

Hi Brian from Ohio. Bought my 04 Prius in May 2010 and really love it.
About 10 days ago I was driving home from work and got the lovely triangle of death symbol + other misc. things. Went to Autozone and they pulled a PAO93 code or something like that. Inverter Water Pump Failure.
Before I went to Autozone I called the dealer. Told them I had just gotten back from vacation and the car had set for 7 or 8 days. My dad put gas in it - he might not have tightened the gas cap the dealer said. Go ahead and drive it for a few days. The code will probably reset (we can't get you in for a week anyway - Germain in Columbus).
That is when I took it to Autozone to get the code pulled.
Went to River Valley Toyota in Lancaster Ohio and they said they would look at it in 2 days. Had it towed there because I have AAA and didn't want to hurt the inverter.
It has now been 8 days. NO PART.
They said there is a critical shortage of this part and they could not find it anywhere in the US. They had to order it from Canada.
The car has 62000 miles on it. I have been without it for 10 days.
I called Toyota today and they are looking into it.
Why is it that everyone else that has this problem gets ther car fixed the next day and their dealer has the part but here in Ohio we had to go to Canada for it?
Just curious as to if the dealership is just clueless. Nice people but it's one of those places where they don't worry about getting things done in a hurry.
Thanks. Great and informative forum.

[mgm_az]

Originally Posted by bxij

Inverter pump died last Tuesday (Aug24), hot day in Phoenix, Riverview Toyota said part was not available in US, back-ordered with eta mid-September. I found a new one on ebay, got it Friday, will install myself today. My Prius has 65K miles. I guess you need to carry a spare.

Wow, failed two days apart & we were searching in the same area (found one at Big2 in Chandler). Glad you got it!

IMHO this shortage highlights pathetic supply chain management by Toyota/Denso.

[richard schumacher]

Nope, the inverter coolant pump is not covered by the hybrid system warranty, though it seems that it ought to be.

[Bob64]

It is, however, covered under the 5 year powertrain warranty.

[cwy]

Sorry to hear the news on the delays.

For me, it was quite the opposite. This past Friday evening while out driving with the family, "Bam!" red triangle & 2 other warning lights appeared suddenly while driving 70mph on local freeway. There was nothing to indicate something was broken other than these new warning lights. Still, I headed for the local dealer not wanting to take any chances of being stranded. While driving the car to Tustin Toyota, I noticed that the AC must have quit as the air blowing was no longer as cold. Within 10 min, the air was definitely not "air conditioned". I turned the car in around 8:30pm (service open until 10pm luckily). I feared it was going to cost an arm & leg since my car is out of 3yr/36K warranty. Early the next day, they confirmed it was the inverter pump that went bad, but that they had "Great news!"...

My car is '06 and had 59,970 miles which falls under the "power train" warranty of 5yrs/60,000. Talk about breaking down at the right moment.

Net price = $0.00

They called me back 5 hours later with the new inverter pump in place. AC blows cold just like before warning lights. Counting my blessings... I hope your Prius gets fixed ASAP!