Long and short, picked up a 2002 Gen1 168k w/new aux battery and (supposedly) aftermarket factory refub main. Car ran great first two weeks. Driving the other day and main display went haywire like bad TV reception and car shut off. Sat for awhile with that nasty orange triangle with exclamation mark on the display and warning on display about main battery. Managed to get it started and home about a mile away. Code reader came up with P3130 and 3125 error. Coolant pump and Inverter temp respectively. I checked the coolant and it wasn't moving with engine running. Reseated the coolant pump connector and with car running still no coolant movement, noise or vibrations from pump. From what I've read on the forums it is recommended to swap the pump as this is common in Gen1's. Once the part is received I'll install the pump and reset the codes and see if the inverter comes back to life. Anyone have thoughts or experience on this issue?
Issue resolved. After doing research everything pointed to replacing the Inverter Pump first seeing as it had obviously failed (P3130 code). My hope was after replacing the pump and resetting the error codes the Inverter would come back to life. Pretty much how it played out. Here's a great Youtube video of how to access and replace the pump. This one is bleeding the air form the system. Long and short, I disconnected the auxiliary battery. Replaced the pump. Primed it and bled the air out of the system. The reservoir coolant showed movement so I know it was working. The P3125 code (Inverter overheating) was gone and took it for a test drive. Bled air from the system again just to be sure and topped off the coolant level. All seems to be fine. My initial fear was the inverter fried when the pump failed but it did what it was supposed to and shut down as a failsafe. With the new pump and it receiving a coolant supply everything is normal.
Have a new pump ordered. Were the hoses a PITA for you? I pulled the pump out of my parts car to see if it would work and I really struggled with those hoses, the one towards the front more.
Once I had the headlamp out I removed the bolts holding down the pump bracket to maneuver better to get at the hose clamps. They are a PITA. That spring tension design it terrible. Especially if one of those little tabs snap off, then you are well, hosed. I replace mine with old school screw hose clamps.
Yeah, my problem was my pliers - I tried 4 different ones - weren't wide enough to catch both tabs on that one side of the clamps. Definitely cramped too. I finally had to bend the tabs together. Still, you have to unbolt the bracket to even reach the clamps, and then you have to pull the pump out, stretching the hose, and hold the pump with one hand to keep it stretched out. That leaves one hand to work the pliers and work the clamp down the hose - it doesn't move easily and that requires applying force in two different directions. When you try to use your pliers, they slip off the tabs before you can get the clamp to move. In retrospect, I think it might help to drench the hose/clamp in some type of lubricant that allows it to slide easily. I should have replaced the clamps with screw types, but at that point, it was quicker to just work them back on, again a PITA, than drive to the auto parts store, and I don't figure to have to do this ever again at this point in the car's life.
OTC 4525 FTW. Resist that temptation; the spring ones really are more reliable for the long term. They continue to apply the same pressure even as the rubber gradually gets compressed underneath them. The screw types never screw themselves tighter as that happens, and there is uneven pressure near where the screw arrangement is. The spring clamps, with the right tool to make them less annoying, really do the better job; that's why the OEM uses them.
