Inverter pump failed twice in 2 months

No turbulence means that there isn't coolant circulating through the inverter cooling system. Could be that the pump is bad. Or the pump doesn't have power/ground. Or the cooling system is air bound. Or the system is clogged.

Does the pump hum and vibrate slightly when the car is on- ready?

Could be that the radiator has clogged air or coolant passages.

Without testing, everything is guessing.

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You need a scantool that can let you read inverter temperatures. One of the first signs of inverter overheat is that it disables the A/C compressor .

Again, it's possible to have air in the system or restricted radiator. Do both radiator fans work?

When you check the coolant circulation, does the pump hum "quietly" (barely hear it) or does it "growl" a bit?

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How much time it takes to "do the job properly" depends greatly on locale and condition.

Some parts of the country, you can clamp off the hoses, zip out the 3 mounting screws (reuse the old bracket) and swap the pump fairly quickly. (I think there's more room to do that on halogen headlight cars). In some cases that's "all you need" (?)

In the rust belt, having every screw snap off when trying to remove them adds time. Flushing all the white grit from 15 year old coolant adds time. Replacing all the rusted and failing coolant clamps on the trans and radiator adds time. Driving the car long enough to confirm that inverter temperature stays normal adds time. Can take much more than an hour in some cases. Hopefully, one gets what one pays for, and no less.

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electric compressor is always noisy. and variable speed, so noise can change

 

it's a pretty unusual situation. i wonder if you're having voltage problems to the pump.

did you ever find out if it is oem?

 

Take it here before you burn up your inverter or electric motors.

 

It does not sound like your pump has failed from what you've said.

That being the case, the most likely thing is a blockage somewhere in the coolant path. You will need to start disconnecting the hoses one by one and flushing them through to confirm there is no blockage. Keep going until you find the blockage.

 

This post has a diagram to guide you through searching for the blockage.

In that thread, the person ended up finding a hose that was blocked because there was somehow a bolt inside it, but I'd like to think that won't be the usual answer.

 

wow, that's a new one. luckily, used inverters are said to be cheap.

 

curious, flushing the white grit, so how do you go about doing that, just the normal drain plug and run it with water? I can find very little info on "flushing" the inverter coolant system, most tutorials seem to drain it?

 

There are various and sundry flushes you could run through there but I'm trying to figure out what is people doing to create this crusty buildup this must have been a car that stuff got drained and it sat for a long time and then somebody decide to try and put it back in service DuPont makes a two-part flush that's an alkali or something like that it's in a black silver and white cardboard circular container kind of like the container your mom made biscuits from Pillsbury doughboy and whatnot. You mix up the first powder and put it in the radiator but since this is such a small system you don't need about a fourth a sixth of setting powder in the water system let it circulate through the business for whatever it says on the label 5 7 9 minutes something like that then you drain that out then there's another container inside of the container you just opened and used the white powder out of that's called a neutralizer You fill it back up with water not coolant for the neutralizer in let it run a little bit whatever it says on the label that will pretty much eat out the nonsense of the bottom of the inverters cooling passage that's all there is and the little radiator that's it and rubber hoses I would imagine after that's done if you were set up carefully you could disconnect the hose at the inverter pump or both hoses at the inverter pump and use your air hose and a fitting to blow all that nonsense out and down onto the ground or the plastic shield of the car The interesting to see what actually comes out I've never seen an inverter passageway clogged yet If you keep cooant in it all it's life. This would be an almost impossible thing to happen something has to coagulate and create this issue a bunch of air it being drained not completely and left for a year plus I don't know I see these cars in junkyards to the tune of several of the week and usually those reservoirs are full the engines in the car and everything's just sitting there parts are removed from the engine and the engine cooling system may be empty but the inverters just sitting there most people don't realize there's a second radiator and so on and so forth and it might be sitting there the whole time it's at the junkyard until the junkyard's ready to completely get it off their lot and that's the last little bit of coolant that comes out I guess another states maybe this is a thing I'm not sure.

 

No the inverter would be flushed out like the lady said and then see what's up unless they've already determined the inverters failed because it has a clog in it and it's not getting cooled usually the inverter won't fail it'll just start dialing back your charging until you're pretty much not running anymore or you're running ice engine only in the battery is not charging It tries to save the inverter It's a built-in electronic circuit I guess so you're inverter was driven so hard until it killed itself with this clog in place is my gas used inverters or a dime a dozen literally these are the heavy duty inverters too The good ones moving forward after 2010 smaller cheaper less real materials all that

 

Cool, thank you, I see another description of it here: Inverter coolant pump.. pump running but not flowing. | PriusChat and Inverter coolant pump.. pump running but not flowing. | PriusChat maybe we'll assume that's what the guy did to "get out" the grey blobs...

though I guess these methods wouldn't actually put pressure through the inverter itself (but might at least run some water through it?)? Not that that might help if it's metal deposits but just in case?

 

The odds of having deposits in the inverter coolant system are slim.

If we were talking engine coolant system and guys who use head gasket sealant, then the story is much different. Heaters, thermostats and radiators get clogged up.

 

This is typical deposits that I flush out of a Gen2 inverter cooling system when replacing the pump. I assume it's just silicates precipitating out from very old coolant.

Remove the drain plug and pump, then "gentle" blasts with the garden hose turned down low - into both hoses. Then using a bit of heater hose, flush back up through the drain port.

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