Hello everyone, I have a 2001 Toyota Prius that is still leaking coolant on the inverter system, though now it is more pronounced. There's coolant all over the side of the inverter (pictured) but I'm not entirely sure if it's leaking because I'm not familiar with these systems and whenever I refill the inverter coolant (every once in a while) I usually don't miss, but I do tend to get it up in that over fill lip and it's probably shooting out the dump hose on the side (pictured also). If anyone has ideas for common places to look or if it could actually be leaking from the inverter let me know.
Maybe the top seam of that coolant reservoir where the black meets the clear has gone to hale. You can clearly see you have a leak or you have some blow by coming out of something somewhere right where you're looking at the pink and red this is obvious unless you are overporing and spilling that much of this stuff when you're doing whatever you're doing so you should be able to fill the system up ready the car have everything running maybe even do this after it's all warmed up and you've already made a trip up and down the road fill it back up make sure it's full and then sit there and watch it for a while I know it's boring like watching the grass grow but you obviously see the pink and the nonsense this is either you over pouring or some vapor is escaping from a permeated hose or a reservoir that the hermetic seals are coming undone on where the black meets the clear It's pretty simple looks like you could go to another generation too and just take the reservoir off the side of the hybrid synergy drive unit or the inverter there's an o-ring that is behind it that sits in the inverter maybe put a new one just because bolted up connect your hoses when you're connecting your hoses look at the ends of the hoses that you're connecting to the barbed fittings in looking for no splits no permeation nothing coming through the hose to the outside of the rubber hose part rubbers not supposed to allow the water and/or coolant to get through it to the outside it gets through it through the middle to circulate It's getting to the outside of the hose or the reservoir there's a problem with the hose or the reservoir fix that and you probably got yourself straightened out
There are marks on the side of the reservoir. Do not exceed the “Full” mark! The coolant level that I see in the last photo is way high!
I've overfilled mine several times It never leaks Matthew go high enough no I don't even think there's a blow off on that like the radiator there's nothing I've overfilled mine a couple of times and not much happens I've never seen the hermetic seals on the jug where the black meets the clear opaque plastic leak like that on a Prius I've seen it in other cars and other containers but I haven't seen the Prius do that that doesn't mean it doesn't it just means I haven't had one yet so something to keep an eye out for obviously if it stays below the black line it should not leak that would be seemingly a thing so see what happens when you do that there's no restrictions or anything going on in that loop for the inverter no thermostat no anything It's just an open loop coolant moving I guess the size of the barbs and whatnot help create the amount of flow and the dwell time and the cooling part above the radiator that cools this fluid very simple system so try backing off some of the coolant keep it below the hermetic seal and see if it all stops If so that's a cheap fix.
I'd guess there's a leak in the reservoir. They're prone to that when they get old. I have some used ones if you don't want to buy new.
