Prius inverter converter gone bad

You should be asking this at Priuschat, see what folks there say. And let us know how that ‘insist the dealer’s service department use it’ goes…

From what I have seen and read in regard to this problem, it’s unfortunate that Toyota did not design in an overtemperature detection sensor or a coolant line flow sensor to shut down the inverter with converter before it overheats and consequently fails.

The ECM on a 1984 car that I bought new failed after the warranty ran out. As I recall, a new one was around $700 or $800 but the dealer of that brand got a rebuilt (refurb?) for me for around $300. Possibly the aftermarket will eventually get around to refurbishing Prius electronic parts.

ok4450, i don’t mean to be rude, but the person asked if anyone knew an answer to their problem, they did not ask for a muligan on how bad their first idea was if you don’t have an answer, you have no legitimate reason to even comment

I don’t know what an inverter converter is to be honest, but you don’t have to do the take the most expensive path just because the dealer says you do, i dunno if you have any mechanical experience but you can get a used part(hopefully) and alot of the time, they do prove sufficient, but then there are times when they don’t, how do you tell wether it will last? well, if you have to, inspect the part yourself, for example, if you find somebody willing to sell the part for a decent price, try to get them to meet up with you and allow you to examine it, however if they’re unwilling to allow you this, then that right there is enough reason to refuse them

Talon, you admit you do not know what a inverter converter is yet you suggest the OP can visually inspect the part and determine if it’s fully functional? This is an electronic device in a sealed enclosure. No amount of visual inspection will be useful and frankly, very few people would have a clue how to even install it let alone test its functionality.

OK4450 took the time to explain why the OP’s idea of insisting on the dealer using a used part of unknown quality was likely to fail. IMO this was helpful in setting reasonable expectations for the OP and anyone who runs across this thread in the future.

"If the used part is a bad idea, then is it completely crazy to spend $4,200 on an 8-year-old car??"

What scares me about this hybrid technology is that it is maintained by the same people that screw up our regular cars.
The stuff is treated like a black box because it may not be serviceable to component level. Even if you could go in and change just certain parts of the assembly, mechanics don’t know about electronics so can’t waste their time troubleshooting it. You swap things in and out because it is expedient and profitable.
Couple that fact with the other tid-bit that some of these guys are not the sharpest knives in the drawer:
Just this week we had mechanics start a car fire when changing a battery, a dealer suggest they replace an ECM and ignitor to see ‘whether it fixes the issue’, etc. Some of these guys are horrible.

There are some really good ones but there are also very bad and dishonest ones. Not knowing who is good and who is bad, I wouldn’t blindly trust their judgment and get a second opinion. Not doing so would be like opening you wallet and saying “Take what you want”.
Of course, dealers are the only game in town when it comes to hybrids. You’re stuck between a rock and another rock.

Since you can’t get a second opinion by an independent, I wouldn’t spend 4200 bucks on an 8 year old car but would also not get a hybrid.

Totally agree with @TwinTurbo, btw.

@RemcoW- you gave me a funny vision with your post. I was imagining the mechanic exclaiming “Ureka! I found it. It’s the MOSFET Q5. Where’s my soldering iron…”. :slight_smile:

You’ve described my worst fear. Having dealership mechs shotgunning big $$ parts hoping to fix a complex electronic problem.

You won’t have much luck “insisting” that the Toyota dealer service dept. install the part you supply via ebay. You can ask them what they’d charge to install it and see if they will give you a price? Don’t expect any warranty from the dealer, you accept the risk on this one.

Installing a used inverter should be basically a bolt in, plug in. There are some mechanics out there with the knowledge to make this installation. A Prius website might be a good source of Prius specific mechanics. The guys that are doing Prius conversions to plug in chargers would be able to handle this installation.

The ebay part would likely come from a wrecked salvaged Prius and I think it is worth a shot to go that route considering the mega costs of the dealer repair. I’d try to line up someone to do the installation and then figure out how to get the part, ebay or let the installer source the part at a price close to the ebay cost.

Obtain a service manual for your car and see how difficult it is to change the inverter…Other posters are correct that the dealership will have little interest in using an inverter you provide. An independent shop would be a much better bet. The reason the dealership is charging $4200 is because they can…There are other sources for used auto-parts than eBay…A local salvage yard may have one and guarantee it to be a good part…Investigate ALL your options before you submit to the dealers over-priced repairs…If it takes 2 hours to change it and you can buy one for $300, you would be foolish to pay the dealer $4200…But you must have high confidence that the inverter is the real problem…

I agree, @TwinTurbo.

They are basically shotgunning problems now half the time. It isn’t going to get any better with technology they totally don’t understand.

http://www.re-involt.com/

My personal experience with dealerships installing used or aftermarket parts is that they do not warranty the repair. Basically you will pay the standard labor rate and if it fails or does not work you still pay. Essentially you are paying by the hour.

I would “risk” it personally to avoid the $4200 repair.

This is why the leading edge of technology is often called the “bleeding edge”. Jen is on the early part of the failure curve for this technology in cars, fortunately for her, not at the very beginning of the curve. Circuitsmith has provided a link to a repair facility that can provide a repaired unit.

Inverters are not new and they are pretty simple devices. I cannot see how Toyota can justify the $4200 cost. But the good news is that a repaired unit will probably outlast a new unit. Often, after a certain number of repairs, the techs see the weaknesses in the unit and find ways of upgrading them when they do the repair.

Any mechanic should be able to do the R&R (remove and replace), so I would suggest checking the link above to get the cost of a repaired inverter and find an independent mechanic that is willing to do the R&R.

No dealer would ever install a part brought in by a customer and then warranty the job. If I were their lawyer I’d scream bloody murder if they even suggested it. At the most you might get the dealer to install it but they would have you “sign-off” on the job, essentially guaranteeing nothing and leaving you to bear all risk. And then what? If you have problems with the item and the seller from e-bay, do you really want the nightmare of suing someone from who knows where on a used electrical part installed by someone else? You either got to bite the bullet and pay a dealer, maybe shop around a bit for something better than $4200, trade the vehicle with the known problem and take a hit on the trade-in value, or let it sit in your driveway. I expect that a lot of folks are going to be hit with something like this on hybrid vehicles now that they’re showing their age . . . . no good answer for any of them, you included. Sorry, but that’s my opinion. Good luck anyway! Rocketman

this sounds like something that should be left to a serafillable person or somebody who is trained on the electrail system in the toyota becouse one wrong move and you could end up dead.i would get an 2nd opion from somebody who knows about hybrids and gao from there. far as used parts they have a place but i don’t know enouth about hybrids to say is it worth it or not

The inverter with converter, according to a photo on ebay is immediately accessible under the hood on the driver side. Swapping it out appears be an easy matter for a Saturday mechanic with the need for a few electrical connections and a couple of coolant lines. The integrity of the part’s cooling system would have to be verified too which may have been the reason for the failure. A $400 or so risk might get the car going again; otherwise the OP has nothing except for the scrap value of the car minus the inverter with converter. The scrap value is worth considering before proceeding. If it was mine, I’d take the risk if I liked the car unless the scrap value was considerable. Whether it works again or not, consider it a valuable lesson regarding hybrid car ownership.

Pick up a used converter from ebay or the local junkyard and if you’re not able to install it safely yourself then ask a local mechanic to install the part for you.

I’ve owned and worked on a hybrid car and the parts themselves aren’t difficult to change, you just need to use a modicum of common sense with your safety practices.

For the most part the electrical components in these cars are fairly robust.

“Common sense” when it comes to dealing with strangers and their skill in handling high voltage electrical devices…hmmmmmm…

Ok I think I will inject my on little bit of engineering judgement, but please take it with a grain of salt, because I don’t know much about hybrids.

An inverter transfers DC to AC and a converter does the opposite. So without this part you electrical motor on the hybrid is dead.

I would go ahead and buy a refurbished part and have someone install it. I might work great! Then you are done with it. If it doesn’t work you are back where you started and you can pay the $4,200, because I agree with there person who said this newer part is more likely to have an even longer life than the original part and you can get another 8 years out of it.

A third option might be to ask if they dealership has a test unit that they use to evaluate the converter inverter and if they might let you bring in used parts to test on the test unit. They might not want you to use their test unit though but then again they might let you.

But on a side note this brings up the big flaw I see with hybrids. You have to use a lot of weight and a lot of technology to get marginal gains in fuel efficiency. A Toyota Corolla can get great gas mileage and use less technology to get that gas mileage and have few components to maintain.