2010 Toyota Prius turned off

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Messages
869
Location
CA
2010 Toyota Prius (HB IV) with 265k miles.

Friends Prius turned off while driving at approximately 70 mph on the freeway in 90 deg weather (Los Angeles).
He was able to coast the car off the freeway exit.

He remembers something popping up on his dash indicating a problem but doesn't remember exactly what light turned on.
The car eventually started again and it was moved a short distance (from the street to the garage)
Apparently the light that had previously turned on did NOT turn on again when the car was moved into the garage.

He left the car to get it checked out.
He later got a call from the owner of the shop and he indicated that one of the water pumps was leaking but did NOT address why the car had turned off on him while driving.
Apparently there are two water pumps (one for the inverter and one for the engine).

Question?
Could a bad water pump cause the Prius to turn off?
My friend is now considering towing the car to the dealer to get a complete diagnostic.
We are thinking that it might be a bad battery cell but these cars are little more complicated for us.

Any advice is greatly appreciated
 
I’m not familiar with the Prius system but most new cars these days have a survival mode or limp mode that goes into effect if it senses permanent damage might occur. You mentioned a water pump. Perhaps the system shut down to protect the system from overheating ?
 
Obvious question: plenty of fuel in the tank? If your friend ignored a warning, might he have also ignored other symptoms that we and the shop need to help trouble-shoot?
 
Tank was full. He thinks that he read something like "hybrid malfunction" on a dash light
 
Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
Inverter overheating would do it. ...
Inverter overheating due to failure of the inverter coolant pump would do it---among other possibilities.
 
It happens on the Escape Hybrids. A wrench light comes in and the vehicle goes into limp mode. Sometimes it is the pump, sometimes it is the fans, sometimes it is the blend door actuator for the traction battery.
 
Need to scan the car before jumping to any conclusions.

This does sound like an inverter failure of some sort. Some (not all) inverter failures are covered by the ZE3 warranty extension campaign, which is 15yrs/unlimited mileage.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
sometimes it is the blend door actuator for the traction battery.


...sometimes I think I need to learn all this new stuff. Then I think, wait...maybe it'll go away. Or I will.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Ducked
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
sometimes it is the blend door actuator for the traction battery.
...sometimes I think I need to learn all this new stuff. Then I think, wait...maybe it'll go away. Or I will.
He's just talking about the servo motor & housing that mixes vent air & AC-cooled air directed to the hybrid's big battery. Almost all cars these days have these "blend door actuators" to mix outside vent air with AC-cooled air for passenger climate control too, so its like that.

But the blend door thing is not what is causing the problem here. Why? ---> Clue: Water pump leaking. Big clue there. That means the power electronics wasn't being cooled enough due to coolant loss, it overheated and shut down to prevent further damage. Another clue: He said it started up and ran after sitting (cooling down) for a while, so, again, that points to overheating due to coolant loss.
Should be codes stored, a log of past events you can read from a scan tool.
 
Last edited:
Mechanic just notified my friend that they saw no leaks but they got code P261B, main water Pump.
 
We are hoping that code P261B points to something other than head gasket failure
 
Friend also says that he had mice in his Prius and has a bad feeling that the code might point to that.

Please advise

Should he just take it to the dealer?
 
Anyone have an idea of how often the engine water pump has to get replaced. Is there a mileage interval? Visual indicator or does th code say it all?
 
Originally Posted By: Gito
We are hoping that code P261B points to something other than head gasket failure


The only reason I brought up Head Gasket failure is because it is common on the Gen 3 Prius at high mileage. The water pump failure probably doesn't help.
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
... The only reason I brought up Head Gasket failure is [that] it is common on the Gen 3 Prius at high mileage. ...
... especially when they've been knocking due to clogging of the EGR system (cooler, valve, pipe, or intake manifold EGR passages).
 
Engine water pump was replaced with a Genuine Toyota Water pump and car is back to normal.
Code P261B is gone.
 
What did that repair cost? Did the old (original?) pump make unusual noise or provide any other clues of impending failure?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top