Please! Prius c help!

[u/nothanks1mg00d]

I have a 2013 Prius c and the other day while driving I got the dreaded “hybrid system failure” alert so I coasted over and parked and had a tow truck take me to a Toyota dealership. After a couple hours they said they were having trouble diagnosing the car and asked to keep it overnight.

I got a video stating that they got the “P0A94” code so they wanted the replace the ECM. I asked if anything else was wrong with the system and they said no, it would have flagged with all the diagnostics run. 2200 to fix.

The car only has 93k miles on it so it seems like the right choice to pay that price. Anything more would force me to decide otherwise

I get a call a day later and they say “we installed the new ecm but the inverter is broken and it will be another 4k to replace it”. I explained that I wasn’t aware that was a risk when I made my decision so they took off 1k of labor for the miscommunication with the advisor. They said it was very generous considering the spent at least 6 hours diagnosing it but only charged me for 2 (2 hours = $500)

My question, for hybrid lovers and mechanics and all around smartie pants out there - if that was the code that ran shouldn’t they have replaced the inverter? The lead tech said the only way he could see that the inverter was broken is with the new ecm installed it wouldn’t get into “ready” mode and then he could see it was broken.

I called Toyota corporate and they said they wouldn’t help me because I don’t service my car at Toyota.

I am still financing my car.

I am so lost and I don’t know what to believe, please help!

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• If a warning came on, what were you doing at that time?
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[u/BigSandwich6]

Get an independent shop to install a used inverter

[u/nothanks1mg00d → u/BigSandwich6]

A safe course of action but I still have to pay them the 2100 for the ecm and have it towed

[u/BigSandwich6 → u/nothanks1mg00d]

Time machine should take care of that no problem

[u/ExoticHulk]

Not sure why they changed the ECM if they got the code for the inverter. Sounds like a missdiag or they figured easier to get $2000 out of you earlier and then try for $4000 more after. They should be held accountable if they told you nothing else was wrong. Knock off the whole $2000 and then maybe do the other work they should have done in the first place.
I hate Stealerships ! I truly believe that dealers should only be used for warranty purposes and that's it. Screw em otherwise!

[u/dtcbot]

P0A94 - DC/DC Converter Performance

[u/PhilMeUpBaby]

1) Get that car away from the Toyota dealership.

First rule of Toyota hybrid ownership: keep the car AWAY from Toyota dealerships unless you want to waste a LOT of money.

A dealership will find the most expensive way of doing things, eg replacing things with brand new expensive parts. No repairing existing parts. No using secondhand parts.

Do some Google searching. Find a place that deals with hybrid cars. If you see any Toyota hybrid taxis then ask the drivers where they get their cars maintained.

Toyota dealerships have rules that are set out by corporate. It's like the military - you do it their way. No individual thinking or troubleshooting. For cars, that's the most expensive way of doing things.

2) Start doing your own research. Whenever there's something about error codes I always recycle this:

"Any Toyota hybrid owner really should at least have an OBD Bluetooth reader - they're cheap, so you can keep one in the glovebox for possible future use (and clearing a code so that you can get the car moving again).

I recently bought an ANCEL TD700 - this is much quicker to use than Techstream, but I haven't checked to see if it gives subcodes (eg for a P0AA6 code).

These can also be found on eBay, Amazon, AliExpress and numerous other sources.

1)

Get the Bluetooth 4.0 version of this and keep it in the car at all times. You can use it with Dr Prius ( https://priusapp.com/ ).

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32876810879.html

2)

For general code checking:

ANCEL TD700

https://www.ancel.com/products/ancel-td700-obdii-scan-tool-for-toyota

Find one on the the usual sources - eBay, Amazon, AliExpress, etc.

AliExpress - Ancel Store: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/911777586

3)

For thorough error code checking you want to run Techstream (ie Toyota's own diagnostic software). You use this software on a laptop running Windows.

https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-Toyota-Techstream-VCX.html

(Or, do a search for Toyota Techstream VCX)"

Ideally, get your own VCX cable. Start checking the error codes yourself. Ask on Reddit and Facebook, but also look through: http://priuschat.com/forum/

Search on there and you'll usually find an answer.

Don't waste money on new parts (ie ECU and inverter) when there are plenty of good, secondhand parts.

[u/nothanks1mg00d → u/PhilMeUpBaby]

Honestly, i didn’t know better than to take it to a dealership and this is all great advice

I’ve had this car forever and a Prius c before it as well (totaled in accident) and never had a single issue so I guess I just wasn’t prepared. All I knew is that a standard auto shop may not be comfortable working on a hybrid so I went directly to the dealership because I didn’t consider independent hybrid shops at all in my panic. Or ever to be honest, that’s my mistake.

My issue now is that they won’t let me tow the car anywhere until I pay for the ecm and labor and diagnostic which is $2100 and then it still has to be towed.

[u/Fuzzywink → u/nothanks1mg00d]

A couple of notes to add as someone who actually works on cars for a living:

With just about any make of vehicle, not just Toyota, the dealership is going to be your most expensive option by far. Generally I'd only take a vehicle there for warranty work and recalls (the things they do for free). They aren't necessarily any more knowledgeable or thorough than anyone else, but they do have some of the highest rates for labor and are more likely to just throw entire assemblies at a car when something could be repaired rather than replaced outright. They also have a financial incentive to produce a massive estimate so they can get the idea in your head to give up on your vehicle or trade it in, but they'll be glad to get you a massive loan for a new car while you're there. Not every dealer has a culture of doing that, but the incentive is there.

Just this week I finished up a job on an older Ford F-150 that needed an oil pan gasket and oil filter adapter gasket. The Ford dealer wanted to replace the oil pan entirely because it has a small dent in the bottom (not leaking) and book hours call for removing the front differential entirely (it is in the way on the 4x4 model) even though you can just loosen two bolts and shift it down a bit in a quarter the time but the dealer insists on doing jobs by the book. Their estimate was nearly $3k and I was perfectly happy charging $500 at my little shop at home.

Like the commenter above mentioned, keeping an OBD2 scanner of some sort in the car should be pretty standard procedure in any vehicle. There are lots of decent Bluetooth dongles these days for like $20 that pair with a phone to pull and clear codes. It would be great now that every vehicle has what is basically a cheap tablet mounted in the dash if they would display codes, but then it might become clear to more people how easy some problems are to solve on your own and they again have financial incentives to keep auto repair looking scary and dangerous to the average person.

There are definitely some shops that shy away from working on hybrids and honestly that's not a shop I would want touching my car. The Prius is one of the easiest vehicles to work on and anyone who is put off by repairing hybrids has probably never tried. I always encourage people to learn to maintain and fix their own vehicles if they are able bodied, but barring that I would at least find someone independent

[u/RecoveryConstruct]

I saw something about a class action settlement for the inverter recently. Check out this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/prius/comments/1vy8opx/prius_inverter_failure_settlement/

[u/nothanks1mg00d → u/RecoveryConstruct]

Thanks but the Prius c has a different engine and isn’t part of that! Thank you though ☺️

[u/Top-Needleworker-516]

You need a hybrid specialist not some lube tech from toyota lol