1,500 miles ago my car had it's 30k service. Today, i got "CHECK...". At home this evening i checked the inverter coolant reservoir, it was empty. I've added 1L of de-ionised water (which got it to full, and i see turbulence in the fluid) until i can get the correct fluid.
View 13 RepliesBack in February, received a light and discovered that the inverter coolant reservoir was empty. I refilled the reservoir and cleared the code. Today, only 3 months later, the same thing happened. I don't see any wet hoses, puddles, or obvious signs of leakage. Where all my coolant is going? What steps should I use to properly troubleshoot...
View 8 Replies2010 Toyota Prius III with just under 60,000 miles. The car has been serviced at Toyota from day one (by us and by the previous owners) and runs like a champ. Well, did.
Last week while driving home from running errands the Check Hybrid System light came on for my wife. The car was still running so she drove it home for me to look at. I hopped in and noticed the gasoline engine wasn't turning on. I took it for a spin and even when I floored the car the gas engine wouldn't turn on. Since the nearest dealership is 15 highway miles away I knew we weren't going to make it there on electric power so I had it towed.
The Toyota dealership called me the next day saying when they started the car the light was gone and the car ran fine. They did some troubleshooting and found nothing wrong. They said it might have been a glitch and to come get the car. Not even 3 hours later the light turns on again. Again the gasoline engine goes silent, but this time I didn't even make it a mile and the electric power shuts off as well! We coasted to a stop and had to have the car towed again. This happened out of nowhere and could have been a very serious safety situation had it not happened on the road we were on.
This time the Toyota dealership had a little more to say. They said that their diagnosis has determined that the inverter is shot and they will have to order a new one. They said this failure is extremely rare (the service guy I spoke with had never seen this issue).
I have a 2010 Prius, currently at around 69,000 miles. Back in Feb 2015 (when it was just under 60,000) I was driving on a city street and hit the accelerator once a stoplight turned green - immediately as I took off (at a normal rate of acceleration) my 2010 Prius made a loud noise and I got the red triangle of death, with a "Check Hybrid System" message. The car quickly shifted into "limp home" mode and I was able to make it back home as I was only about a mile away.
Got towed to the nearest dealer the next morning and after tons of testing and going back and forth, they replaced the transmission and inverter (was able to get it covered under powertrain warranty), and I was on my merry way. No issues until last night.
Yesterday evening, I am on a city street and get a warning beep. I look at my dashboard and this time I have a yellow exclamation mark with the "Check Hybrid System" message yet AGAIN. Towed the car to the nearest dealer and am now waiting on next steps. Only update I've gotten so far is that they are still trying to diagnose the issue, and are getting 4 error codes in this process, 2 of which are new. I am waiting on the technician to tell me what the actual codes are - hopefully should get them tomorrow.
I would hope if it's another issue with transmission or inverter, it's covered under warranty given I replaced both less than a year ago. However I'm not sure and am worried that it's going to be $$$ in case it's something else that failed. Plus I'm getting serious doubts as to the safety of my car - what if I had been moving at a high speed on the highway during either of these situations?
I have had my certified 2010 Prius since June 2015. Last Saturday I noticed my inverter coolant reservoir was on the low mark. I went to the closest dealer and they topped it off up almost to the full mark for free. I thought it had probably went down from evaporation and I just hadn't noticed it before. Yesterday I went back to the dealer where I purchased it which is about 90 miles away to have the CVT fluid changed. This morning the coolant was back down to almost the low mark. I looked on the ground and can't see any evidence of a leak. Tomorrow I have a appointment to have them check it. Since it is still in the one year certified warranty I don't know how motivated they will be to find the problem when they can't charge me for it. I don't think the level would have went back down right away if there wasn't a leak somewhere. I checked and there have been no recalls done or called for on it.
View 12 RepliesHow do you know if the inverter coolant pump/reservoir is bad after the recall was performed?Since it doesn't produce any codes but can reduce the electric-drive if getting too hot, how do you convince Toyota to give it a second look?
View 5 RepliesMy original intention was to replace the engine oil in the car. I was in a hurry(yes....I know) I could not find the oil drain plug. I did find a large bolt which turned out to be a drain plug for the inverter coolant instead. The instant the fluid drained from the car, I knew it was not engine oil. I did not know the drained fluid was inverter coolant. It had the color of a transmission fluid but significantly less viscous.
View 17 RepliesMy check engine light is on and I think the inverter pump is shot. I have a some questions about how and when the pump is on. I have a mini vic on order and as soon as I get it hooked up I'll run for some codes. That is if I get it installed????
1- With the car in "ready mode" and at start up (car cold) should the inverter coolant pump be running.
2- With the car in "ready mode" Should I always see a water moving in the water reservoir.
It has happened to me several times.. The car asks me for coolant but today the reservoir was almost completely empty... I have no leaks and my cooling systems is working fine so where does the coolant go?
View 6 RepliesI have a 2006 3.5L Sante Fe. and i noticed there were coolant drips under the car and that my coolant reservoir was empty. In the engine bay below what i assume is the water pump i noticed the coolant pooling (See Photos). I am not sure if the seal is bad where the top radiator house connects to the water pump (circled in red, or if the thin metal line (circled in Blue) sitting in the coolant pool would have anything to do with it, since it seems to trace back to the radiator.
View 4 RepliesI just bought a used 2012 Toyota Prius iTech from a country town 3 hours away. About an hour into the drive home, the display informed me to "Check Hybrid System" and then "Check PCS System". The car continued to function for a little while, then eventually lost acceleration, so I pulled over. I turned it off and on again; the warning light remained but the car started and continued to work, but soon after I lost acceleration again. This happened one more time.
Then I Googled the problem and discovered that you could "turn it off and on again three times to reset the computer". I did this and the problem disappeared and did not resurface for the remainder of the trip, and has not happened again since.
Today, I was greeted by a big red STOP! warning from my 2000 Passat 6 cylinder. The car drove fine last night. The coolant reservoir appears empty and has brown residue all over the inside. I notice for the first time that there is pink fluid on the floor -- I'm assuming this is the G12 coolant.
It's not a hot day, so I put in distilled water, turn up the heat and drive my Passat (trying to stay under 2k rpm) down to the dealer. They say that the coolant from the oil cooler leaked into the oil (and presumably, vice-versa).
I just purchased a 2015 sonata last Friday from a large non Hyundai dealer. An hour ago while upgrading my headlights i noticed the coolant reserve tank was completely empty. I am going to check the main radiator level tomorrow because the engine was still hot at the time. I am hoping it is not a blown head gasket, i did remove the oil cap and noticed a very small amount of greyish oil in the cap threads other than that it looked good directly under the cap and inside the hole. Should i call my local Hyundai dealer or just fill the tank back up? I am wondering if it just burned off over time and the original owner never filled it back up. Also what type of coolant is compatible?
View 6 Replies2008 Santa Fe 2.7 105k miles Timing belt replaced two years ago at 80k miles I have no smoke, no sweet smell, no milk on oil dipstick, oil looks as clean as honey, no crustiness anywhere, no wet spots under hood or car. Yet my coolant reservoir was empty when I did my last oil change two mos. ago. I filled it up then. Today I checked it was just below the min. line. Car runs like a top, but I'm going to have a pressure test done today. I thought head gasket issues were very rare in these cars.
View 17 Replies1999 Honda CRV. Just took a 3-hour highway trip. Before trip I topped up coolant reservoir which was a little low, but radiator was full. I did notice some dried white spots on the front of valve cover and spark wires. Wasn't sure what it was, but now realize it was coolant residue. Probably only 1-2 cups were missing from the reservoir, so the leak had just started.
After 3 hour trip, checked engine compartment again. This time the reservoir was totally empty (radiator still full) and the engine was well sprayed with greenish coolant residue. The radiator was cool by the time I checked it, so the leak source wasn't obvious, but it looks to be coming from the seam where the plastic top meets the aluminum.
I will replace the radiator when I get home, but first have to drive the 3-hour return trip. Will it be OK as long as I start full of coolant and keep an eye on the temp gauge?
I noticed recently that I have a coolant leak in a used car that I got a few months ago. I've been driving this thing pretty regularly at this point, but I haven't noticed any overheating. The engine temp stays shy of the midpoint line on the meter, both at speed and in idle.
The coolant reservoir was empty a little over a month ago, so I filled it up. A few days ago, I took a look at it, and it was empty again. I refit a hose that was a little loose and decided I'd just wait and see what happened after driving it some. Over the past few days, I've noticed slight decreases in the coolant level each day.
Today was no different, except that after I drove for about 15 minutes on probably the hottest day of the year so far (about 95 degrees, don't know if that matters at all), I noticed there was coolant sprayed on the hood. I opened the hood and there was quite a bit of coolant pooled on the far left of the radiator top, right between the coolant reservoir and the radiator pressure cap. What's going on here?
Had overheating issue with the wife (she doesn't monitor fluid levels like she should). Now you can't operate it for more than a day or two before the reservoir is super low to empty. Mechanic coolant is going into the engine, probably through the intake manifold. Says investigating further will cost a ton. What can I do cheaply to figure out what's going on before I give up? I followed her when the engine was started from cold & could see water vapor (more than I would expect) in the exhaust until when I figure the engine reached full operating temp. It has about 225k and is the 6 cyl engine, btw.
View 1 RepliesI was driving my 2008 Santa Fe last week (before I went on vacation) and noticed the the A/C wasn't coming through quite a cool as usual (almost felt like the vent was on w/ no AC). Then after about 10 minutes of driving I noticed the thermostat on the car get to about the 3/4 line pretty close to the red lines.
Luckily I was home so turned the car off and popped open the hood. I noticed the reservoir tank was empty and there was some coolant that dripped down on the fans & a small pool of coolant on the engine block right under where the oil is poured. (nothing has been dripping under the car)
I added a little coolant to the reservoir tank and the next time I turned it on and let it run for ~10 minutes, it was the same thing.
Anyway, I came back from vacation and opened the hood to try and identify exactly where the leak was, and ran the car for ~30 minutes, with A/C on full blast and the car didn't overheat or leak anywhere. Coolant tank was still full from when I filled it the first time.
What could have caused the leak/overheating in the first place?
I've got an '08 Cobalt. There is a large leak in my coolant system. The plastic reservoir is empty and if I add coolant and start the engine it all gushes out of a hole in a piece of plastic on the side of the radiator. Can I drive it to the shop if I watch the engine temperature or should I have it towed? Is the engine temperature measurement affected by the lack of coolant?
View 6 RepliesWhy my 96 dodge neon is leaking coolant. I was checking my oil and I noticed the reservoir tank was half empty, so I assumed it was nothing out of the ordinary since it's a 17 year old car. When I filled it though, it came pouring out of the tube that sits right under the tank. I'm capping it off every day before I drive and it holds, but it's definitely got a slow leak. It seems to only hold it for 4 days of driving for an hour. My temperature gauge stays at the normal level, but you can smell the antifreeze burning and the engine's running hot. I'm not too mechanically inclined, but what could be wrong with it? I've recently installed a new alternator and clutch cable and found out my valve cover gasket is leaking. I really want to save this car instead of getting a new one.
View 2 RepliesI have a 1997 Mitsubishi Galant with 134400 miles. Filled up the gas tank, driving home and the check engine light is on. Checked the fluids and found out that the engine oil is empty. Due for an oil change soon. Last mechanic used an expensive oil. Do expensive oils burn quickly? Mechanic said that cheaper oil change uses cheap oil...
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