The other Water pump
Created July 19, 2009, at 1:59 pm by cami62
The Toyota Prius has two water pumps. One for the gas motor and the other for the electric. They do not tell you about the second one and it is not part of the preventative. They just wait until it goes out and then you are stuck in the middle of no place. Mine went out at 90,000 miles. Just a week after I had the other one replaced with the timeing belt. It cost me $500 to get it replaced. All my idiot lights came on and I lost my air conditioning and the car started surging. So watch out and hey just get both of them replaced at once because the dealer will not tell you about it.
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2 years ago
Just great.
That reminds me of the two fuel pumps my parent’s ‘86 Volvo had. Why they couldn't design a single pump that would make it from the tank to the injectors is beyond me. But when one pump went out it was only a matter of months until the other went out.
Thanks for the info.
2 years ago
The second water pump/radiator/coolant reservor is actually for the inverter that inverts and rectifies electrcity for the drive motor. Battery runs on 200v dc and the drive motor is 3 phase AC.
Unfortunately there is no preventative maintenance for the water pumps. They just run until they die.
HOWEVER... there is preventative maintenance on the COOLANT. the coolant includes lubricant for the water pump, and should be changed every 2 years.
If you are not having service done at a Toyota dealer, make sure your mechanic changes the coolant in BOTH radiator systems. And uses the right type of coolant.
2 years ago
Assuming you don't drive many miles, I have to wonder if just adding water pump lubricant every two years would be sufficient.
I want a Prius, but reading this, I'm starting to wonder about the maintenance expense. I don't mind paying the extra 3 grand or so over the life of the car to be better for the environment AND roughly triple my real-world city mileage where I live (dense city traffic is 90% of my day-to-day driving).
OTOH, for maintenance on a traditional car, I go to Jiffy Lube a couple times a year and do what they (filtered by common sense) recommend. Until a Japanese car gets old - that works well.
If I'm going to have to spend many $hundreds/year on standard maintenance -- maybe I should just buy a Corolla-like car...
Any input from Prius owners?
2 years ago
So far I've only changed my oil once.
The one thing you'll want to get is the electrical diagnostic insurance. If I remember right, it's $800 - $1,000. If something goes wrong with the hybrid system it's $100/hr to diagnose and fix. It only takes a day in the shop to come out even.
Otherwise, I don't expect maintenance to be horribly different than my wife's Scion.
1 year ago
I think having a good water pump would be the key here. You should try to get things straight from the likes of the Felpro Brand and the like in order to get things right and straight. Hope all is well by now.
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