Toyota Prius Overheating Electrical Systems

The owners of certain 2010-2014 Toyota Prius and Prius V vehicles are questioning the adequacy of Toyota's attempts over the past years, to stop overheating in the electrical system of their vehicles.  The problem has been affecting ertain Prius vihicles since 2010 and owners are demanding answers.

In 2011/2012, Toyota received reports of vehicles losing power and entering fail safe mode along with the illumination of dashboard warning lights. During an examination of the inverter assemblies from these vehicles, damaged IGBT(s) were found on the booster converter side of the control board. After further investigation, some inverter parts were found to have hairline cracks developing under the solder. The Prius V, which use the same inverters, did not experience the same problem. The differences in the vehicles hybrid control software led Toyota to believe the boost provided during high battery temperatures were the cause of the thermal stress on the IGBT. In February 2014, Toyota recalled approximately 700,000 vehicles to update the software for the motor/generator control electronic control unit (ECU) and the hybrid control ECU.

In October 2018, Toyota issued another recall after customer complaints continued. This recall included the Prius V and added an additional 200,000 vehicles to the list. But, even after the second recall, Toyota Prius electrical system are still overheating. In fact, a lawsuit has since been filed against Toyota by one of the company’s dealers in Southern California. Roger Hogan, told the manufacturer in 2017 that he was seeing inverter failures on vehicles that had received the software modification and he refused to resell used Priuses that he had taken on trade-in.  Click the video below to watch the whole story.