My family prepared to leave last week for a short trip, but when we pulled out onto the highway the Highlander "lurched" a couple of times, then died. All the lights came on, with just about every warning light and bell going. I was able to pull it onto a turn lane for a nearby neighborhood and out of traffic but was not able to decide what had happened. Since we were only a few hundred yards from our house, I had my wife bring the Explorer and we towed it back home. After a few minutes of checking fuses, looking over belts/cables/etc. and not seeing any signs of smoke or damaged areas, we put all the trip items into the Explorer and left for the week. Today I was able to get the Highlander towed over to the local Toyota shop, where the diagnosis was what I had expected: the inverter had failed. When I got home late the other night, I was able to search the web and discovered a few other people had almost the exact same thing happen - same circumstances, same bells/whistles, and same reaction....oh oh, this is going to be expensive! The dealer told me this evening the repairs are under warranty and the MSRP if I had to buy the inverted was around $7600!!! They also informed me that there was a recall on the steering - I didn't know anything about that, but that's covered too and will be replaced while they wait for the inverter to arrive.
We have really liked the vehicle. I've only owned Hondas before and was never really pleased with them...too many little quirks and problems. But the Prius was our first hybrid and seemed to be well made and a good "around town" car, so when a person I knew put up his Highlander for sale last year, we purchased it. It's large enough for the five of us - especially now the kids are getting bigger. Size and utility is why I purchased the 04 Explorer, which I really like for the space and practicality. The only problem with the Prius, in my wife's opinion, is the 70 mph speeds out on the interstate. It gets whipped around a little too much for her to feel safe with the kids. The Highlander is quiet, comfortable, and pretty fast...
Now to the issue at hand:
How many inverters are failing in the Highlander/Prius hybrid setup? I couldn't find many examples on the web (4-5 maybe) but there were quite a few dead batteries and various electrical problems.
Would I buy another one? Absolutely, but I'm hoping the warranty will be a little longer...we were almost out of miles!

 

Inverter failures in a Prius have been rare. When one has occurred, it may be traceable to a cooling failure (Coolant pump or poorly bled coolant when it is flushed and refilled). I would not be overly concerned as replacements are available via the salvage community at a significantly lower cost. Besides, I have 143,500 miles on my 2004 Prius and no problems to date.

JeffD

 

The Hybrid System (which includes the Inverter) is warrantied for 96 months/100,000 miles. The cabbies here in NYC love the Highlander, and not too many cars get driven as hard as a NYC cab. This is old reliable technology. Parts do break, but that applies to any vehicle.

 

I have a 2006 highlander hybrid, I accidently hit a curb (not body damage but had flat tire). My inverter went out. State farm is blaming the body shop, toyota is saying it isn't covered under warranty ( I only have 29,000 miles on it). Has anyone else had trouble with their inverters?

 

Just had the inverter go out on my 06 Highlander Hybrid. 143,000 miles and Toyota says no chance of warranty coverage. Any ideas for getting a used inverter? Putting six or eight grand into a car with this mileage doesn't make sense to me but getting a good, used inverter might be great.
monte b

 

We have about 60,000 miles on our '06 Highlander Hybrid AWD. We were driving to our son's wedding weekend and on the highway going about 70mph in the passing lane. Without warning, the car shut off, the lights and bells sounded, there was no gas, no power steering and we were headed up a hill. Luckily, my husband was able to get to the berm of the road but cars and trucks were flying by us. We were pretty lucky not to have gotten hit. The car had to be towed, we had to rent a car and luckily made it to the event we were hosting that night which was 5 hours away.

The car was towed back to the dealer where we always take it. It had just had a regular service about 2 weeks before. They have to replace the Inverter but it is being covered under warranty. They have also agreed to cover the cost of our rental.

We also own a Prius with about 85,000 miles and it has been a great car. I have loved the Highlander so I"m hoping that this won't happen again. Just thankful one of our kids wasn't driving it when this happened.

 

inverter failed at 4 years - covered by warranty. i love this car, but i wonder - is the new inverter covered for 100k or 8 years?

 

Our 06 Highlander just stopped one day in traffic. We couldn't even push it. The Toyota dealer says it is the hybrid system inverter which will cost 10000 to replace. The part is not warranted because of over 120000 miles on car. The dealer says they will fix the part if we spend 3000 in service repairs.Obviously the servicing costs could be acheived at a cheaper rate somewhere else. Does this seem like a deal? They will not negotiate any further.

 

Yes, unless you are in a "California" emissions state where it is 10 years or 150k miles. Both run from the original purchase date, not the repair date.

JeffD

 

Same thing just happened to me yesterday. I'm so glad you posted this, because it explained exactly everything that happened to me. Have you had any problems since?