Drive Motor Water Pump Failure

[Shaf]

I experienced the dreaded Check EV System message. There was also a brief Battery Overheat Message displayed as I limped home less than one mile in Turtle Mode.

I towed it to Crown Toyota Ontario as they were the closest Toyota Dealer with a RAV4 EV Certified Technician. (I live in Las Vegas) The report came back that it was the Drive Motor Water Pump. The estimate is $1,000 for the pump with 3 1/2 hours labor.

Has anyone else experienced this problem or am I just the lucky one?

Rich S.
Las Vegas, NV
2013 S/N 2079 with 64611 miles

 

[miimura]

The pumps are known to fail occasionally. There is one pump for the main coolant loop that cools the drive unit, charger, and DC-DC converter. There is a separate pump and coolant loop for the battery pack. There seems to be some conflict between your symptoms and their estimate since there are two different pumps for those functions.

There is a third pump for the cabin heater coolant loop.

The MSRP of the pumps is only $585.

https://parts.toyota.com/a/Toyota_2012_RAV4-5Dr-Wagon-Electric/_52016_6719727/EV-COOLING/664420-8441.html

 

[alflash]

I experienced the dreaded Check EV System message. There was also a brief Battery Overheat Message displayed as I limped home less than one mile in Turtle Mode.
I towed it to Crown Toyota Ontario as they were the closest Toyota Dealer with a RAV4 EV Certified Technician. (I live in Las Vegas) The report came back that it was the Drive Motor Water Pump. The estimate is $1,000 for the pump with 3 1/2 hours labor.
Has anyone else experienced this problem or am I just the lucky one?
Rich S.
Las Vegas, NV
2013 S/N 2079 with 64611 miles

Which pump were the DTCs read?

Take a look price on https://parts.toyota.com/p/63294326/G90200R020.html
and/or
https://parts.toyota.com/p/63462219/G904033020.html

For reference.

RAV4EV (Model: QEA 38, VDS: YL4DV) Flat Rate for “Remove and Reinstall” (or “Replace”) the pump is 1.1 (+0.2) standard hours.

 

[hokiematt]

A few things bother me here:

-the drive unit and battery coolant loops are separate; a failing drive unit pump shouldn't cause a 'high battery temp' alert

-3 hours is a ridiculous time estimate to replace any one of the coolant pumps

-$1000 is way over the factory list price for any of the pumps

As Vlad has pointed out, I would insist on the dealership connecting to the car and using the Tesla Powertrain Diagnostics software to confirm what fault codes were set.

 

[Shaf]

I experienced the dreaded Check EV System message. There was also a brief Battery Overheat Message displayed as I limped home less than one mile in Turtle Mode.

I towed it to Crown Toyota Ontario as they were the closest Toyota Dealer with a RAV4 EV Certified Technician. (I live in Las Vegas) The report came back that it was the Drive Motor Water Pump. The estimate is $1,000 for the pump with 3 1/2 hours labor.

Has anyone else experienced this problem or am I just the lucky one?

Rich S.
Las Vegas, NV
2013 S/N 2079 with 64611 miles

There is a happy ending to my short story. The folks at Crown Toyota, Ontario CA replaced the Drive Motor Coolant Pump under the Platinum Warranty (aka Service Agreement). I misquoted the cost in my original post as $1,000 for the pump and 3.5 hours labor. The ACTUAL COST (covered by Service Agreement) was $594 for the Pump and G-48 Coolant with $221 Labor.

Thank you for your interest and contributions to this story.
Rich S.

 

[alflash]

I experienced the dreaded Check EV System message. There was also a brief Battery Overheat Message displayed as I limped home less than one mile in Turtle Mode.
I towed it to Crown Toyota Ontario as they were the closest Toyota Dealer with a RAV4 EV Certified Technician. (I live in Las Vegas) The report came back that it was the Drive Motor Water Pump. The estimate is $1,000 for the pump with 3 1/2 hours labor.
Has anyone else experienced this problem or am I just the lucky one?
Rich S.
Las Vegas, NV
2013 S/N 2079 with 64611 miles

There is a happy ending to my short story. The folks at Crown Toyota, Ontario CA replaced the Drive Motor Coolant Pump under the Platinum Warranty (aka Service Agreement). I misquoted the cost in my original post as $1,000 for the pump and 3.5 hours labor. The ACTUAL COST (covered by Service Agreement) was $594 for the Pump and G-48 Coolant with $221 Labor.

Thank you for your interest and contributions to this story.
Rich S.

Curiously, at such a cost and duration of work, did they perform the mandatory Coolant Air Purge after Replacing Water Pump procedure?
https://youtu.be/JpTVJ-i6GCk

For example,

 

[asavage]

For ICE vehicles, it's common to drain the coolant, pull a vacuum on the cooling system and then recharge with fresh coolant, to avoid the air lock problem. This became SOP when hoodlines became so low that it became impractical to have a fill point near the top of the cooling system.

This works because no cooling loop in an ICE's cooling system is valve isolated on both sides of any particular loop, so fresh coolant can "displace" the vacuum.

I've got a compressed-air venturi type vacuum generator around here somewhere for this purpose. I wonder if the Tesla/RAV4 EV's cooling loops could be successfully purged using the vacuum method.

We know some dealers have failed to purge air from the cooling loops in the past during DU replacements, because there have been reports here of the "low coolant" light coming on after a DU replacement and the vehicle having been picked up and driven some distance.