No, I have not. My car has been in the shop waiting for the inverter for three weeks now. I have a loaner car but this is getting crazy.

 

Got my letter in the mail today. Toyota continues to drop the ball on this in my opinion. My letter states that this is a preliminary letter and that a second letter will go out once the parts are available. Any guesses on when? Next month maybe? 2-3 months? Nope. the second letter will BEGIN going out in Jan 2012 over 4 months from the now.

So I am suppose to let my family drive around in a vehicle with a known safety issue for another 4 months MINIMUM!

Thank you Toyota for looking out for me and my family and rewarding our loyalty on the 4th Toyota we have bought from you with such stellar turn around time on this issue.

It wasn't bad enough it took you 5+ years to issue the recall. Now that you are aware of the issue what another 4+ months of driving around a vehicle that can put my family in danger right.

Sorry Toyota, you have gone the way of GMC with regards to reliability and safety.

 

It took them 3 weeks but I got a call yesterday that my Highlander is ready to be picked up after having a new inverter installed. I have to say that I am going to keep the vehicle due to financial constraints but I have no confidence in that car. I am concerned about saving $5500 for the battery now which I have every confidence will need to be replaced very shortly after it hits 150K miles, just after the state mandated warantee expires. What else are we to do in this economy?

 

Had the recall performed last Wednesday. Took them 1 day to complete the job. To their credit they did provide me a free car at their cost. One point of interest is that my gas mileage over the last 200 miles is about 3 gallons higher than what I have averaged the last 2 years. It will be interesting to see if this is coincidence or if the trend holds up.

Still not to happy with Toyota about how this entire issue shaked out. I have had at least 1 Toyota in my garage for 20+ years of owning vehicles. The entire experience with this issue has probably changed that going forward. The overall quality of the car is not where it needs to be.

2 recalls, possible a 3rd coming from what I have read elsewhere
Issues with the ABS actuator 6 months after purchase.
Interior quality issues with leather seats
New issue just started with the door lock mechanism needing replacement (not cheap)

I have never had a Toyota with this many uncommon issues.

 

I was expecting a follow up letter as promised in the ititial recall letter but nothing so far, so I decided to initiate a call to the dealer. Confirmed they had parts on hand and took it in yesterday. Left it with them for about 5 or 6 hours. They said the recall repair/replacement program began 3 weeks ago and mine was the forth to be done at this particular dealer. The tech dissembled the inverter to inspect to determine if an inner part (power module?) needed replacement. Mine did, which is relief. As the battery would be disconnected I asked repeatedly to make sure the tech reset to idle speed control and was told this had been done. All seems as normal. I'll check mileage and report back in a week or two.

 

I got the inverter recall letter from Toyota corperate, tried calling local dealer today to schedule to get the inverter replacement performed. They dont have the replacement inverter in-stock locally and are basically refusing to pre-order for my service appointment untill they have a chance to first "inspect" the original inverter, in which case it will then take them a week or so to order and receive the part. Either leaves me without a car for the duration or I will have to make multiple trips to get it first inspected then later replaced.
I am skeptical that the initial inspection is anything other than that they verify the VIN number and maybe check to verify that the inverter part number is in fact the original defective part number. Given the huge liability of replacing a dead inverter later beyond warantee & out of pocket, I would be extrememly dissatisfied if they just do a quick visual inspection, proclaim that it does not appear to be damaged (yet) but then leave me with the original suspect inverter (my 2006 is clearly in the effected VIN block).
Conversely, if they are just "inspecting" by doing a VIN and/or part number check first, it seems very poor customer service to not be willing to have the repair parts onhand so that the fix can accomplished in one trip.

I would be very interested in hearing from anyone that has gone through the inverter recall, particularly if just inspected but then told it appeared OK and it didnt need replacement. Any details or results of the inspection proceedure would also be good to know. I fear that it will be a struggle to get the inverter replaced and finally have some peace of mind that the HH is reliable for transporting my family.
Thanks!

 

Had mine done in early Feb. I called to schedule an appointment and the part was in stock. They check the inverter and said it needed to be replaced. The whole process to about 4 hrs.

 

Our 2006 HH died while my wife was driving down the road. Thankfully, she was able to pull over without anyone getting hurt.

We have 107k miles on it, so it is out of warranty. The local mechanic read error code POA78 "Power Inverter Failure." He found that Toyota has issued a Technical Service Bulletin 0386-08 for this problem, so this is a known defect. As this thread (and others) demonstrates, a lot of people have been bit by this. Apparently, the power inverter used in the 2006 models isn't strong enough for the vehicle.

Guess how much the repair costs? $8,500!!

I called my Toyota dealership, and they had me tow it to them. They discovered that Toyota has issued a recall for the "Intelligent Power Supply Module" on this vehicle, and that might be the problem. They performed the recall repair and, sure enough, it worked.

But now I know about the potential Power Inverter problem addressed in TSP 0386-08, and how much it costs. Shouldn't Toyota issue a recall for that, too? This isn't ordinary wear and tear, or even a random defect - this is a systemic design defect Toyota is aware of, it creates a dangerous condition, and it costs around $10k to fix!!

So what do I do? Sell the car? I bought it new with the expectation that I would save a lot of money by driving it for 10-12 years (the normal life of a car). If I sell it after just 6 years, then I've essentially just done a really pricey lease!

Extended warranty is not an option. I only found one dealer who would even sell me a warranty, and it costs $1700 for one additional year / 12k miles.

If I had known that this car has a design defect that potentially limits its life to 6 or 7 years, I never would have bought it. How can we get Toyota to make this right?

 

Mirak- Intelligent Power Supply Module is the same thing as the the inverter. The problem with the early 2006 models was due to a manufacturing defective part was addressed by a recall which is sounds like dealer did for you. The replacement part should not be subject to the same early failure as the original part. Case in point, 2007 and later years with the revised inverter module have not had any similar widespread reports of failure as the 2006 models.

 

According to the recall notice, the Intelligent Power Module (IPM) "is a part of the Hybrid System Inverter." They are not the same thing.

Technical Service Bulletin EG017-06, published March 3, 2006, pertains to a problem with the "Inverter Assembly, w/Converter" for 2006 HHs. The error code is POA7A. This TSB says nothing about the Intelligent Power Module. Thus, I am concerned that there is a problem with the inverter - not just the IPM.