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Hybrid Vehicles Toyota Prius Toyota Prius Maintenance & Repair Toyota Prius Brake Problems
77 messages, Last post on Oct 04, 2009 at 8:38 AM
You are in the Toyota Prius Maintenance & Repair Forum. Your Host is pf_flyer
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Replying to: scaredtodrive (Feb 22, 2009 11:17 am) I called a lawyer to see if I had a case, and was told no. I am still researching the issue becuase someone should be held accountable and future tragedies should be avoided. If anyone has started a class action suit, please do let me know as I would like to join you. Minerva
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I read that they redesigned the braking systems for the 2010 Prius. That appears to be Toyota's response to the fact that the U.S. Generation 2 Prius (2004-2009) has had low-speed brake failures reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) at 31 times the rate of such failures reported for the 2004-2009 Corolla, which of course has traditional brakes. Many of the Prius low speed brake failures were in low-speed city traffic, resulting in rear-end collisions without injury. It appears that the several computers that control the complex braking systems were too busy calculating the most efficient way to apply the brakes, and did not get around to actually applying them, until it was too late. Toyota never took responsibility for the problem, but the 2010 redesign indicates they were aware of it. Unfortunately, the NHTSA never initiated an investigation despite the extremely high rate of failures. The detailed failure reports ("complaints") are available to the public on the NHTSA website. The details are these: Through March 2009, 2004-2009 Prius has received 44 complaints of low speed brake failure. 2004-2009 Corolla has received 7 complaints of such failures. Given that about five times more Corollas than Prius were sold during 2004-2009, 44/(7/5) = 31 times the rate of brake failure for the Generation 2 Prius. Let's hope the 2010's brakes work!
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Replying to: brendabei (May 17, 2008 11:56 am)
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Replying to: whitey9 (Apr 10, 2009 9:52 am) |
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I have had 3 accidents or near accidents with my new 2009 Toyota Prius due to a combination of mysterious acceleration and loss of brakes. The first incident (a near accident) occurred when the car in front of me stopped. I was driving slowly but my car suddenly seemed to accelerate on its own and my brakes failed. How I stopped my car I will never know. The second incident was when I was driving into my garage. Again the car seemed to accelerate and the brakes did not work. The garage wall was damaged on both sides. After this I took the car into the Toyota dealer. They examined it and said if I had more trouble, bring it in again. The third incident occurred in a parking lot. The self-accelerating seemed to have been fixed, but while driving slow and looking for a place to park, the brakes did not hold and the result was the car hit a parked car. There was over $6000 damage to the Prius and some damage to the parked car. What is really scary is that by the next parked car (only a foot or so away) were a man and 2 children. If my car had hit that car there could have been some deaths - certainly serious injuries. |
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Replying to: brendabei (Apr 10, 2009 9:58 am) They don't know they are not stopping because of their "sliding". The VSSs ( Vehicle Speed Sensors ) don't send a "wheel locked-up" signal because of the sliding of the wheels on the wet metal track. As someone else has already stated, the ABS can be fooled by loose sand/gravel, as well as snow/ice. They do, however, work well on wet or dry PAVEMENT. It should be noted that the purpose of ABS is NOT to stop the car sooner/shorter distance/quicker, but to give the driver the ability to steer the car and avoid an accident while maintaining control of his vehicle. The offshoot of stopping a car w/o the wheels locking up while braking is to give a better stop. One that is a controlled stop. Without the skidding. Many times drivers think they are depressing the brake pedal, but are actually pressing the accelerator in a panic, or by accident. The Audi history has proven that. People sometimes just push on the wrong pedal.
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Replying to: whitey9 (Apr 16, 2009 7:46 pm)
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Replying to: brendabei (Apr 17, 2009 5:58 am) As I said earlier, the proof of that lies in the Audi history with people SWEARING the car "accelled" by itself. But actually not. That is why we now have "shift locks" on all our cars. We must now press the brake to shift out of Park. I will check the NHTSA website to see about any reports of this malfunction. |
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Replying to: smt1 (May 11, 2006 2:05 am) I am seeing the exact same brake noise while coming to a stop: noise like metal parts are rubbing against each other. I can even feel a little bit of feedback on my foot while this happens. I realized that this doesn't happen under wet conditions (if there had been snow/ rain) or after the car has been driven for a while. That was probably why it never happened whenever I took it to the dealer to get it checked. If anyone did get it resolved by yourself/ outside mechanic/ a dealer, can you please reply? Also, I have the some other issues as well: 1) sometimes the car speeding up when the brake is being applied. 2) a whistling noise inside the car when driving above 35mph (like there is a hole somewhere thro which air is leaking in) 3) the handrests and some other interior plastic is loose resulting in rattling sound when driving over rough roads/ playing bass-y music. I am going to take the car to the dealer soon but if anyone has seen similar issues and have resolved it or know how to fix them, please reply.. Thanks in advance |
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I have a 2008 prius with 20K miles. Just drove from Sacramento to Tahoe and heard a funny noise on right side rear of car. Thought it sounded like an aerosol can releasing in my suitcase in the back of car, but maybe not, because we parked the car for one day, then drove it around town for one day (but there was a funny smell in the car when we got in) but had no problems, then today every time we press the brake pedal there is a funny noise. I'm concerned about driving the car home to Sac now after reading about other posts about brake problems. Anybody know what's going on?
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