Auris Icon 1.6 Auto 2013 8500 Miles

[peter 123]

hi I have just purchased above car from Toyota main dealer and have some problems .on test drive I thought the brakes were scratchy at low speed and when parking or reversing .the salesman said it was rust on the disks and would stop within a few miles .I thought no more and went ahead with the purchase . however 500 miles later it was still there so I booked it into service department and after examining brakes they said nothing was wrong and all modern cars have harder pads without asbestos and all do it. the car is only 8 months old so I said if a brand new car did it they would not sell any and he said they do not make the scratchy noise for a few thousand miles .however he said just use it and I would probably get used to it but if not book it in again .I have since done another 1000 miles and I hate the sound even though the brakes otherwise work ok . I have also found that sometimes if the car is parked on a tiny gradient when starting the engine rattles for a second . also coming down hill with foot off the throttle the auto changes down and acts like a brake as a manual would . is this normal on cvt autos . has anyone experienced similar advice please regards peter

[alan333]

I find my brakes a bit "grindy" sounding for the first few "brakes" after it's been sitting overnight, worse if it's been raining. My cvt auto also engine brakes, but only at fairly slow speeds, like maybe 20mph.

[Berisford]

The CVT box does like to act as a brake when descending hills steep enough to significantly increase the road speed. Knocking the selector into +/- mode prevents it happening.

[TomdeGuerre]

I've got the same model car as you, Peter, bought it at less than a year old with 11,000 miles on it. I found the front brakes a bit scratchy and grabby so I burned them in a bit with my left foot during the test drive and that helped quite a bit.

I found the handbrake was a bit stiff so I took off the back wheels to check. The pads looked brand new but they weren't - they were just power washed. I stripped the brakes down and found detergent residue (from the power wash?) and grit driven into the pad contact pads with the carrier shims so gave everything a good clean up in the vice with a wire brush and now handbrake works OK.

The front brakes are still a bit grabby if I haven't used the car for a day or two so it's my intention to strip them down and fit Ferodo Premier pads, my preferred option. I find it's a lot quicker and a lot less hassle than arguing with the dealer.