Auris 2012 Hybrid Discs

[bursco]

Hi all.

Here is a copy of e-mail sent to Toyota after my last service this month:

Auris hybrid 17500mls service today and informed that my discs needed cleaning of rust.This was suggested because of the hybrid retardation when braking and low mileage that it would be advisable to brake harder than what I do. Now this to me means I have to come up to cars,traffic lights,junctions and brake hard to stop this rust happening. Why am I wasting my fuel my  tyres and my nerves to do this. I am now being informed that next year I will need discs and pads at around 500 pounds. So any money I have saved over the years buying hybrid I now lose in some stupid engineering fault by Toyota. Also they wanted me to pay 80 to 90 pounds to reskim the discs - who designed this car for this to happen. I am 77 years old and had various cars and some have done good mileage and never bought discs in my life. If I manage to live longer and require another car it will not be a Toyota hybrid - I might as well have bought a normal petrol and Toyota should get their act together - very disgusted with a company of your size. I am not saving anything if this is happening every few years because I don't brake hard enough. 
Denis B

This is reply:

Dear Sir

 

Thank you for your recent email regarding your Toyota Auris Hybrid.

I am sorry to hear that you are disappointed with the feedback as provided by Vantage Toyota Preston at your last service and I apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Having liaised with our Technical Department, I can advise that we cannot provide any life span for a working part of the vehicle, such as the brake discs. I can confirm that the discs are open to the elements and as such rust can occur and this can be exacerbated with vehicles of low mileage. The advice you have been given has been suggested to increase the life span of this working part.

Please do naturally liaise further with your Toyota Centre should you need any further assistance. In the meantime, thank you again for raising this matter with us.

I bought this car for emmision and petrol saving with 8500 on the clock and have now done myself around 9000 over 3 years and with this disc problem at £90 or £500 not saving a lot - not reset the computer since I bought it and cannot get above 56 mpg.

There are hundreds on the net with this stupid disc problem.

All the best

Denis B

 

 

[Heidfirst]

tbh whilst a hybrid may exacerbate this slightly I suspect that given your very low mileage & north-westerly position that it is a problem that you will have on any modern car. Even moreso if you garage the car, putting it away wet. I am sure that if you Google you will find people complaining about surface rust on disk brakes for every brand.

No, you don't have to come up behind people & slam on the brakes - you could brake to clean the disks away from other road users.

Again, considering your low usage (short trips, mostly from cold?) 56mpg may actually be a very good figure (it's pretty much bang on the HJ RealMPG figure, as opposed to the official Euro figures which nobody should expect to achieve in normal use) & you would get noticeably lower in an equivalent non-hybrid petrol (e.g. the same generation 1.6 Auris RealMPG is ~40).

It could be worse - you might have bought a diesel. You can pretty much guarantee given your level of use that you would have run into DPF problems & you would probably have been paying  a lot more to keep fixing those.

[bursco]

What you say Heidfirst maybe true about where I live etc but I have lived here for 52 years and endless MOT's and not once has the disc rust cropped up or had to buy discs - have replaced pads but that's normal and not after 4 years and 20000 mlls(next year)

A company of Toyota's hybrid experience and all the complaints must be able to fix this "fault" 

Denis B

[FROSTYBALLS]

Unfortunately brake discs have been considered a wear and tear item for a number of years across most manufacturers - certainly since the cessation of using asbestos in brake pads - and as a result are only covered for a limited time under the new car warranty. This applies to the majority of manufacturers. Volkswagen, for example, only provide six months cover within the new car warranty for brake discs.

[Heidfirst]

My cars (Fords, Vauxhalls & Toyotas) have lived in the street  for the last 30+ years & for the last 10 years or so have often sat idle for 4 or 5 days a week. Surface rust on brake discs is a given for much of the year. I once had a Vauxhall Carlton that needed new front discs every 20,000 miles (under a year of my typical usage at that time).

When asbestos in brake pads was banned brake disc materials also changed to suit the new pad materials - this means that "modern" discs also don't last as long as they once did.

It's not a fault as such. 

[nielshm]

Toyota discs seem to wear pretty quick. My wifes old Corolla with 15.000 miles a year, could wear out brake discs every 40.000 miles. 

My old Skoda Octavia was extremly durable, and brake discs and pads would last 80.000 miles minimum. 

[unclepoo]

The brakes on hybrids get very little use compared to normal cars, as most of the retardation energy goes into charging the traction Battery.

You can brake without harvesting electrical energy, and only using the disc brakes.....travel at approx 30mph or less on a quiet road, no other cars around you etc, put the car into neutral (push the gear lever over to the left and hold it there for a couple of seconds until N shows on the display) you are now coasting, like dipping the clutch in a normal car. while still in neutral brake and come to a stop at the side of the road as normal. Put the car back into drive and away you go. If there is any brake noise from the corrosion you might need to repeat this a couple of times.

Do this once a week and the discs will clean up nicely.

You will notice when braking like this, that you will need to use more pedal pressure to slow the car, as there`s no electric regeneration braking, so don`t be shy with the brake pedal.

Remember .....Safety first too.

[bursco]

Thanks nielshm - agree with the skoda discs.

Thanks unclepoo will try your braking method and see what happens.

Still mystified that Toyota could not sort this out - even though materials may have changed over the years.

All the best

Denis B