Brake calipers

[chug 1]

Have had my Prius for a long time ('57 reg with 80K on the clock).  It has been a great car for me but recently the brakes have been squealing intermittently.  Took it to the dealer who say rear calipers have seized.  Remedy apparently is that it needs new calipers and discs which will cost the best part of £1,000.  Is such drastic action required or are there any other ways of dealing with this?

[fordulike]

If you are ok with a bit of DIY, you could try taking the pads out and winding the pistons all the way back in. Also give the area a good clean using some brake cleaner and lube the slider pins.Ther rear caliper pistons don't really get a good workout, so tend to stick after thousands of miles.

[drives]

Calipers need some form of maintenance yet this never appears on any service schedules so if they are not touched for this period of time they may seize. Slider pin regreasing I’ve always done on my vehicles (quite easy to diy) including the Prius and I agree is a good preventative measure. 

I’d do exactly as fordulike suggests. Problem is the dealers tend to just replace parts at great expense rather than try and repair. An independent may be worth a call in this scenario presuming you don’t do diy.

[QuantumFireball]

It's probably just the slider pins need lubricating as others have suggested. One was completely seized in mine and had to be replaced, but it's been working fine since then. Might be good to replace the boots as well. It's insane that dealers will just replace the whole calipers/discs.

[chug 1]

Thank you folks for your responses.  Our local garage, which maintained my Corolla and still do my van, said much the same thing as you are saying.  He will not work on a Prius though.  I think I should raise your points with the dealers.  

 

[drives]

That’s frustrating they refuse to work on it but not uncommon. Do you have any Toyota specialists nearby who might help? All he would have to do is disconnect the 12v and pump the brakes when done. Mr clutch refused to adjust my handbrake cable when they failed the mot on it, because they don’t do any work on hybrids. Literally two 10mm bolts that needed minor adjustment by the pedal. But no, I had to remove it, drive it home, do it myself and book it back in!

[chug 1]

Took your thoughts to the dealer and after squealing louder than the brakes, got a very big chunk off the bill.  They would not accept that these rear brakes should be regarded as a maintenance problem in their service schedule.  It certainly crossed my mind to try another Toyota specialist only to find that recently, in this area, the entire network has gone into the hands of one company.  Crazy of Toyota to let this happen because although the cars are great, we owners are a captive market.  

[QuantumFireball]

3 hours ago, chug 1 said:

Thank you folks for your responses.  Our local garage, which maintained my Corolla and still do my van, said much the same thing as you are saying.  He will not work on a Prius though.  I think I should raise your points with the dealers.  

That's unfortunate, because if he actually looked at the rear brakes he'd find they are identical to those found in a Corolla or Auris...

[chug 1]

The sequel to this story is that i picked the car up with new rear brakes but the problem returned within a few miles. The garage took the car back and stripped it down again and discovered a problem with the parking brake pads. Seems to be fine now but it is worth knowing about this because the manual tells you to take the car to the dealers if there is a loud squeal in case of further serious damage.

[YarisHybrid2016]

Is it really necessary to disconnect the 12V Battery to work on the brakes? I keep reading this, but can't understand why.

I know when you open the door the pump runs, but after that, it does nothing unless the car is ON or you press the brake pedal??

I would have taken my car today to an independent as the rear brakes aren't releasing properly, but the snow has cut off were I live! Is disconnecting the battery going to be a problem for them?

I know this is the Prius section of the forum...

[QuantumFireball]

I didn't disconnect the Battery when working on the brakes, I just did not open the driver's door until everything was back in place.

[Catlover]

Why not open the drivers door? Genuine question, I am intrigued. 

[PeteB]

If the 12V Battery is still connected, opening the driver's door causes the brake fluid pump to pressurise they braking system, not good if it's in bits!

This is why some people recommend disconnecting it while working on the brakes.

While some get away with it, others have (reportedly) found their car wonk start afterwards until a scan tool is connected to the OnBoard Diagnostics port to reset the brakes after the work is done.

[kithmo]

The other problem, besides opening the door, is that if you push back any pistons, e.g to put new pads in, then the ecu will flag up a pressure loss fault. Best bet is to disconnect the Battery, replace the pads then pump the brakes back up before reconnecting the Battery.

I have dismantled and cleaned SWMBO's Gen 2 front pads, sliders and pins without disconnecting the Battery. I replaced the old pads so didn't move the pistons and didn't open the door in the process.

[Catlover]

5 hours ago, PeteB said:

If the 12V battery is still connected, opening the driver's door causes the brake fluid pump to pressurise they braking system, not good if it's in bits!

This is why some people recommend disconnecting it while working on the brakes.

While some get away with it, others have (reportedly) found their car wonk start afterwards until a scan tool is connected to the OnBoard Diagnostics port to reset the brakes after the work is done.

That explains the noise I hear when I open the drivers door - sounded to me like a fan, but it’s a pump.