What's up with my brakes??

[Drpepper99uk]

Hi,

I've got a 2010 Prius and it's making an annoying noise which I don't know if this is normal, and would otherwise be disguised by the engine noise if running, or if it's something more serious going on. 

It seems to always happen when slowing to a stop in stop start traffic and the video link shows the exact noise I hear right in the beginning of the video.

Any ideas?

I had only had the brakes changed last year all round and this noise seems to have gotten worse. I had a rear caliper replaced as it was sticking at times when the car was parked up overnight. 

https://youtu.be/bPrkY46WAcI

[Catlover]

In the video, is that situ that the car has been parked up overnight and you just come to it for the first time that day?   or is the noise there throughout the day? Is it only when you apply brakes whilst going slow (like in the video)? 

[altocumulus]

Have you had a check to see if there's a build up of dust. There's a known issue with the Prius, and Toyota Hybrids, in that its regenerative braking system doesn't seem to clear dust that is generated. The advice I was once given was to do emergency tops every so often, otherwise it's a £100 cleaning job at the garage!

 

(But I can't hear what the sound is, sorry, so I may be up the wrong tree with the wrong paddle! :D)

[Drpepper99uk]

Hi again,

The video was shot after doing the school run which involved a drive of around 6 miles in stop start traffic. It can be heard inside the car quite clearly and upon applying the brakes gently nothing is heard until you come to a complete stop. The discs appear to be clean and not covered in rust spots(something which plagued my last set I had) which might of explained the sticking caliper issue as well when it was parked up and cold and wet.

 

I find the brakes can be grabby, I have read this before on the net from owners. I don't know whether I should just leave it and see how things go, I take it to my local garage and get them to look at it. The car seems to brake fine and true, no issues there apart from this irritating noise!

[Catlover]

Altocumulus mentioned doing emergency stops. Obviously this has to be done safely, but it can keep the brake problem you had before (seized caliper) from occurring. Why not try this, going forward and going backward too.    The thing is with the hybrids is that, as I understand, when you apply the footbrake for normal braking the motors do the braking, its not till you press heavy on the brake pedal do the actual brakes start to work - that's why you had a seizure.  Its worth a go at emergency braking, but do it safely.

Might be worth going across to the Auris par of this forum. Whilst all Prius are hybrids, the Auris can be petrol, diesel, and hybrid, and the hybrid engineering is the same as the Prius. That means Auris hybrid owners may have had a similar problem, but you wont read of that on the Prius forum.

[altocumulus]

If you've taken it to a garage, Toyota one?, they should be aware and should be able to say whether that's the issue, and not something else?

[kithmo]

I seem to remember there was a problem with the early Gen 3s where the brake pads would slightly move due to the shims being incorrectly fitted, IIRC there was a fix. 

[Catlover]

What Keith says may tie in with the fct you had all brakes changed last year, at a non-Toyota dealer, and they may have fitted parts in correctly.

[Ten Ninety]

On 10/12/2018 at 8:35 AM, Drpepper99uk said:

Hi,

I've got a 2010 Prius and it's making an annoying noise which I don't know if this is normal, and would otherwise be disguised by the engine noise if running, or if it's something more serious going on. 

It seems to always happen when slowing to a stop in stop start traffic and the video link shows the exact noise I hear right in the beginning of the video.

Any ideas?

I had only had the brakes changed last year all round and this noise seems to have gotten worse. I had a rear caliper replaced as it was sticking at times when the car was parked up overnight. 

https://youtu.be/bPrkY46WAcI

I don't think this is anything to worry about at all, nor is it something you should pay money to investigate. Every hybrid I've owned has had this 'issue', to varying degrees. My Gen 3 did it all the time. My Lexus GS300h does it all the time. My old Auris HSD only did it occasionally, but when it did it was exactly the same kind of creaking noise. My Gen 4 PHV is the loudest of them all, and does it all the time. On the basis that these cars have clocked up well over 100k miles between them and passed several MOTs, I'm pretty confident it's not indicative of a fault.

I suspect the advice above about doing a few hard stops is good advice and may well solve the problem. I am a very light braker, which probably explains why my cars have been afflicted by it fairly consistently as the disc surface doesn't get cleaned. The Auris was driven mostly by my wife, who is not a light braker, which may explain why it didn't do it so much.

If the hard stops don't cure it, you might just want to learn to love it. My PHV is hilarious reversing into my very tight space in the garage. I can make it honk like a goose! 

[Catlover]

1 hour ago, Ten Ninety said:

I don't think this is anything to worry about at all, nor is it something you should pay money to investigate. Every hybrid I've owned has had this 'issue', to varying degrees. My Gen 3 did it all the time. My Lexus GS300h does it all the time. My old Auris HSD only did it occasionally, but when it did it was exactly the same kind of creaking noise. My Gen 4 PHV is the loudest of them all, and does it all the time. On the basis that these cars have clocked up well over 100k miles between them and passed several MOTs, I'm pretty confident it's not indicative of a fault.

I suspect the advice above about doing a few hard stops is good advice and may well solve the problem. I am a very light braker, which probably explains why my cars have been afflicted by it fairly consistently as the disc surface doesn't get cleaned. The Auris was driven mostly by my wife, who is not a light braker, which may explain why it didn't do it so much.

If the hard stops don't cure it, you might just want to learn to love it. My PHV is hilarious reversing into my very tight space in the garage. I can make it honk like a goose! 

Yikes!  To me that sounds excessive.   Sure the 3 hybrids I driven (Auris, Gen3, current Gen4) creak and groan when I been stationary overnight, especially if its been raining or very damp, but sure couldn't put up with it to an excess. But if its not an excess to you, Jay, that's fine.

[Ten Ninety]

15 minutes ago, Catlover said:

Yikes!  To me that sounds excessive.   Sure the 3 hybrids I driven (Auris, Gen3, current Gen4) creak and groan when I been stationary overnight, especially if its been raining or very damp, but sure couldn't put up with it to an excess. But if its not an excess to you, Jay, that's fine.

The noise only occurs when coming to a dead stop. Generally speaking, I try to avoid doing that anyway so it's not a big issue. 

I'm pretty sure it's all to do with my driving style, which involves only ever using regen force to slow down unless something unexpected occurs in front of me. The PHV seems to have slightly more aggressive regen (possibly all Gen4s do) compared to my other hybrids, which might explain why the noise in that is more pronounced - the pads almost never touch the discs.

I'll take the GS out tomorrow and see if that's still doing it. My wife's been running it for a while - given her predilection for late braking, I suspect she may have cured it...

[Ten Ninety]

Also, it's probably worth noting that the previous owner of my PHV was bothered by the noise enough to take it back to Toyota, who duly fitted new discs and pads. Clearly, that didn't resolve the issue, which might be worth knowing before anyone spends money on trying it as a solution.

[altocumulus]

5 minutes ago, Ten Ninety said:

The noise only occurs when coming to a dead stop. Generally speaking, I try to avoid doing that anyway so it's not a big issue. 

I'm pretty sure it's all to do with my driving style, which involves only ever using regen force to slow down unless something unexpected occurs in front of me. The PHV seems to have slightly more aggressive regen (possibly all Gen4s do) compared to my other hybrids, which might explain why the noise in that is more pronounced - the pads almost never touch the discs.

I'll take the GS out tomorrow and see if that's still doing it. My wife's been running it for a while - given her predilection for late braking, I suspect she may have cured it...

I'm like you, in that I tend to be as gentle on the braking as I can - though idiots can upset that methodology - and may explain why my hybrids have suffered similarly. Luckily (sadly) I don't hear anything anyway; just the passengers! Our PHV might still be too young to have started singing to us.

[Ten Ninety]

Which reminded me that I read a thread on this a while back. I'm pretty sure that I now own this car!

 

[Ten Ninety]

On 10/13/2018 at 4:27 PM, Ten Ninety said:

I'll take the GS out tomorrow and see if that's still doing it. My wife's been running it for a while - given her predilection for late braking, I suspect she may have cured it...

And, indeed, it would appear that she has. The GS now stops without any sign of the creaking graunch it used to make when I was driving it every day.

That definitely seems to suggest that using the brakes more harshly for a while might be a cure for this particular issue. 

[altocumulus]