New Rav4. Terrible Brakes

[DrSteve]

Hello there all. 1st post from me. Picked up a new Xt-R today.

Actually my wife picked it up and drove it home. Mentioned that the brakes were a bit odd. Thought I would have a go and see - Jesus! The brakes barely stop the vehicle. The pedal goes straight to the floor and not a lot happenes. A bit of pumping on the pedal and there's a bit more feel but it's just not safe to drive.

Anyone else had any problems of this sort? Is it normal to have this much travel on the brake pedal?

Took advantage of the free RAC cover and got someone to come out and take a look. The guy reckons the master cylinder is defective. Nice. Must have had a thorough PDI check from the dealer!! :censor:

Typical for this to happen on a Saturday when the dealership is closed half day. Guess we are stuck with this thing till Monday 9am.

Any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Steve.

[pips]

Hello there all. 1st post from me. Picked up a new Xt-R today.

Actually my wife picked it up and drove it home. Mentioned that the brakes were a bit odd. Thought I would have a go and see - Jesus! The brakes barely stop the vehicle. The pedal goes straight to the floor and not a lot happenes. A bit of pumping on the pedal and there's a bit more feel but it's just not safe to drive.

Anyone else had any problems of this sort? Is it normal to have this much travel on the brake pedal?

Took advantage of the free RAC cover and got someone to come out and take a look. The guy reckons the master cylinder is defective. Nice. Must have had a thorough PDI check from the dealer!!  :censor:

Typical for this to happen on a Saturday when the dealership is closed half day. Guess we are stuck with this thing till Monday 9am.

Any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Steve.

←

Welcome to the Forums, Steve.

Definately sounds like there is a fault - not a very good refelction on the dealer though and not a good start to your new Rav!

Am sure when they've fixed it, you'll certainly enjoy the Rav.

Phil

[Uncle Bob]

Hi Steve ,and welcome to the Rav4 section of the TOC , your brake problem does seem a bit of a "one off ", i'm sure your dealer will get it sorted out for you :) ...make a big thing out of it ,as your family could have been in great danger, get the service manager running about for you, ask how the hell that got past the pre delivery inspection....keep us updated on the outcome :) .

[Sp33dy1969]

Steve....

I also picked up a new XT-r last week.... and I can confirm that my brakes are just fine, they were a little soft at first, but i guess that was just the pads "bedding in" but now they stop her jsut fine.

hope that helps

[northwestred]

Hi Steve,

I have now owned my XTR for around 6 weeks and as such the brakes are well bedded in and stop on a sixpence (Oh dear showing my age again).

I hope this is the last bad experience you have with your Rav as these vehicles usually put a big smile on their owners faces.

[DrSteve]

Just a quick update and thanks for the replies.

Got the car back tonight. All seems well now. Apparently there was air in the system which lodged at one of the rear callipers and caused it to stick open. Also caused the rest of the system to be very soft. Lots of "we're very sorry" from the dealership, a tank of diesel and the promise of money off the 1st service. The service manager is contacting Toyota for more info and I'll be interested to hear their explanation. Will update further if there's anything worth posting.

[pips]

Just a quick update and thanks for the replies.

Got the car back tonight. All seems well now. Apparently there was air in the system which lodged at one of the rear callipers and caused it to stick open. Also caused the rest of the system to be very soft. Lots of "we're very sorry" from the dealership, a tank of diesel and the promise of money off the 1st service. The service manager is contacting Toyota for more info and I'll be interested to hear their explanation. Will update further if there's anything worth posting.

←

Glad you can now enjoy your Rav properly :)

[Uncle Bob]

Just a quick update and thanks for the replies.

Got the car back tonight. All seems well now. Apparently there was air in the system which lodged at one of the rear callipers and caused it to stick open. Also caused the rest of the system to be very soft. Lots of "we're very sorry" from the dealership, a tank of diesel and the promise of money off the 1st service. The service manager is contacting Toyota for more info and I'll be interested to hear their explanation. Will update further if there's anything worth posting.

←

Glad its all sorted out, but it still casts doubt over the quality of the pre delivery inspection, can't see the relevance of the service manager contacting Toyota HQ .

[pips]

Just a quick update and thanks for the replies.

Got the car back tonight. All seems well now. Apparently there was air in the system which lodged at one of the rear callipers and caused it to stick open. Also caused the rest of the system to be very soft. Lots of "we're very sorry" from the dealership, a tank of diesel and the promise of money off the 1st service. The service manager is contacting Toyota for more info and I'll be interested to hear their explanation. Will update further if there's anything worth posting.

←

Glad its all sorted out, but it still casts doubt over the quality of the pre delivery inspection, can't see the relevance of the service manager contacting Toyota HQ .

←

When you read articles about how MrT's dealers "mechanics" / fitters miss things, it just re-inforces my view on NOT trusting them to service the car! If it's something that I cannot do, I take mine to a local independant (who've serviced our families cars for more than 30years) - they will stamp the log book too, and it doesn't affect the warranty.

I suppose Steve's problem was inherent from the factory, maybe thats why the service manager is contacting HQ, but certainly their service dept. carrying out the PDI should have picked up on this! I bet the garage don't tell HQ that they sent a car out in this condition!!!!

[nrf]

For the record my brand new XT-R had the same problem, very spongy brakes, dealer bled system and now ok. Also had very hard ride which turned out to be tyres inflated to 38psi instead of 29psi - now much better!