Rear Brake Springs

[bwilcoxson]

I'm new here; may I pose a problem I've had with my Yaris which I otherwise really like? Since late summer of 2007, my rear brakes have been screaming any time I used them, from slowing the car to stopping it. Not just squealing but screaming. I would ask about it each time I took the car in for scheduled maintenance and was told each time the brakes had been inspected, they were a little dirty, they were cleaned off, they should be fine. I'd no sooner get to the first stop light outside the dealership than they'd start sporadically squealing again. By the time I'd get home, an hour and a half away, they'd be in full scream mode and would get worse till the next maintenance at which time we'd go through the script again.

When I took the car in on Saturday, September 27 of this year, I again complained of the extremely loud brakes in the rear. This time they said they found a rear spring loose on the driver rear brake which they replaced. The following Monday my brakes felt mushy and not quite as responsive when I used the brake pedal. That afternoon the brakes were mushy at the first stop. The second stop was on a state highway and when I tried to brake for a slow vehicle ahead there were NO brakes and I had to veer off onto the shoulder to avoid a collision.

The dealership discovered that the passenger rear spring on the brake shoes had broken, poked a hole in the wheel cylinder and bent the backing plate. I had no brake fluid by the time I got to the dealership. Two rear brake springs in a three day period? Is it just me or is something wrong with this picture? This car rarely sees the stop and go driving of a town or city; I drive it to school and home twice a day for a total of 96 miles, five days a week and it sits in the driveway all weekend except for the ten mile round trip to church Sunday mornings.

Has anyone else had rear brake problems on their Yaris and, if so, how were they resolved? Or were they?