Out of warranty but brought up prior to expiration

I have no experience with this specific issue, but its mind boggling sometimes how differently different dealer's service depts handle issues. We have a recent case of a bad HV battery, one smaller dealer told the owner he'd have to pay the whole repair cost, another dealer covered it totally under CARB warranty (according to the poster).

 

I'd try opening a case with Toyota Customer Care. Just google the term for the phone number and/or I think it is in your Owners Manual Packet.
As the vehicle has a within the warranty history of having been serviced for this issue-even if it was with the previous owner-along with your history of bringing up the issue before the warranty had expired, perhaps Toyota would/could leverage on your behalf.

I'd present your case exactly as you have here, including mentioning the TSB.

You have nothing to lose here.

 

Keep in mind in wetter or humid climates the surface of the brake disks will rust. It's best to try and put it in neutral when coming to your first stop when applying your brakes to help scrap off the rust. This is a common issue with all of us in damp climates.

 

Yup. Toyota Corporate. Open a complaint with them. Explain it was never actually "fixed" per the TSB. They should act without hesitation. It was "fixed" incorrectly in the first place and the warranty was valid then, so it should still be an open issue.

 

Resurfacing the rotors at 26K probably caused more of a problem than it fixed, either that or the Prius was used by a driving instructor in LA back in its far distant past.
The station wagon is about 500# heavier than the hatch, but this is still a three year old car with 60,000 miles on the clock, and the dealer isn't going to address the problem.
They don't care. They have time and obfuscation on their side.....and more to the point....they don't WANT to fix the problem.

Brakes are pretty important, especially if you haul people you like around in the car with you.

1. Stay away from that dealer. Write some letters of send some nasty-grams topside if you're into that, but I wouldn't trust a band-aid fix from a dealer who is uninterested in helping you.
2. Look for an independent shop that swings wrenches on Priuses. This is NOT a hard fix. Hydraulic disc brakes are EASY to work on---even for Priuses.
3. If you have the means/desire, yank the tires and look at the rotors yourself and maybe post some pictures. You'll get lots of opinions on what to do. Some of these will even be insightful. Brakes are 90-percent TIMELY pad replacement and 10 percent rotor "truing" or resurfacing. Some shops get that the other way around.
It's also possible that you have a warped rotor or rotors from prior abuse (I'm sure it wasn't you!) or even from something as trivial as lug nuts that are not equally torqued (opinions vary about that.) If this is true, then you're looking at hundreds of dollars, but not thousands, and it represents what is "probably" the worst case scenario.

4. The worst case scenario: You go to the dealer with an undiagnosed brake problem, and they tell you that the fix involves replacing some mysterious $2,500 part containing the words 'regenerative' or 'controller'.
Just remember this: You drove the car INTO the dealer......you can drive it back OUT.
Get other opinions.

Brakes for Priuses usually last 150,000 miles or more unless you drive like a 16-year-old male that wishes he had a Camaro instead.

Good Luck!

 

Is it coming from front or back? Hard to tell? How are the pad thicknesses, and are they wearing evenly? In other words, outer and inner pad have roughly same amount of wear? How do the disc faces look, are the pads making full contact across face of disc? Have the caliper pins ever been relubricated? Secondary, but worthwhile: has brake fluid ever been changed?

What's the weather like, hard winters, lots of salt? Sorry, tough to see location on my phone.

 

For starters take a look at the outer face of rear disk through the wheel. Basically check for uniform appearance, from outer edge to inner hub. Also look for heavy scoring.

If you can, block front end, raise rear and see how freely rear wheels turn. There will be some drag, but not too much. Might be able to isolate the sound then too.

Next step would be to pull the wheel and open up the caliper, remove disc and inspect thoroughly. Look for uneven wear. The rear brakes are complicated by parking brake mechanism. The piston position on pads has to be right, with piston's cross pattern straddling raised pin on back of pad. The piston can be screwed in to achieve this. Misalignment can be evidenced by uneven disc wear. The caliper pins could be relubed too.