Prius Brake Recall – A Little More Information

There has been an announced change in their quality policy. That was then and now it is 3 years later. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Bob Wilson

I wonder if we will be having a similar conversation 3 years from now?

You really do have a chip on your shoulder don't you? You're acting a lot like radioprius and his campaign to denounce global warming.


Doug, thank you for taking the time to post the information.

Thank you for this thread it help clear up some of my confusion over the issue. I have a question related to Q3:

I use regenerative braking a lot, it's great for fuel mileage. I wouldn't want the amount of pedal travel related to the amount of regeneration to be decreased. I like to have fairly fine control of how much regeneration I am getting. I assume from A3 above that pedal travel vs regeneration Amps will not be effected by the recall. Is this correct?

unfortunately the adjustment will make fine control much harder to do. the actual regen will not be affected at least as far as power sent recaptured.

what will see is a quicker implementation of ABS...iow, the non regen part of the stopping process. i think regen will still be possible, but we wont have the extra pedal play to work it is all

Thanks for the answer Dave, that being true I might put this recall off for a while. I did experience the braking issue three times in 14K miles, it really surprised me the first time but now that I've seen it a couple more times it's really not a big deal to me. Unless there is some imperative to have the recall done I think I might not want it. I have grown quite fond of the ECO mode and the fine control I have over regen with the braking the way it is now, they work well together.

That might not be that smart of a move. Willful refusal to have a safety recall applied to your car can put you in an adverse legal position if there is a accident in the future. Also, Toyota is generally required by law to apply safety recalls when the car is at the dealership; so, you may have no choice in the matter.

That is a great point.

Thank you that's a good thought, if so I will have it done. But I'll wait until I get an official recall notice in the mail and see what that says, since it was a voluntary recall instituted by Toyota not NHTSA it may be treated differently.

I had planned to wait until my 10K service to do the flash upgrade. That would be in about 4 to 6 weeks.

My dealer called today and requested that I bring it on in now and have the upgrade and not wait that long.

So, I will go ahead and schedule mine next week.

This is probably because (from the story I posted at http://priuschat.com/forums/other-c...st-recalls-only-75-effective.html#post1063169), a dealership group rep claims:

Or, it is a compulsory recall. And Toyota will get its hand slapped harder (as in more zeros after the one but before the decimal point on the check it writes to the U.S. Treasury) if there is less compliance.

It's not Toyota's responsibility to "make sure" people bring in their cars. It is their responsibility to get the word out to the customers.


Toyota can still recover from this:

Toyota can recover from recalls, automotive experts say | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

On Thursday, I had to do a panic stop due to avoid a hitting me and the Prius did exactly what I expected it to do :cheer2:. I have not gone to Toyota yet for the brake recall.

This is exactly how we can improve. One of many things we'll be looking at.

Yes, completely agreed. Not everyone here gets that yet, but we're working on it. Still, if anyone ever experiences a problem, it really helps us to not only consult your friends on PC, but to register the complaint formally. That helps fill in the database that we rely on to diagnose problems.

Oh, and Danny, you would be amazed at the amount of data we have from our consultants about PriusChat.

Doug Coleman
Prius Product Manager
Toyota Motor Sales, USA

I appreciate the sentiment, but I have been trying to report a problem with my cruise control not setting for months, and I have gotten no reply!

I reported to my dealer and they said they would have to see it fail!!! Since it has only happened a half a dozen times since I got the car in June, that is not likely! I asked them to report it anyway, but I don't think that they did.

I sent in two emails and only got the auto reply.

So, I get it, but I'm not getting a response, so it's hard to see that Toyota cares. I know my dealer doesn't!

Crickets. This is how people get the impression that Toyota is Safety Deaf. Actually, forget the part about Safety; just plain Deaf to their customers concerns.

do we see other brands informing there customers like this?
well i dont know but i think this is really good from toyota usa.
thx for the info.

THANK YOU!

I thought it was just me!!!
Seriously, from the time I put down my deposit so I could be "the first one on the block" to own the 2010 Prius; I have gotten the feeling I was interrupting their day every time I dealt with them.

My failing cruise control is not a safety issue, but they are blind to my emails about that.

Maybe this whole thing will change that?!?
Guilty; I'm naive optimist!

Lucky, I'm really sorry to hear that. I wish everyone had a top-quality customer service experience. I hope you'll stick with us a little longer - there will be a lot of serious self-examination going on here to figure out how to make things right for our customers.

Doug Coleman
Prius Product Manager
Toyota Motor Sales, USA