Prius trouble

Hi Cjeigh,

Yeah, I know the feeling, hopefully, it will evaporate soon.

I doubt you were had, but the jury is still out. If the mileage is genuine, it's pretty unlikely that you need any of the alleged parts. You can check a lot of it yourself.

If you look over the car closely, does it look as if it's done a lot more than 42,000mi? Look at the wear of all the carpets; the foot pedals (brake pedal especially, for wear to the rubber cover pad); the door sills for lots of scuff marks from people getting in and out; the boot (trunk, cargo bay) carpet for dirt, wear, etc; the plastic covers around the footwells (for scuff marks etc). Look at the areas by the door hinges on all doors, for dirt and dust. At 37,000mi, I wouldn't expect to see a lot of wear and tear or dirt/dust etc in any of these areas. My car has done 85,000km (53,000mi) and only has obvious wear around one door where some furniture or something scraped it, and the driver's side floor mat is starting to look worn.

You can also look at the brake pads and discs (rotors) yourself, if you are willing to get down on your knees. The discs are easy to see through the spokes on the front wheels. They should be relatively smooth all the way across, without any visible grooves or gouges running around the circle.

If your pads have completely worn out (extremely unlikely at 42,000mi, IMHO), they will be down to the steel backing plate. Usually, you'll hear a squealing sound - like a high-pitched eeeeeeee sound from the wear limit tell-tales when rolling with the windows down (I have no reason to believe Prius' don't have these, most cars do these days), long before your pads are worn out. And, usually, before they wear out completely, you'll start to hear a rough grating, grinding sound when you brake hard. This will get progressively worse, and once that starts to happen, damage to your rotors will happen very quickly. If that has happened, you will probably need new rotors, but your disks will also have obvious grooves and gouges. It's pretty unlikely that you wouldn't have noticed this noise when braking. Being a Prius, I really doubt the brakes have got to this point already.

For some reason, I can no longer post photos or I'd show you what to look for to assess brake pad wear, but if you are happy to take one of the front wheels off, it's much easier to see. The front brake pads live inside the brake caliper. (Note, there are brake pads on both sides of the rotor, so check pads and rotors on both sides.) They have steel backing plates that the friction pads are bonded to. The friction pads contact the face of the disc (rotor) inside the caliper. The friction area is less than the area of the backing plate, and the backing plates overhangs the pads at each end. The clearance between the face of the rotor and the face of the steel backing plate reveals how much pad you have left. Expect at least 1/8 inch of clearance as a minimum (time to replace the pads), but usually more than 1/4 inch of clearance. If there is no clearance at any point, your pads are worn out, and your rotors probably ruined.

If that is the case, the dealer has probably cheated you. I don't know what rules govern car dealers in the US, but find that out before you go back.

Does this help?

 

Go get em tiger! Sounds like a lot of BS to me. Think you are doing the right approach at this point though. Keep it up.

 

what is an IM? was that covered under the certified warranty? it's pretty difficult to sell a car with forged mileage these days, especially for a dealer. i'm sure the brakes are fine, although, there have been reports of early failure due to road salt. but that should be covered as well. as far as an alignment goes, how do the tyres look? how does the car track on the highway? how many miles on the rubber? all the best!

 

Plenty of good advice from the man down under!

Keep us posted of any developments

 

Get a second opinion , ask who original owner was , check to see what milage they had
A large Cadillac dealer in west Michigan, got busted some years ago turning back
Odometers .... Good luck

 

intake manifold?

 

Yup!

There's a Glossary here but it's missing a few terms, (like UOA, which I believe is Used Oil Analysis) and is wrong on a couple. There might be another one somewhere else here.

 

That's why people here call them "STEALERSHIPS"

 

In reality- "Toyota Certified" seems to mean it was purchased from a Toyota dealer and you do get some sort of warranty if you have a major problem. From what we've seen on PC slip by the "certification" inspection- it seems that some dealers apparently do the inspections from inside the sales managers office.

 

DANG!!! I bet.

Weird that there was no noise at all. They must have completely rusted / seized up... Not even any braking action at all.

Extremely Dangerous, actually. This may be a point you ought to focus much more on. Not only a shoddy, sub-standard "Toyota Certified" vehicle, but a highly unroadworthy and downright dangerous one at that.

In a severe Emergency Stop, you would almost certainly have spun completely out of control, when the back of the car tried to overtake the front because there was nothing slowing it down, and no way that the VSC system could have done a blind thing. I'm sure others here would confirm this probability. Who knows what death and mayhem that might have caused? Imagine spinning out of control and wiping out a couple of young kids on the sidewalk!

Toyota Japan needs to hear about this, if you ask me. They certainly don't want their name further sullied by shonky American Toyota "Stealerships".

In my country, your car would fail its 6- or 12-monthly vehicle safety test and be legally Off the Road until it was fixed and retested. Everyone here complains, but we should be grateful for the compulsory safety checks. You don't have those in the US?

They fit rear brakes, and go to a lot of trouble to make sure the wheels don't lock up under braking, for a very good reason. And here, we/they insist that they work. Every car (that goes to a proper testing station) goes through a full rolling brake test, both front, both back, and parking brakes. Braking Force readout and %age efficiency recorded.

Why don't you name some names in this thread? Which Dealership sold you the car? Are you saying Toyota Motor Sales in Torrence, CA sold it to you? What is their physical address?

What is the name of the Sales Manager, and the Salesman who sold you this mobile safety hazard? Have they responded to your letter?

Do you have the old parts? How about a Mechanic's Report on the state of the brakes and the repairs required? They might be able to hide your letter, but they won't like all the sordid details posted here, I'm "fairly sure"!

Keep us posted!

P.S. Others here report similar rear brake issues on the Gen 3... I'm starting to quite like my G2 with its old school, rear drum brakes...

Google prius gen 3 rear brakes

 

To address just the smallest part of your big post, safety inspections along with titling and registration are done at the state level and thus are totally inconsistent.

When I was growing up in Massachusetts (in the 60's) there were safety inspections required every 6 months (spring and fall). Where I live now there are no safety inspections and no emissions tests.

 

did you get a written warranty with the purchase?

 

I didn't read all the posts on this , but what in writing makes purchasing a TOYOTA CERTIFIED
TOYOTA a big selling point ?? Must be something in writing that might look like what's covered
How long , hand shakes and free coffee don't do it ,,,,

 

I feel sorry for you. And it's just another story that makes me doubt even more the fabled Toyota Customer Service and Support that use to exist.

Sure those are all wear and tear items..BUT you've only put 5000 miles on the vehicle since you purchased it.

And if you go to Toyota's own "Certified" program webpage, Toyota proudly proclaims how every certified vehicle comes with a 160 pt inspection...a 174 point inspection for Hybrids. They actually word it as a reconditioning and inspection...

So if I was writing a letter, or launching an argument my question would be, how does a vehicle that supposedly underwent a "reconditioning" and 174 pt inspection end up with all the problems yours already has?

So Toyota's certification program Okays vehicles as passed and "reconditioned" that are less than 5000 miles from having no brake pads? And that need new rotors?

Shouldn't those of easily been part of the inspection...and if that close to needing replacement, been replaced?

I think so...and it's too bad Toyota isn't backing you on this.