Loud metallic slapping sound when driving over lane reflectors - AUDIO RECORDING NOW INCLUDED

You misread something. The sound is so loud, it can be heard a block away. You don't have to be a block away to hear it. Not sure what Ryan Lochte has to do with the Toyota Prius.

The recording was made from inside the vehicle. The head Toyota technician heard it during a test drive (you would have to be deaf not to hear it). The head Toyota technician said it was an issue and that it required a brake inspection. Upon returning to the service department and learning that his staff had already performed a brake inspection (and found nothing wrong), he said "then there must not be anything wrong". His staff performing a shoddy inspection was not an option in his mind or in the mind of Toyota's service advisor.

Great questions Jimi.

We have not called Toyota of America. Who would we call there? Do they have a department for this sort of thing?

We did take the Prius to a highly regarded independent shop. They took the Prius for a test drive and thought it was a hub cap spring, but removing the hubcaps did not help. They then performed a cursory inspection (just a quick look without taking anything apart) and immediately found a torn boot. Both Toyota dealerships claim there is no torn boot.

 

We had a Toyota dealership provide the service described in T-SB-0136-11.

It was rather confusing because the TSB calls for replacing the pin bushings, but the shop foreman said they didn't do that. But their parts invoice shows the bushings, so we are hoping he is mistaken.

He said they added a thick lubricating grease to some components within the brakes in order to help muffle the sounds.

But, even after having the work done, our Prius still makes loud noises whenever we drive over Botts' dots (aka lane reflectors or "road turtles"), which happens whenever you change lanes.

After the repairs were completed, we took the shop foreman for a test drive, and he heard the loud noises the Prius is still making. He said it is the brake pads moving up and down and the plate on which they are mounted hits another piece of metal whenever the Prius goes over a bump. He said that nothing can be done about those plates except adding thick grease to the top of them, which he said they already did.

He said that there is nothing that can be done to prevent the Prius from making these loud sounds. We have no idea if he is correct. The shop foreman at the other dealership claimed the Prius should not make these sounds ("that's not normal" was his exact words), but when he later learned that his team had already finished their brake inspection he said there must not be anything wrong.

We test drove two other models of vehicles made by Toyota, and neither made any unusual sounds. So we aren't sure if this is an issue with the design of the Prius, or we have a problem that still isn't being properly diagnosed by Toyota dealerships.

The Toyota shop foreman's advice is to not drive over lane reflectors, which obviously isn't practical.

 

Thanks for the contact information. We called Toyota. They said that Toyota completely relies on their Toyota dealerships to diagnose issues and that no one at the official Toyota corporate service line has extensive technical training or any certification. They also said that the Toyota corporate customer service team has no power to escalate anything to a Toyota field technician.

The nice gentleman we spoke with did say he was willing to try to reach out to a resource and get back to us. He only works part time, so it will take 3-4 days. He also created a case with Toyota for documentation purposes. He recommended we contact Toyota ExtraCare and let them know what is happening to create additional documentation.

He recommended we bring the Prius to yet another Toyota dealership. We told him we have already gone to the nearby dealerships and that our extended warranty is about to expire by mileage (and date) so it's not practical to drive it to a distant dealership. He then advised calling different dealerships across the country and asking to speak with the service managers in order to find out if other dealerships have found a way to properly diagnose and fix this issue.

We explained that we don't know whether or not the local dealership's shop foreman is correct with his diagnosis that it's caused by two pieces of metal hitting each other and his claim that the problem can't be fixed. If it's a non-issue, we don't want to spend time and energy on it. But it seems quite odd that the vehicle did not previously have this issue and that Toyota would release a vehicle into production that, by design, has metal parts banging into each other every time you drive over a lane reflector.

 

It should. The number of miles or owners should not make a difference.

If you get it done, let us all know if it resolves it.