Shifting sand noise when turning

BBs? Now THAT's funny right there. Glad you finally chased it down.

Brakes are diy with a couple caveats. It's a good idea to disconnect the 12V battery before you remove the calipers because, under certain circumstances, they can activate the piston. If you're going to replace the fluid, you'll need Toyota's techstream software to bleed them. Although I seem to recall a work around for that. Just for cleaning, though, it's pretty simple. I just cleaned & lubed my caliper slide pins a couple weeks ago.

Perhaps @Mendel Leisk can chime in. He's done his brakes several times.

 

Glad it wasn't damage or wear!

 

That is pretty funny.

I'm disappointed it didn't turn out to be sheep seeds though.

-Chap

 

Rear brakes can be DIY maintained, with a little caution:

For safety, to ensure the system doesn't attempt to pressurize while the caliper's off the rotor (which very likely would happen if you for example open driver's door): disconnect the 12 volt negative lead at the outset, and only reconnect when everything is done.

To avoid problems, after disconnecting the 12 volt, lay something like a heavy glove over the hatch threshold latch mechanism, to avoid the hatch locking, necessitating a crawl through the car adventure, to reconnect 12 volt.

The rear (disc) brakes have integrated parking brake mechanism, which means the caliper piston is retracted/adjusted by screwing it in. One of those little brake tool cubes for attachment to ratchet wrench makes this a lot easier:



Still with this piston, when reassembling, it is imperative to orient the piston in an X-pattern, like this:



This will locate the stubby pin on back of inner brake pad in the hollow between the raised piston spokes. This is imperative, to ensure proper brake function, avoid uneven application, lots of drag.

Other than that, it's a typical "brake job". I'd recommend Permatex Anti-Seize Compound (silvery paste) for faying surfaces between pads, shims and caliper, applied sparingly. And for the caliper pins and boots. Sil-Glyde Brake Lubricant works well (translucent gel in appearance)

 

Isn’t this whole conversation in gen 2 board? Why did you post gen 3 instructions?

Thew1040 who asked the question has 2008 Prius which is gen 2. North American gen 2 has rear drum brakes. And European gen 2 that does have rear disc brakes does have “drum in hat” parking brake design.

 

Oh eff...