2015 Clicking noise from brakes

If that happens only the first time you brake while going forward for the first time after braking while going backward, or vice versa, that's normal.

 

What's happening in those cases?

 

I have a constant click when I apply the brakes, front drivers side. 2013, 43k. I will have it checked out next oil change. I also have a slight metal grind when taking off. I can only hear it when the engine is off, radio off, no traffic, and windows open.

 

I just turned 24000 miles on my 2013 Prius III, and I have experienced identical sounds under the same conditions you described. It began at about 5000 miles. Forward movement-click. Reverse movement-click. Toyota personel told me it was the pads moving within the calipers; and that it was not a problem.

Also, the pads rattle in the calipers when I drive over small bumps at low speed. The rattle disappears when I touch the brake pedal with my foot. I have complained about the issue at every service event, but have been told that the "technicians could not reproduce the problem".

 

I've had an ongoing problem with rattles in the brake calipers as since day one (2012 Gen lll) . I've had it to two different dealers to try to address the issue with no help. Toyota has admitted that the brake calipers make this noise but pass it off as "normal". In my case, the brake pads snap, crack and pop when I hit irregularities in the road or run over Boss Dots. The noise is so loud, echoes off the buildings along the street.
I have personally taken the calipers off and lubed the slider pins to no avail. However, upon inspection I have discovered witness marks on the leading edge of the brake pad tabs leading to excessive clearances. This allows the brake pad to shift in the caliper housing causing the rattle. I suspect that due to the regenerative brake system that these components have been engineered with very loose tolerances.
As annoying as it is Toyota has told me they will not do anything to remedy this condition.

 

Pictures of the stainless "fitting kit" clips?

-Chap

 

I just had mine looked at while getting an oil change. My friend owns a transmission shop and he said that they couldn't locate the clicking sound but a scrapping sound from the rear tire. The rear rotor was warped. I thought the car uses regenerative braking instead of the brake pads.

 

Could be misaligned piston face on inner pad pin. The rear brakes incorporate a parking brake mechanism: every time you push in the parking brake, the rear caliper pistons try to rotate, but are restrained by the cross pattern on the piston face locking with the pin on back of inner pad.

If this all happens a cam mechanism will cause the pads to tightly clamp the rotor. But what can happen, is the pin doesn't lock properly in the cross pattern, instead rides up on the edge of a cross. This causes uneven pressure on the pad, uneven contact between pad and rotor, and lotsa drag.

I found it's paramount to ensure careful alignment of pin and cross pattern during assembly (by rotating the piston slightly as needed), and then being very careful to ensure the piston is solidly seated against the pad, before ever applying the parking brake.

You can check how things are now by:

1. Feel the wheels after extended drive. If the rears are hot...

2. Raise the rear end and try turning the wheels, see how the feel/sound. A very slight drag is normal, but they shouldn't be hanging up.

 

Mendel,

I will check tonight. Is this possible on a 26,000 mile car? It has 42k now but bought it at 26,000.

 

Very possible, if there's misalignment as I described. The easiest check is to just check if the back wheels feel hot, especially hotter than the fronts. On ours, after extended drive, all 4 wheels will be just slightly warm.

What I ended up doing after finding this issue on ours was to remove and steel wool the rotors, just remove the surface rust. Then reinstall with a new pad set, ensure the cross pattern on piston oriented correctly, and very carefully seat the pistons against the pads.

For the first week or two after, they sounded like crap, then gradually smoothed out. Now the discs look like new again.

 

Interesting. I heard, don't know, that you need a computer to change the brakes, true? Something along the lines of telling the calipers to move back because of the regenerative braking system.

 

No. But, you need to be cautious. If you notice when opening driver's door, that whirring sound is the brake system pressurizing. If this happens when the caliper is off the rotor, it could push the piston right out. Also, after reassembling the brakes, there may initially be extra travel in the brake pedal. If the car detects this it may generate a code.

The safest approach is to disconnect the 12 volt battery lead before starting*, and when done with the brakes, as a last step before reconnecting battery: depress the brake pedal multiple times, make sure there's no excess travel in the caliper pistons. This helps seat the pads as well, as mentioned above, so win-win.

* Be careful not to close the hatch completely with disconnected battery: the rear latch is electrical. A pair of heavy gloves is good: stuff the negative battery cable into one, and lay the other across the hatch latch receptacle.

 

This is a problem I seem to have every time the dealership touches my car. I get it back from them, and when the friction brakes engage during the last phase of deceleration, the pads clunk inside the caliper housing. I have to take it back every time and have them fix "shims" or something. Very annoying. Am I the only one?

Same issue - brakes bang at slow speeds when discs finally engage, and caliper a rattle ocer broken pavement.

This happens every time I take my car into the dealership and they inspect the brakes. I have to complain several times and finally they fix it with some kind of shim or clip, nobody is ever able to give me a technical explanation of what they did. My suspicion is that there is a spring clip that biases the pad forward against the leading edge of the caliper, and if it's installed backwards (biasing the pad backward), then when the brakes are applied, the pad is thrust forward and slams against the caliper housing.

 

My car is in the dealership (Heffner Lexus-Toyota) right now and they tried to get me to preauthorize a $86 charge to fix the click/bang (which I was thankfully able to reproduce without even leaving the service bay for the shop foreman). He tried to make it sound like it was "my fault" and sloughed off the problem and walked away leaving the service advisor to deal with me. I refused to authorize paying for anything and told them to go do what they've done every other time to fix it and quoted the TOCS numbers for all previous work relating to this.

I am so tired of "fighting" with this dealership to get them to do stuff right. More later...

 

So they disassembled the brakes, lubed the pads and put them back in and the click is gone.