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Changing my front brakes and rotors is a great idea...not

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Wrecit, Apr 25, 2021.

  1. Wrecit

    Wrecit Active Member

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    Reading about issues after the fact is making me cry but posts i have found are over a decade old so maye there is hope.

    Bought a 2006 and the front end looks like it has not been taken care of in over a decade to include rotors that are flaking rust on the edges. Brake and rotor change is one of my easy got to weekend fixes so ordered slotted rotors and ceramic pads. Driver side went back together with no issues in 45 minutes. (Took time to take caliper cradle off white brushed and heat painted it to look pretty)

    Took passenger side off and found prior owner completely rounded off one of the cradle bolts so I spent 3 hours running around town to track down a new bolt. When I got home the caliper piston was completely out of the caliper. Thought maybe one of the kids "went for a drive" while I was gone but after reading maybe the car pushed it out on its own since I left the key fob in the car while I was gone.

    I cleaned up the mess and "rebuilt" the caliper just like I have always done with cars in the past. Primed the caliper put everything back together and did the old fashioned brake bleed procedure on passenger side.

    The fluid reservoir never went below 3/4 full so I thought I would be fine but brake light is on now and brakes are spongy as hell.

    Prius gods please tell me there is a fix other that towing it to the stealership.

    I promise I will read every article here before I touch anything else on my 2006 lol
     
  2. Wrecit

    Wrecit Active Member

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  3. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    Very sorry to hear this happened. This is exactly why I zero the accumulator and pull the motor relays prior to working on the brakes, regardless of the posts that state you don't have to. Because, well, sh*t happens........

    Do you have techstream? Only option may be to perform a full bleed procedure like what is used for brake actuator or master cylinder replacement.
     
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  4. Wrecit

    Wrecit Active Member

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    Do not have techstream but if it will save a $300 dealership bill I will do it

    Will search info on it now
     
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    WIthout Techstream, you can still retrieve trouble codes for the brakes by using a short jumper wire and counting light blinks on the dash. The blink codes are not as detailed as what Techstream would show you but you can have them right away, and then we'll have some idea what happened.

    A lot of threads on here cover retrieving the blink codes.
     
  6. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    On a 3rd gen, but similarly, this is what I’ve done, and no surprises:

    1. First, before any caliper removal, disconnect and isolate 12 volt battery neg cable.

    2. When brakes are completely reassembled, pump brake pedal multiple times, seats the pads and eliminates any excess pedal travel. Leave parking brake off.

    3. Reconnect 12 volt battery neg cable. (There will be some lost presets, but easy to deal with.)

    4. Take a short test drive, going easy on the brakes, check for normal feel and no unusual noises.

    5. Back home: apply/release parking brake, raise rear of car, verify both wheels spin semi-freely with park brake off, and lock when it’s on.
     
    #6 Mendel Leisk, Apr 26, 2021
    Last edited: Apr 26, 2021
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  7. oldtechaa

    oldtechaa Active Member

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    Also, I doubt it's $300 for a brake bleed, since most people say a reasonable dealer will charge $100 for a fluid change, so it shouldn't be more than that for a bleed.
     
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  8. Moses Bruh

    Moses Bruh Member

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    your case sounds like the one some guy posted on youtube that warned about this problem with the brake accuator going off during a brake job, I forgot what the guy ended up having to do but you might be able to find the video. The gen 2 prius also has a bit of annoying process to bleed the brakes if u need to change the brake fluid, there's the official techstream way and also a manual way thats posted on the forum.
     
    #8 Moses Bruh, Apr 27, 2021
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 28, 2021
  9. privilege

    privilege Active Member

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    what made you go with drilled and slotted rotors ?

    I'm not familiar with the multi odd Prius braking junk, so I would either a) find a cohort with experience or b) pay a shop

    there are always undocumented things about complicated brakes that will be annoying and time consuming if you aren't family with their specifics
     
  10. Wrecit

    Wrecit Active Member

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    Update: made an appointment with the stealership to have them do the brake bleed process for Monday. The brakes were very spongy and felt just like every other car I had with air in the lines.

    I had to replace my speed sensors also and got them from flea bay on Friday. Put them on and cleared the codes. Well when I cleared the codes the red brake lite turned off also so out of curiosity I tightened the seat belt and drove it about 100 yards down the street to get the brake bleed code to come back on but to my surprise the brakes were solid.

    I rolled the dice and drove a total of 53 miles and it seems that I in fact did not have air in the line. I believe that when the caliper pushed out the piston the computer shut the system down and would not reset the system until the code got cleared.

    I assumed that like with the master cylinder system after the air was out of the system the light would just shut off and I would be good to go but as i am finding out the computer needs the nut behind the wheel to tell it that the issue is fixed before it lets you drive with confidence.

    What I learned:
    1)dont assume anything on a Prius will act like the old gas guzzlers.
    2) spend at least an hour educating yourself on any work you do on a prius, even if you have done the work on a gas engine car 100 times before
    3) keep the key fob in the house when working on a Prius to insure it does not try to "help" you out
    4) the members of priuschat have the answers to the questions you do not know you need to ask so use the search feature and then post your question to verify before you open your tool box.

    Side note for $33 a year it looks like the app "Garage Pro" looks like it has the ability to get the computer to bleed the Prius brake system as well as run and clear the codes as well as interact with many other systems in the Prius. It also may be able to code new key fobs without doing the chicken dance. Not sure about this last yet but I need to get new fobs made (car only has 1 currently) will be ordering a new fob in the next week or so and will post if it does in fact work. (You do need a Bluetooth obd2 reader for this app)