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  1. Out4Delivery

    Out4Delivery New Member

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    I have a 2007 Prius and recently had some grinding noises from the passenger front tire while driving. After looking into it, one of the brake pads was completely worn down and scrapping the rotor. The brake pad ended up falling off and the caliper seal failed spewing brake fluid out.
    I replaced both front rotors as well as brake pads on both sides. I also replaced the caliper on passenger side. After this my ABS/VSC lights which have been on for several months now were toggling on and off periodically and when they were on my power brakes went off. When the lights were off my power brakes came back. Also the E-brake light which was also always on before would toggle on and off with the ABS/VSC lights.
    I refilled my brake fluid reservoir as it was getting close to the min line and then the lights came back on and stayed on but power brakes were now always working, however, the brake pad on passenger side is dragging on the rotor again while underway and creating a lot of heat going down the road. I replaced the abs sensors on both sides and that did nothing. Any thoughts? I’m so confused right now.
     
  2. Out4Delivery

    Out4Delivery New Member

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    Oh, and I ran a full diagnostic on a OBDII scanner and it did not come up with any codes other than the catalytic converter, which has nothing to do with this issue
     
  3. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Yep the catalytic converter has nothing to do with this issue but it sounds like your actuator is failing and it's applying one of the front brakes more than all of the others My 09 did this exact same thing at the very last leg of the actuators journey I drove two years with all the brake lights on and the power brakes regenerative braking and everything working perfectly with all the lights on and then one day I drove the car lightly tap the brakes and almost went into the ditch because the only the right front caliper was operating or operating well The other calipers would not come into play or work it all until the pedal was almost to the floor and so this cause the car to pull the one side. I already had replacement brake actuator here after this happened that afternoon I changed the actuator manually bled the brakes
     
  4. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

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    Welcome to PriusChat!!
    Which scanner was used, and if the vehicle is safe to drive, visit every auto parts store and have them also scan it, then report back.

    FYI : you're moderated until you've posted 5 times.
     
  5. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    In your story, I don't see anywhere where you say you bled the brakes after doing that work.
    This for sure means that the code reader you're using is inadequate. See this thread which discusses various readers that are available. You need one that can read all of the Prius ECUs as well as one that will be able to run the brake bleeding procedure if you require that.

    To reiterate, if you have any of those lights illuminated on your dash there will be codes to be read in their corresponding ECU.
     
  6. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Yeah I noticed that too on the brake job nobody talked about doing anything after they did the work which bleeding should have come up
     
  7. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    That's a good thread, and it is best to have one of those tools.

    However, when the brake/ABS/VSC lights are on (any or all of them), finding out those trouble codes is job #1, and it does not have to wait for you to get a working scan tool. Those codes can be read at any time, this way:

    Blink (a/k/a Flash) Codes – How to. | PriusChat
     
  8. Out4Delivery

    Out4Delivery New Member

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    Thanks for the info. My brother has the obd reader and we have used 2 different ones but I don’t know which ones they were. I will look into researching if the ones he has are sufficient for a Prius.
    Also, yes the brakes were bled both at the time of the brake job and again when we replaced the sensors.
     
  9. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

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    Each autoparts store (even within the same chain) will likely have a different scanner, visit each for a free scan and you might find one that is hybrid compatible. Or do as @ChapmanF mentioned above and retrieve the blink/flash codes, then post them in this thread.

    California is a pretty big state, which part are you nearest as another member may be able to offer assistance.
     
  10. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I find myself mentioning the blink method earlier and earlier in newer threads, because I've seen so many older threads where the first dozen posts got wasted on getting scans with scan tools that didn't show the codes, and arguing over whether that meant there weren't any codes, and it's so unnecessary.

    Blink (a/k/a Flash) Codes – How to. | PriusChat
     
  11. Out4Delivery

    Out4Delivery New Member

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    I’m near Sacramento area up I-80 just past Rocklin. Something strange I noticed driving tonight is that there is absolutely zero drift/pull to either side when I let go of my steering wheel while under way or while braking. If the pads were in fact dragging while not pushing on the brake wouldn’t it be drifting to that side? Could this be an issue with the tire speed being different for whatever reason so the car automatically applies brakes to the opposite wheel to compensate?
    Also it should be noted that when bleeding the brakes there was a significant difference between the pressure of the fluid coming out between the 2 front wheels. The side that is not having drag has WAY more pressure than the side that is having issues. Is this common? Does it mean anything?
    On another note I will be trying the blink method in a couple days when I have time to work on the car again, and I will post the results.
    Thanks all for your input thus far. I look forward to posting the final results once I figure out what is actually going on here :)
     
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  12. Out4Delivery

    Out4Delivery New Member

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    Update: changed the flexible brake lines that connect the caliper to the metal lines and I am officially not dragging anymore. Looks like it wasn’t the actuator after all, and instead a damaged line that was allowing pressure to go down to the pads but was not allowing the fluid to travel backwards to let the pad decompress completely.
     
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