Bad Brake Actuator Works at -10 to -30 Below Zero Discussion

I think the viscosity of my purple silicone that I use in everything that I have right now except the Prius is a little thicker than do.3..4 glycol brake fluid but I'm not positive of that.. I have this in powersports equipment and an '02 Corolla never an issue with it works great and recently I had to mess with the calipers on the 02 Corolla and I had popped a piston out to look inside and everything was silver and new like when the caliper was brand new usually there's a corner or an edge of rust internally in the caliper from where the fluid is taken on water not with this fluid

 

I think putting a thickener in your brake system would be problematic. A more practical fix would be to pack dry ice around your actuator so it works normally again.

 

I've had complicated electronics fail in this way in the past as well. Not in a car tho'. Basically failing and overheating. If you can find the faulty component sometimes it can be replaced but often that faulty piece of electronics takes out other parts as well along the way

 

Not sure but excessive moisture in brake fluid may thin it a bit. Have you ever tried a serious bleed procedure on the car?

 

Viscosity of brake fluid does change with temperature. It's "thicker" (more viscous) at very cold temps. You can look up the specifications for DOT3 fluid.

A common ABS actuator fault is internal leakage that allows accumulator pressure to bleed down too quickly. When the ecu detects that the pump runs too often for too long, it sets codes.

Very cold (thick) fluid leaks slower, so the pump doesn't quite reach the code set point - for now.

No one will sell anything to alter brake fluid, as this can/will change how fast ABS - stability control responds. That would lead to lawsuits if a lawyer can point to a safety system being "slowed down" by someone adding stuff to the brake fluid.

Short form, there's no way around having to replace your actuator assembly if it's leaking internally.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

And I think the beeping tone that's continuous goes hand in hand with low accumulator pressure mine is doing this now I'll be going down the road and the beep will just come on when the beep is on the brakes are like an old Dodge truck without a brake booster so it's like four-wheel drum brakes with no booster stops fine you just need to know that beep gone you have regular power brakes no ABS but regen works fine.

 

I suspect the beep is there to say "hey, there's a serious fault with the brakes - stop ignoring the warning lights and park the car until you get it fixed".

So, exactly when will the pump fail and you lose all boost? (and rear brakes?).

Me personally, I like having the brakes work "100%" EVERY time I step on the pedal.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Yeah I like having my brakes working all the time too but I've noticed that the Prius has multiple fail safes or something going on hence that battery backup doodad that sit next to the battery in my generation too so on and so forth so no matter it seems I'm driving a car with all these problems right now and stopping is not issue only thing that changes is stopping distance and if you drive things motorcycles lawn tractors big tractors any equipment you'll be used to this type of breaking feel like anybody who's driven a backhoe or a dozer for just a minute which most of you have not I get it You won't think anything of this. So I guess while I'm messing around trying to find a brake booster for my generation 2 I still drive this car even though there's four more here so I'm waiting to see how far will this failing go I don't think it can get to no breaks I think when the beeping is going on and my brakes are like the old-timey Dodge truck that's as bad as it can get that beat seems to me directly related to accumulator pressure or lack thereof My beep comes and goes going down the road and it's very strange because when the beeping is going on the solid beep tone even if I'm sitting on the side of the road or in a parking lot the pump doesn't seem to be running excessively like it's trying to make pressure and it keeps bleeding off it doesn't coincide very well with that and then all of a sudden the beep will turn off it's usually about 40 seconds and then I'm back to non ABS power brakes and that work very well actually and there's no stopping distance adjustment needed and then a few minutes later the beep will come on again and then it lets me know that I'm driving a 1960s Dodge truck and then usually before I'll leave a need the brakes the beep goes off and so on and so forth so I'm actually while I'm messing around looking for another break assembly I'm waiting to see if I can get to the point where I step on the brakes and I just head off into the drink because there isn't any this car is not like that. It's been designed so that that can't happen I'm almost sure It must be in the literature I don't have the literature. I'm not scared of not having no brakes. This used to happen in old vehicles I don't want to say all the time but nothing to it you know You step on the emergency brake whatever. Now everybody is just scared to death of everything hell I've flown planes and landed a small aircraft with no engine a Piper warrior it's got one of the longest glide ratios on the planet anyway very cool.

 

Only thing as dangerous as you driving around with a failed brake booster is thinking someone at a Toyota Stealership knows everything. They are warranty repair specialists. Their expertise is in replacing the most expensive parts possible to maximize the cost... They have zero experience doing simple diagnosis and least expensive repair. They have zero concern for saving their customer money.

They too often won't even clean stuff. Like your hybrid battery cooling fan, I charge a 1/2 hour labor to pull it, clean it and put it back in. But not the Toyota Stealer, they'll tell you its dirty then charge you $500 for a brand new one plus an hour labor to install it ----> because why clean something if you can make way more money throwing it away and selling someone a new one.

 

It must be terrible to have an economic model such as exists in the US where customers get so jaded.

The guys at the dealership I have dealt with here are happy to work with me. They offer 3rd party parts alongside OEM and allow me to choose what I want them to use. Even the genuine OEM parts supplied are reasonable on the odd occasion I get them to do the work I don't want to do.

My dealer charges NZ$169 to do a brake fluid flush and they recommend that is done every two years.

What about when the system has been opened up to install a new accumulator? Then would it be a waste of time?

 

Wow... Yet again New Zealand shows that its way better than the rest of the world in so many ways.

Did you ever know of a guy in Wellington named Richard McManus? He use to be my boss when I was a tech journalist for ReadWriteWeb back in 2011. He lives in Europe now. A great guy!

 

Never met anyone by that name personally, although it does sound familiar.

 

Probably because after he sold his tech blog to an incompetent tech startup in California for $5mil he wrote tech articles for your local newspaper.

 

That is likely a fake unless "online" is another dealer's web site. Safe to call around to local Toyota dealers for the lowest price, not so safe to pick the lowest price on Amazon. The fakes come in fake OEM boxes, unless you know what you are looking for you won't know it is bogus until it craps out in a week or so.

 

So far I've installed two of these things new for people and they're probably coming up on the 30,000 with no problems My original one went 200,000 I replaced it on one car with a known good used one that's been 3 years now I think and definitely over the 30,000 not a peep from that 2009 car it runs every day people can't kill it All they can do is put little dents in it because they're stupid but the car not a problem Not a light on on the dash except the PO420 for the catalytic converter which I do not have emissions here I too would not want to pay the $1,400 if the car was exceptionally nice which the one I am driving and working on now is leather interior all that I still don't think I'm going to buy a new brake actuator. Realizing a lot of these cars are now making it to the junk yards with a year old break actuator a year old 12 volt battery a dash that they just paid for $500 to fix and now the battery is gone bad in there at their last wit's end and the cars are heading to the tow lots and then to the junk yards after the tow lots can't sell parts off of them or can't sell me the whole car they go to LKQ and then all the internet weirdos go to LKQ and strip off the brake actuators the CM monitor displays and what have you and now they're sitting on eBay and Amazon some even advertise them as rebuilt knowing full well you can't buy these things rebuilt so there's all kinds of funny business going on If you're making money like that and you got a good job and you got a nice house and you're doing all this other stuff $1,400 for your break actuators like not even worth a discussion I would imagine and if you're going to take the car to $600,000 and you're at 240 now that's a reasonable investment. But of course if you're looking to get that 24 Prius 2 l and start the game all over again well then that's something that's already in your mind and probably hindering keeping the Gen too there's always things like this

 

If there's a leak, thicker fluid does not "seal better", it merely leaks less quickly. So yes, changing brake fluid at this point will not "fix" anything.

There are passages inside the actuator that can only be bled by using a scantool to operate valves. This is a critical step during the replacement procedure.

I don't know why you think your problem is intermittent. It's bad all the time, but only reaches the point of complete failure once in awhile.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Now the 08 and '09 Prius that people have put break actuators on replaced bunches of parts on and now the hybrid battery's gone bad and they need to spend another $2,000 or so dollars because of what they don't know these cars are heading to the junkyard en masse. Many of them that I run across you know how Prius owners are we're amongst five or 600 here. They have every receipt in the glove box every time they've blown their nose in the car so there's always that many times when I'm at the junkyard or the towing lot looking at one of these cars it takes me 40 minutes to look through the pile of well-organized receipts that are usually right next to the owner's manual in the car this car I just bought from Georgia has 20 years of receipts from the Toyota dealer it's never been anywhere but it had tires replaced at the Toyota dealer all its life and it not that bad a price is either down there in Georgia so there's always that this car's had two catalytic converters not from being stolen and the list goes on and on and on It's unbelievable and then the dash went out the CM monitor display the lady parked the car and armchair mechanic for telling her it was going to cost $4,000 to get the car fixed because the dash wasn't lighting up and the car sat for 3 months in front of a house in front of North Carolina State University and then I was called to come pick it up and paid $700 for the vehicle jumped it off with a new 12 volt where it's sat and drove it home.