1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Brake squeal on cornering

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by kithmo, Jun 6, 2010.

  1. kithmo

    kithmo Couch Potato

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2010
    2,404
    2,773
    47
    Location:
    South Yorkshire, UK
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    I thought I'd post this as information rather than a question as I found old threads on it but none offered the solution.

    SWMBO bought a 20K mile, 2006 Gen 2 Prius recently and we noticed that the brakes would intermittently squeal when cornering, not whilst braking and more noticably so when turning left.
    The car had been standing on the dealer's forecourt for maybe two months before she bought it and there was the inevitable surface rust on the discs, the dealer said the noise would go away, with use, when the discs were cleaned off. The noise persisted however and the dealer offered to have a look.
    Me being a DIY mechanic (ex-trade), I decided to have a look myself for her, to avoid the inconvenience of her having to take it in to the dealer.
    We isolated the noise to be coming from right hand front wheel and I took off the wheel and the brake caliper to find that the inside brake pad was stuck in its mounting grooves and could see that this pad was nearly 2 mm thinner than the outer one, so it had been rubbing for some time (this was confirmed by the fact that this wheel & trim had a coating of brake dust which was not present on the other wheels).
    This vehicle had just had been serviced and had a 12 months MOT put on by the dealer !
    I stripped the pads and shims and cleaned everything up and put a light smear of HM copper grease on all the shims and reassembled everything, the pads are now moving freely and the squeal has disappeared.

    So if your brakes squeal when cornering, rather than the normal occasional squeak when applying the brake, check the pads or get it in to the dealers if you're not the DIY type.
     
    #1 kithmo, Jun 6, 2010
  2. BAllanJ

    BAllanJ Active Member

    Joined:
    Dec 9, 2008
    667
    78
    0
    Location:
    Kingston Ontario
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    I bet that will improve consumption!
     
    #2 BAllanJ, Jun 6, 2010
  3. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2005
    12,544
    2,123
    1
    Location:
    SF Bay Area, CA
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Thanks. I had http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ching-scraping-noise-sound-file-attached.html long ago and the dealer found nothing wrong. It happened even when going straight.

    Eventually, the squealing came back but it's hard to hear, is really intermittent and very hard to repro. I have no known steps to force it to happen but now seems to happen more frequently/easily when turning slightly. The damned road construction near ended long ago so unlikely I'd have picked up any small rocks from that.

    The next time I hear it again, I'll take it back and ask them to check for pad and shoe thickness differences.
     
    #3 cwerdna, Jun 6, 2010
  4. aliciazim

    aliciazim Junior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2010
    3
    0
    0
    Location:
    North Tonawanda, NY
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    My son has an '04 Prius that has a similar issue. There's a rubbing noise in the right front tire area--mostly while turning but also occasionally while going straight. The fix-it shop said it was a rusty rotor. The brakes are at 30% so we are thinking of getting new brakes and rotors all around. Are we jumping the gun? Could it be something else? I don't know anything about brakes! I am not a DIYer. I do know, however, that the person who previously had this vehicle took it to the dealer every time for every service, and even they didn't fix the problem and even worse, practically mangled the hubcaps!
     
    #4 aliciazim, Sep 24, 2010
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)