DIY Rear Brake Replacement gone Wrong

Not sure you should work on such a vital part of the vehicle without a full understanding of the repair process.

This is like fixing a landing gear on a plane yourself and to test it you'll need to take it up and attempt to land safely. You don't get a second chance at life

 

mdorgham,

Don't be so hard on yourself -- we were all newbies at one time. Spend $20 and get yourself a Haynes or Chilton's manual at your local parts store or at Amazon -- it will be the best money you've ever spent. (I favor Haynes over Chilton's for vehicles I've owned in the past, but I've never seen the Prius version.)

You definitely have air in the line if your cylinder came apart. This isn't complicated work, but it's important to get it right.

 

You'll need to do both. Spin the adjuster back out until the drum lightly drags when you turn it, then back in a notch or two. From there, it will self adjust to where it needs to be.

Then you need to get the air out of that line. The official way is with Techstream software on a laptop, with a vehicle communication interface (many around here use "Mini VCI") plugged into the car.

As long as you have air only in the one rear line where you popped the piston out, you might be able to get away with a bit of tubing and a Brake Rock, if you pay close attention to hobbit's procedure on that. By some reports I've read on PriusChat, if the car has already detected pressure loss in that line and shown warnings, it may have valved off the line so that the rock won't work. In that case, you'd need to use Techstream, or at least just clear the brake codes to see if that allows it to try again on that line. It might or might not work. Techstream is the way to go if you just want to get it solved and done with.

Caution: don't ignore the fluid level in the reservoir while bleeding. Bleeding is a simple procedure as long as the reservoir never gets too low. If it does, and air gets sucked in up front, your problems multiply.

-Chap

 

HI there I got the same problem here with the difference that I broke that seal around the piston and the cylinder start leaking, I didn't want to move the car I connected the battery back and start the car but still no codes yet, what should I do? any ideas how much will cost on the dealer to fix this? I'm in Los angeles Area thank you

 

Not to rub it in, and in the hopes someone else will learn, the guy who taught me how to repair brakes stressed that I should have a skilled mechanic check my work the first time I did it alone. I like the airplane analogy. My mantra is that if you mess up on engine work, the car does not start. If you mess up on brakes, the car does not stop.

You might want to get a qualified Prius mechanic* to 1) bleed your brakes and 2) check the rest of your work. These are mission-critical components--don't cut corners with the brakes!

It might be time to completely flush the old brake fluid anyway. It should be done, I think every 60K miles on this car, and should not be neglected because of some very expensive components. And as mentioned above, specialized tools and knowledge are required, much more so on this car than others.

*This does not necessarily mean the dealer. There are other shops that have experience with Prius brakes and may do the work at a substantial discount. Call around and ask.

 

The dealer will probably charge the undiscounted list price for a new cylinder (left or right, I didn't see you mentioned which), plus shop labor rate for installation and air bleeding.

If you didn't scratch or nick the piston or cylinder, and only damaged the seal (and you think you've figured out how to put the piston back without damaging a new seal), you can get the rubber kit and just replace the seal and boot. The kit includes all the rubber parts to rebuild both ends of both the left and right cylinders. The air would still need to be bled.

-Chap