Rear caliper fail in Prius 2013

Unfortunately it sounds like your problem has to do with corrosion from road salt. There is little or nothing you can do. It’s the environment that you live in. All cars suffer this kind of damage from road salts...not just your Prius.

 

As Mendel frequently reminds us, the Warranty and Maintenance Guide has a "visually inspect brakes" that pops up every six months or 5,000 miles, except that every sixth one of those (so, three years or 30,000 miles), it drops the "visually" and just says "inspect". That brake inspection is a bit more involved, wheels off, slight disassembly to get access to measure things for wear and at least work things back and forth by hand to make sure they feel greased and move well, with any minor remedies if needed at that time (fresh grease if the old stuff has turned to peanut butter, a rubber boot here or there if the old one is torn, etc.).

That should have happened twice already by the time you bought the car at 72K, but a lot of people skip it. When that kind of preventive attention is regularly given, it should push off any more drastic brake replacement well into the second 100K for most people.

The thing is, if that sort of regular attention isn't given, any small thing that happens (some grease dried out, something damaged a rubber boot, etc.) can go undetected and lead to a bigger problem (corrosive water getting in past damaged boot, etc.) over time, that ultimately leads to a brake replacement much earlier than expected.

Moral, the Prius brakes are very trouble-free and long-lasting, but not completely attention-free; they will give the longest trouble-free service if they are checked now and then, with more than a visual glance.

The inspection is kind of an ideal DIY task, for anybody who wants to learn to DIY it. I pretty much do it every time I rotate the tires, as the wheels are already off, so why not? It takes an hour or so to do carefully, so at typical dealer labor rates it isn't so cheap, if you can even get the dealer to do it (some will just assure you it isn't anything you need, and hope to sell you a brake replacement later). But if you're doing it yourself and not billing yourself for the hour or two of your time, it usually costs you $0, or a few dabs of grease, or a few bucks for a boot or a spring or the like if you find something with damage.

-Chap

 

I didn't either, until I did.

Maybe the big question is, if you learned how, would your boyfriend see that as a cool excuse to buy tools, or as a reason he'd have to leave you for someone who can't inspect a brake?

-Chap

 

Racheal71, I was a mechanic for 16+ years. My 2010 Prius has 250K miles on it with all the original brake parts, and the pads still have at least 50% of the material left.
As BZzap has indicated your trouble is most likely due to corrosion from road salt etc. Here in CA we are lucky the weather helps us out, in the corrosion department anyway.
If you have the opportunity talk to your Toyota technician when you are at the dealer it might help to understand what is happening. As I tech I was glad to talk to customers and tell them about things I saw with their vehicle. Each person and each vehicle has a story. Talking to people and understanding goes a long way in building a trusting relationship.

 

Hey Rachel, thanks for posting this, I've had a similar problem. (I also bought a 2013 Prius in 2016 but with 29K on it, now 62k)

Last year we had a weird creaking sound coming from the rear brakes when braking, it was most noticeable when braking at low speeds, very loud. My wife took it in and they said something about a piece of rust having fallen in, which they removed. That fixed it, but recently it started again, but less, then it went away.

So from what I am understanding, Chapman or High Mileage or anyone, is that it might be worthwhile to have my Toyota dealer do a proper brake inspection? I have an appointment to have my winter tires put on at the end of November so I could have it done then.

 

the brakes should be inspected every 30k, and the caliper slide pins lubed. the rears suffer more from lack of use.

 

I get to mine about every 6,000 miles or so, just because I do it while I'm rotating tires. Even at that short interval, the sliding motion generally feels a little bit gummy, but frees right up with a little moving the caliper back and forth by hand. And I've discovered things like the need for a new fitting kit (the little springy teflon-coated liners that hold the pad ears) occasionally, by that simple inspection. Fitting kits are cheap. Keeping everything in top shape contributes to keeping the larger repairs away for a long long time.

Given that it's easy to find small issues developing by a casual inspection at 6,000 miles, it seems to me that a 30,000 mile interval (as the maintenance guide recommends) could sometimes be long enough to find a small issue fairly well advanced. Maybe still correctable so you could fend off a larger repair later, but perhaps with a bit more difficulty than if caught earlier.

-Chap

 

You’re stealing @Mendel Leisk ’s Brake thunder .

 

'he' doesn't know either.

i never wash my car, has no bearing on the brakes, they don't benefit from washing.

see post #8, and print it out for your mechanic, tape it to his forehead

 

That leaves me scratching my head.

 

Rachael71, thanks for the feedback. Hopefully your brakes are healthy for a while. I am not really sure what to suggest since everyone has an opinion. It seems to me using a carwash at some interval during the winter might help keep the salt damage at bay, but it might not help a bit. My experience is only with living in CA. Here I go through a carwash at least 2x a week. And we don't use salt on the roads. Its dry for most of the time here, one reason why we stay in the news for fires.
I wish you luck with your car. In my case I love mine. 253K miles now and still going strong.
Thanks for the laugh about the bottle of wine.

 

I live in Toronto, Canada and we get a lot of rain/snow. My 2012 Prius has gone through three rear brake pads and one set of rear rotors due to uneven wear. In my opinion, the Prius rear brakes do not handle rust very well.

I plan to start to clean my rear brakes annually starting next year. Let's see what happens.

 

How many kilometers on it? Also, who's been servicing the brakes? If you're blowing through rear pads, and still on the original front pads, something is not right.

If you've read my posts for a while, you'll know my bugbear: the rear brakes must be reassemble just so, or they drag and wear the pads unevenly. There's a stubby pin protrusion on the pad backs, and a four-spoke pattern on the piston: it's imperative that the piston is rotated so that the spokes straddle the pin, and everything firmly seated.

Any application of the parking brakes will attempt to rotate the piston, and the pin in between the spokes is intended to prevent that rotation. If the piston was initially reassembled misaligned, or has managed to rotate, due to not being fully seated, the pin can end up atop a spoke, and then every time the brakes are applied the pressure is terrifically eccentric.

This condition will be evidenced by bevelled brake pad wear, a zone on the inside face of rotor (roughly 50%) rusty from lack of pad contact, and scoring on the outside face of rotor.

 

In my opinion, anything that gets rusted will eventually go bad, brand don't matter/make.