In the past (starting at 2,800 miles) and reported numerous times to the dealer (huntington toyota), toyota corporate and the federal safety agency, whenever the car went over a rough road service while braking at about 10 miles an hour the regenerative braking would cut out and give the sensation of the car surging forward requiring much greater braking effort to bring the car to a stop. The brakes would reset after a full stop and they would act normally until the next time braking was done on a rough road surface. Toyota claimed that this was normal behavior for the prius ABS system, even after the firmware upgrade was applied. This time the brakes did not reset after a full stop and every warning light on the dashboard lit up. There was no regenerative braking available. The car was brought to the dealer who has had it for more than a week, and is replacing major brake system components under my extended warranty. I was told that without the warranty these repairs would have cost me over $4500. This has been an ongoing and dangerous situation, which may be finally resolved after all of the brake component replacements. As an aside, the brake pads show significant and unusual wear because the regenerative braking did not work as it should.
2010 Toyota Prius brakes complaints
Page 21 of 66: complaints 581 to 610 of 1,945, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Brakes failed while driving. Pedal went to the floor. Very little braking power left. Luckily I didn't have to stop suddenly and was able to bring the car to a stop slowly. Had the car towed to toyota dealer where they diagnosed the problem as the brake booster / master cylinder. They told me there was air in the brake system. I received a quote for almost $2900 to fix the brakes. I called toyota corporate office and asked for assistance with this catastrophic brake failure but was refused. Searching online found others with same failure. In particular, there was a person with 43k miles with exact same issue, and toyota refused to help him. This is a very dangerous failure and should be a recall. Please investigate fully and feel free to contact me for any assistance. I am in the process of replacing the brake booster but I will keep the old one in case you need it for your investigation. I had similar issue on my 2004 lexus rx330 and there was eventually a recall for it. It is unacceptable for a 3 year old car to have this kind of a safety failure. My wife and kids could have been seriously hurt or killed.
First incident: april 15, 2013 I lost my brakes while I was driving home from my night shift work as a registered nurse. I was at an intersection two blocks from my house when I felt the brake was failing. It was a good thing that I was driving slow to make a turn when I felt the brake system was not working. I was able to steer it to a parking lot nearby by using the foot brake. Prior to this incident, I heard squeaking noises for about three days whenever I step on the brakes. I was relieved that I did not get into an accident. Action after the 1st incident: april 24, 2010. We towed the car to dch toyota freehold, and it took about 5 days to repair the brakes so they gave us a loaner car which we truly appreciate. But when we picked up the car, the brakes were fixed but the squeaking noise is still present, and our windshield was cracked. We called the dealership right away to inform them about the squeaking noise and to complain about the cracked windshield. I was told by the service representative that their technicians tested my car and deemed it safe to drive and that they would never release my car unless they know it is safe to be on the road. Second incident: april 29, 2013, I lost the brakes again while I was on my way to work around 7:00 pm. I really got very scared because there was so much traffic at that time. I was able to stop and park my car slowly to the curb without hitting anybody else by using the foot break. Action after the second incident: same night, we towed the car back to the dealership for repair, and after a week of waiting, they finally came back to us specifying that the whole master cylinder and brake pad assembly is defective and needs to be replaced and will cost more than 4k for parts alone. Contacted toyota about this issue, and they said that they will not assist us, since we exceeded the warranty period.
On 01 may 2013, I was driving my two daughters home from school and the brakes on my 2010 toyota prius failed. The brake pedal became very stiff and the brakes did not respond. I began to panic because we were traveling down a steep hill. I continued to pump the brakes and suddenly, the pedal gave way and the car came to a screeching halt. I was luckily within walking distance of my house. I had my car towed to the dealership and they informed me that my brake booster and master cylinder needed replacement at a cost of $5500. I'm shocked. My car is 3 years old. After research, I discovered this is a common problem for the 2010 prius. What I find most disturbing is this is clearly a manufacturer's defect, that is an extremely dangerous safety hazard. Prior to owning my prius, I was a loyal toyota buyer. I have had consistent acceleration issues with my brakes, even after the recall. If toyota does not address this issue, I don't intend to purchase another toyota product.
While I was braking to stop at the red light, the car accelerated. I moved the steering wheel to hit the curb to prevent crossing the red light. It happened to me couple of times. Then I realize it happens only when I am driving over uneven surface or over bumps. It is really scary. I almost hit a car seattle downtown going down the hit because my car accelerated instead of stopping. I took it the car dealer but they said there is no problem. I am afraid that I might get in a big accident.
Vehicle surges when brakes are applied while traveling over railroad tracks or rough pavement. Surge lasts for 1 to 2 seconds until braking resumes. Vehicle behavior can be easily replicated.
The brake booster pump began running continuously when the vehicle was on. Warning lights on the dash indicated brake failure and anti-lock system failure. After I took the vehicle to a toyota dealer, they determined that the brake master cylinder/anti-lock assembly had failed. The repair took two weeks and cost $3000.
I was driving to work this morning and a man stepped off the curb right in front of me (not in a crosswalk). I hit my brakes, and hit a pothole in the road at the same time. The car accelerated and felt as if it was shuddering, it was not braking at all even though I mashed the pedal to the floor. I was forced to swerve to miss the man, which I thankfully did. After that I got moving again I applied the brakes and they worked fine. When I arrived at work I tried it again by finding some potholes in the parking lot. @ 15 MPH the problem occurred again only when I was hitting the potholes while applying the brakes. I went to toyota.com and found this has been an issue since feb 2010. I purchased my car in nov 2010; I then called my service dealer and talked to the service manager who claimed to have never heard of that problem even though I told him I found the info at the pressroom.toyota.com website. He then proceeded to let me know I should not believe everything I read in the internet and offered to let me bring it in and he will look at it. I am leaving work early today to have it looked at.
Multiplie incidents: we will be driving the vehicle and hit a bump / pot hole and be braking, but the car will accelerate.
In the morning I started my car and the ABS light and warning lights came on and started beeping. I reversed my car slightly to check the brakes and noticed my brakes were not being responsive. I put the vehicle into park and called the wondries toyota dealership and told them my brakes were not functioning properly and my ABS warning light was on. Despite my having informed them of my brake failure, they told me to bring the car into the dealership. I reversed out of my garage, shifted the car into drive, and proceeded down the hill with caution. I did not press on the accelerator. My car began to accelerate down the hill due to gravity and reached a speed of approximately 15 MPH, at which time I pumped the brake pedal but the car would not stop or slow down, and it continued moving down the hill. At the bottom of the hill, after traveling approximately 1/4 of a mile, I turned right into a small street with a slight incline in order to stop the momentum. My car slowed and I put on the emergency brake and put the car into park. I called my brother for help. When he arrived, I turned the car on to show him the flashing ABS warning. It flashed for about another 15 seconds before suddenly stopping. My brakes then began functioning again though they felt spongy when I pressed down on it. I turned on my emergency lights and drove slowly to the dealership. I parked the car and turned off the engine. When a representative came by, I turned on the car and she pressed down on the brake to feel them. The ABS lights suddenly came on again and she said the brake pressure did not feel right and there was something definitely wrong with my brakes. After it was assessed I was informed I needed a new ABS actuator assembly and an accumulator pump for the master cylinder. Total cost was estimated as $4600.
I was driving my 2010 prius in a congested area and cars in front of me stopped suddenly. As I braked hard, the car seemed to lurch forward for about one second, maybe longer, and then the brakes kicked in. I noticed that the road was rough. The surface was dry. Fortunately, I had allowed ample distance from the car in front of me, and there was no collision, but it was very unsettling. In the previous month, I had three or four less intense sensations of "lurching forward," which occurred when I stopped at a particular intersection when I had just started the car, but the road was smooth.
I had been hearing a lot of grinding noises that just got worse. When I went to the dealer, they discovered that my brake pads had failed/frozen. They replaced my pads and machined my rotors. They could not explain why a car I had for only a little over a year had this problem. They at first blamed my driving, and then the roads (I.e. Too many gravel roads). Now, at 68,300 miles those pads have now failed again. One is completely worn down and the rotor is now rusted through. No one can explain why this is happening. When I demanded an answer, they told me that a "bulletin" had gone out to the dealers only stating that due to the pads failing, they were "redesigning" them. But, they would only replace for free those that fell under the 36,000 mile warranty. I don't understand why, in less than 69,000 miles I have had to have this repair done not once, but twice. They tell me no other owner has had this problem, but I find that hard to believe. Can anyone tell me if there are other complaints of this type, and what can be done to rectify this problem.
Experienced a complete brake failure while driving 2010 prius. Dealer indicates brake booster failing and leaked nitrogen into master cylinder which should then also be replaced. Dealer insist it is one assembly and estimates replacement to be $5,166 ($1,638 for booster and $2,466 for master cylinder). Due to the complete warningless failure of brakes while in operation it would seem to a critical safety hazard due to the design flaw in the combined brake booster and master cylinder brake assembly causing a brake failure in operation.
On multiple occasions, I have experienced issues with the car suddenly accelerating while I'm pressing the brakes. Specifically, this appears to occur when braking on uneven surfaces (ie construction areas, pot holes, etc.). This can obviously become a deadly situation if one is trying to stop the vehicle and with this problem run into the car/vehicle ahead. Most recently this occurred on the surface streets in low speed, in traffic. It feels like the car lurches ahead while applying the brake. I was told by the service people at toyota that I was making this up. I can recreate it given the right surface.
When braking over rough road, brakes fail.
Vehicle has no brakes at all, we turned the ignition on and the car start beeping, brake light its on, ABS light on and slip indicator light is on.
The following event happened twice with this vehicle. Tin both instances, the car was running and in park with no one in the vehicle. It then down the driveway with no one in it. In the second occurrence, it appears to have gone into reverse on its own and rolled into a retaining wall causing damage to the rear passenger side bumper and back panel.
Problem with 2010 prius performing uncontrolled hard braking while driving on interstate at approx 73~75 MPH. This happen on two separate occasions, with the first being feb 10, 2013. The second incident occurred late afternoon on sat. Feb 16, 2013. Both occurrences were in light traffic, whereby preventing potential severe vehicular rear end collisions that could have resulted in serious bodily injures and grave vehicular damages. Vehicle was checked by a toyota dealer and passes all troubleshooting tests, feb 18, 2013. Requested additional tests be done on feb 19, 2013. Toyota dealer could not recreate the problem. No further actions were taken by the dealer.
This is a recurring problem. Anytime I am slowing down for a red light and there is a pothole or other rough surface condition, the car lurches forward and jumps, so to speak. Given the condition of the roads in chicago, this is a pretty regular problem. I usually have to press the brake much harder than normal while this is occurring because of crosswalks and lights. I think this is a serious safety issue; however, when asking the dealer to look into this, they indicated that it was the anti-lock braking system kicking in, and that it was a perfectly common thing to experience.
All brakes failed while I was going 69mph on I-75 south just north of the union centre boulevard exit, approaching I-275 at the butler/hamilton county line on sat. Dec. 22.. All warning lights came on and the warning "beeps". I was in heavy traffic but was in the right lane and was able to exit on the union centre exit ramp and roll to a stop. This happened the day after I had the car at performance toyota in fairfield, oh for the 35,000 mile check/oil change (on dec. 21) .the car had to be towed to performance toyota on dec 22; they determined the master cylinder failed (lost its vacuum) causing total brake failure.
Incident #1 brake: on january 17, 2013 as I was entering the intersection about 20mph, I applied my brakes, but they went straight to the floor and warning light started blinking. I pressed brakes very hard and car almost stop, then, its brakes gave up. There is sudden slight "unintended acceleration" and I almost hit car front of me. But, I am able to manage to drove the car into the center island. Brake was totally out, and the car started drove by itself. I panicked and pressed power button to shut off the engine. Car drove about 15 feet and stopped. After this incident, I tow my car to the dealer, they told me that lost brake is due to short circuit made domino effect to multiple computers malfunction. They will replace whole computer system, but service man would not guarantee it will never happen again. Incident #2 power failed and shut down while driving at highway. On december, 2012 and january 2013. I was driving at highway and trying to merge into the center line, car stalled and prompted "key does not detect" message on the screen. I almost hit from behind by another car. While the car still has a speed about 40mph, I managed to restart the car by depressed brake and press power bottom. It is true this car lose brake and does slight "accelerate".
When driving on an uneven or wet surface the brakes seem to lag for a few seconds and the car hops forward.
My prius iv, purchased new in 2010, intermittently had a lunging forward problem when going over speed bumps, pot holes etc. I would have to stop it by braking quickly, so I didn't collide with a car ahead. I informed toyota of this problem within the first year. They tested it and said they could find nothing. I mentioned this to them on various occasions when I took the car for its periodic maintenance of 5000 mile intervals. On december 26, 2012 I was stopped waiting to go left when I was rear-ended. I went to pull over to the side of the road to assess the damage. When I accelerated to get to the side of the road,the car took off crazily, at a high rate of speed for about 6-7 seconds, zigzagging uncontrollably on the 2 lane road. If there were cars coming toward me, I would have been in a head on crash. I immediately called toyota service of scranton,pa and asked them to see and assess the car's problem. They made an appointment and concluded.said there is no problem internally, and suggested removing the after market floormat. I then proceeded to show them the same problems many customers are having with the prius , including an article by steve wozniak, the co-founder of apple company, who had acceleration problems with his 2010 prius. I called the main toyota headquarters later, explaining the problem and they too said there is no malfunction , only mentioning the floor mats again.. This is not the case as the car has had acceleration problems from the beginning and to further clarify, I was able to finally stop the car... The mat was no where near the accelerator. I am afraid to drive this for others' safety, my passengers and my own safety. I take care of my cars faithfully. You can view my records. I am also fearful if I trade this car, someone else might get injured or killed. Can you please check and advise.
If you go over a bump while braking - the brakes fail, and you have to take your foot off the brake and re-apply in order to stop. This has occurred numerous times - and is a serious flaw on this automobile. This car is a fleet vehicle for my company and I have asked peers if this occurs on their cars - and they have confirmed the same experience with their brakes. With all the toyota recalls - I am unclear why this has not been addressed...?
I was in the right lane traveling west bound on tennessee street in tallahassee, fl, and as I was going through the light at the corner of tennessee and monroe street, the traffic stopped just past the intersection. As I was entering the intersection, I applied my brakes but they went straight to the floor and a warning light started blinking. I had one of two choices; hit the car in front of me or hit the curb for the sidewalk close to where a man was standing with his bicycle. Luckily I had just enough room to go between the back-end of the car in front of me and the man on the sidewalk. Fortunately no one was injured in my accident, I just scared the man very badly, but the repairs to my car are probably going to be more than $4,000.
Ok, this type of incident (loss of braking at low speeds) has happened repeatedly in this vehicle, despite a recall in 2010 and "software fix". The date listed is approximate. I felt compelled to provide this information after having this happen twice in the past week, in the hopes that some permanent fix can be made available, and to warn prospective buyers to be cautious. In all incidents, when traveling over bumps in a road with the brakes engaged, there is a sudden slight "acceleration", but in actuality, probably just the momentary loss of braking. This happens when going over: (1) manhole covers (2) potholes (3) slight dips in the road (from subsiding road patching areas). Does not appear to be worse in wet conditions, and has only happened to me at low speeds (~5 -- ~ 20 MPH). Note that original carpeted mats were replaced with ones that fit a bit better, and do not cause any issues with the acceleration pedal. Once the bump is passed over, normal braking occurs. When I feel this vehicle momentarily lose braking, I quickly let off the brake for a split second, and resume braking. I have gotten used to this defect, but I sure would like someone to investigate and provide a quality recall fix. This braking issue has happened in north carolina (where the vehicle was purchased) and in massachusetts. Thank you.
When I encounter a bump while applying the brakes in my 2010 toyota prius, the brakes fully disengage momentarily. This causes the car to jolt forward unexpectedly. My foot is not coming off the brake at all when this happens, so I know I am not the cause of it. I received a recall notice by mail in february 2010 to address just this issue. I took the car to the nearest toyota dealership to have the recall work completed. It was intended to fix the malfunction in the anti-lock brake system that caused the brakes to disengage when the car hits a bump. The recall work was completed, but the problem was not resolved. The brakes still do the exact same thing and fully disengage when I hit a bump while braking. This is unquestionably dangerous and a serious safety hazard.
On tuesday october 02, 2012 at approximately 0510 the vehicle brakes went out and the brake, ABS, and stabilization lights came on along with alarm. Vehicle was towed to toyota dealership for repair - told it was the master cylinder. Vehicle picked up on morning of october 4, 2012 from dealership drove approximately 20 miles and the exact same thing occurred. Brakes, ABS, stabilization alarms came on. Toyota dealership was called and said that the vehicle should be fine - system had cleared with part replacement - "maybe it was a bad part or there could be air in the lines." vehicle is presently at the dealership awaiting inspection. Fortunately, no accidents or injuries occurred on these dates. However because of the loss of brakes and near accidents this vehicle is now a threat to my safety. So far I have been lucky - I do not want to take a chance with the third being the time that I am in a serious accident.
Traveling on parkway when we were approaching a vehicle going south down at approximately 55 we were traveling 72 with cruise control engaged, I tapped the brakes to try and slow and nothing happened I then held the brake pedal down for more than 15 seconds with no success, tried to disengage the cruise by pulling back on the handle on the steering wheel and still it would not disengage, we struck the truck at 72 MPH only because we had no where else to go and the vehicle would not disengage cruise. The cruise control light was still illuminated after the vehicle came to rest after impact and the vehicle brakes still did not appear to function, this vehicle was a toyota lease and was told multiple times by toyota that the issues was recalled by toyota and that this vehicle had the recall performed.
Tl* the contact owns a 2010 toyota prius. The contact stated that while driving 15 MPH, the vehicle started to lose power lunged forward. The contact attempted to apply the brakes however, the brakes were inoperable and caused the contact to crash into another vehicle. The passenger of the second vehicle claimed an injury and was transported to the emergency room. The police were notified and a report was filed. The vehicle was inoperable and was towed to the dealer who had not yet diagnosed the failure. The manufacturer was notified of the failure who advised that the vehicle diagnosis was going to take four to six weeks and offered no additional assistance. The failure and current mileage was 28,000.
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