On my 2011 Prius Four, the brakes are VERY sensitive and bordering on "grabby" when in reverse gear. I don't know if that is common or if I should have it worked on by dealer. Brakes are fine in forward gear. Thoughts?
Well known issue unfortunately. Do a search on grabby. Happened to me twice, early on. Seems to go away over time for most.
Hope it does go away but we've had it 8 months now and it's unchanged. Since I expect them to be sensitive I can deal with it but would be nice to have them smoother.
How often does it happen? Every time you reverse? Your in Hawaii right? If it is not the issue that many have experienced here, perhaps it is your rotors rusting from the humid, salt air.?
About once a week when rolling up to a stop and no traffic in front, put the car in neutral before braking. This will prevent regen braking and use the friction braking. This will help clean the rust off of the brake rotors. With the regen braking, the friction brakes are only used below 7 mph and in emergency conditions. So rust buildup is quite normal.
The brakes are grabby every time, not just sometimes and it has been that way since picking it up at the dealer when new. The car is used almost daily so not sure how much rust would build up and why wouldn't that also affect braking in forward gear??? I'll try the suggestion from jdcollins5 (if I can remember to do it).
I find that if I brake and then release while reversing then they become grabby but if I reverse while foot continuously and lightly presses the brake then I don't get "grab".
Just had this happen, last weekend. It's very infrequent, maybe every 2~3 months, that it happens. Only in reverse, right after startup. It happened once when I was reversing to get out of a parallel parking spot: I was convinced for a moment I'd HIT the car behind.
This has happened to me a few times. Usually it's at startup and I reverse out of the garage. What I do is come to a complete stop and put the car in neutral and then back into reverse. That solves the problem and the brakes go back to feeling normal again. Others have suggested putting in park or putting it in park and pumping the brakes, but haven't tried that since neutral works and is easier.
