2012 Prius v Groaning Noise

I'm from the Netherlands. I have bought a Prius Wagon a few weeks ago. If the breaks are cold and the temperature is below 6 degrees Celsius the back breaks are making a noise when driving forward. If the speed is more than 20 km/hour the sound is gone. See (and hear) the following video

In the Netherlands there is a fix for this problem. The garage can install "plakshims" sticky break shims. But the problem is not solved all the time. In my car they installed fix version 4 of these shims (different coatings). The right back break is ok, but the left back break is still making noise.

I have to wait for fix version 5 of these shims.

 

Took ours in today for the second time. We have the Prius V model 5. Dealer said they have not had the problem before. Wonder if it could be a model 5 problem

 

When I got my 25k mile service the other week ago the service man told me Toyota is actively trying to fix the groaning noise. He told me he thinks they will fix it eventually with a recall.

 

I have the basic model 2 and it has the noise.

 

Winter in Texas.... fog. Yes, while backing out of the garage... we hear that same breaking sound. It last until we get down the drive way and on the road... 20+mph or so.. then goes quiet.

 

Personally, I think it is the way you break-in the disks when new. I babied mine for the first couple hundred miles or so......light pressure stopping, no hard braking. In the old days with drum brakes you were told to do the same...some said take it to a high speed and slam them on to a stop several times........never did that, always light engaging. Mine dont growl.......yet with 2k miles. I still think it is a serious problem that must be rectified by Toyota...and they will.

 

I have

Hello DD,
I have gone through all that you have described. NCDS had my case for a few weeks and then they e-mailed me a brief reply "claim denied" without any explanation. Two weeks later, the Toyota dealer called and told me they had fix. They replaced the calipers and pads. The moaning/groaning noise was replaced with a high pitch squeal or screech like fingernails on a blackboard. I hear it in the morning when I back the car out of the garage. It goes away after a few blocks and then returns if I have to stop and turn off the ignition for a half hour or more. I am scheduled to bring it back next week for the dealer to look at it again.

 

Robert,

My claim was denied by the NCDS as well because the noise did not pose a "substantial" loss in the car's value. I guess that's a disputable point of view. That was about 4 weeks ago. A couple of weeks later, my car dealer called me and said that Toyota released a fix. So I brought my car in for a repair a week later.

According to my customer rep, new brake calipers were installed and the rear brake discs "lathed" to decrease the thickness of it (I didn't even know that those shops would have lathes big enough to work on brake discs). Anyway, according to my receipt (and I'm reproducing the content from memory), they also flushed the brake lines and confirmed that the thickness of the brake discs were out of specs.

So far, the car has been running absolutely smoothly without problems -- not one single squeak, groan, moan, hooting -- you name it. But I reserve my final verdict until the temperature drops to the low 40s because that's when I get those noises 100% of the time. Our local weather has been very mild (mid 50s) since the repair (what a coincidence *sigh*).

So let's cross our fingers -- and good luck to you!

DD

 

Tex,

I don't know about the cars that you buy (or bought decades ago), but I never had to break in any brakes with my new cars.

My Prius V brakes didn't make noises until the outside temperature dropped, and you can read in the prior postings that noises still persists after 10,000+ miles! So it's not about breaking in brakes.

DD

 

On other cars from VW to Porsche and everywhere in between I always went through a bed-in brakes sequence of stops when changing pads and or drums/disks. Usually a series of almost stops from fairly high speed and then repeat.

"Following the bed-in procedures provided by the manufacturer will assure a smooth, even layer of transfer film on the rotor and will minimize brake judder." from
Brake Tech - Brake Pad and Rotor Bed-In Procedures

And there are warnings on the same page about effectiveness of the brakes for the first few hundred miles.

 

Do you happen to know if Toyota releases a TSB to fix the issue? I have the car at the dealer now and they don't know anything. Any chance you can post a summary of the parts that were changed?
Thanks.

 

Totita,

AFAIK, there will be no TSB (technical service bulletin?) because this service is considered a "field repair" (or something like that). This is a "FTS" (whatever that means). According to my receipt, it says:

[...] INSTALL SPECIAL ORDERED LOADED CALIPERS PER TOYOTA FTS INSTRUCTION.[...]

and

MACHINE REAR ROTORS AND BLEED BRAKES IN CONJUNCTION, PER FTS. REPLACED CALIPERS MACHINED ROTORS BLED AIR FROM SYSTEM & RESET LINEAR VALVE OFFSET. (ROTORS WERE NOT TRUE BEFORE MACHINING (EXCESSIVE THICKN [cut off at this point]

1 47810-47090 CALIPER
ASSY, DISC B
1 47820-47090 CALIPER
ASSY, DISC B
1 00475-1BF03 BRAKE FLUID

If your dealer still has no clue what to do, I would suggest that he contacts my dealership. Since I have received exceptional service from them, I think it should be OK to post the following info:

Toyota of Puyallup
c/o Rich Conley
Asst. Service Mgr./Customer Relations
Direct line: 253.286.6071
Fax: 253.286.6101

Toyota Puyallup dealer - Puyallup Toyota serving Seattle Tacoma Renton Auburn WA


However, I'm not going to post his email address due to potential harvesting thereof by spam bots.

Good luck!

DD

PS: This board automatically switches my URL address to something else?!? The link still works, though.

 

I bought my PriusV about 2 months ago, used. I'm at the dealer for the first time and asked them about the groaning noise my car makes, which is the same as what everyone here is posting about. They seem to think its an ABS issue. They said everyone with a Prius has it, Toyota knows, they said its normal for the car. ??? They also mentioned a boing type of noise that happens, I personally haven't heard it on my car, that's supposed to be normal too. Just wanted to share.

 

Palori,

Your case is a perfect example that depicts the difference between a high-quality and knowledgeable dealership versus a -- well, "dealership" (just to avoid words that might get me banned here. ). Your dealer just doesn't want to "deal" with your issue.

Do you really think that "everyone with a Prius" has this problem? None of the Prius drivers I know has it! And BTW, after my last trip to the dealership to have this issue addressed according to Toyota's FTS repair instructions, my "hooting" noise has not appeared again -- so far.

FYI, my local temperatures finally dropped to the mid 40s today where I usually get those noises, but no noise to report over here.

(ABS my heinie... )

DD

 

Hello DD,
I'm glad the new calipers, etc. worked for you. Good luck. I hope the noise is gone for good. The new calipers did not work for me. The dealer has had my car for five days now. They tried new rotors and claim the noise lessened somewhat but is still there. The called in their "Field Tech Support people from district" (their phrase) and were told to replace the rotors and sand them down. I'm supposed to get my car back this afternoon in about 2 hours (3/20/13). I'll keep you informed if you are still interested.
Bob

 

Bob,

Please keep us updated! I keep thinking that it's the thinning of the rotors that will make the noise disappear...

I can confirm that my Prius V has not been making any noises so far! It's a new feeling that I am still trying to get used to.

The weather has been pretty wet for the past several days and the temperatures have dropped to the low 40s at which the noise would usually appear, but nada, zip, zilch! So I'm happy!

DD

 

Hello DD,
It has been 24 hours since they sanded the rotors and so far the noise is gone. I tried everything that used to cause the squeal and no squeal. Over the past 11 months everything they tried worked for one or two days and then the noise came back. I'm hoping this time it's gone for good. I live in Sammamish. Is your weather similar to ours? Are you in Tacoma?

 

Bob,

"Sounds" like you've got a winner there (no pun intended)! Isn't it a weird feeling when you start the car expecting to hear some noise anytime soon and nothing happens?? I still get giggly about it...

And yes, I'm in the Tacoma area close to the Narrows Bridge, so I assume our climates are very similar.

DD

 

Just adding a "me too". I bought my Prius V 5 at the beginning of 2012, and around August, after moving from Sacramento to Oakland, it started making the loud noise being discussed here.

I've taken it to local dealership a couple of times. First time in Oct '12. I mentioned it at my Jan service and actually left it overnight in Feb to ensure they could reproduce it. They did and they told me a service bulletin is in the works for this known issue and it should be released around March or April.

Funny, I just realized today the noise may have subsided lately. FWIW, I use my e-brake every time I park. I don't know if that influences the issue.

 

Just adding to the records here, I am living in Hong Kong and last year (June 2012) I bought a brand new Japan-made Prius V from the Toyota official dealer here (known as Crown Motors Ltd) and have experienced the same "owl-hooting" noise ever since I started owning it. I reported the problem to the above-mentioned dealer during the 8,000 km checkup but they said they are unable to reproduce the noise and hence, nothing has been done. I am "glad" to know that this is actually a "worldwide" known-issue for the 2012 Prius V. Honestly, if this is a design flaw then I just hope Toyota would make a recall and repair it once and for all - just like they did last year for all the Corollas and some earlier Prius. While this problem doesn't occur to me as a safety issue (yet), it is just painfully embarrassing because every time I take the car out in the morning from home to work (and the opposite), anyone in the parking lot would turn and look at my car and wondering what's going on - yes, it's so loud that it even managed generate echo in the confined parking spaces (as most parking lot are here in Hong Kong)... This is the first Toyota I owned and to be frank - what a disappointment. Previous to this Prius I owned a Honda Odyssey (2008), Peugeot 307SW (2006), and they never had these noises before - so I don't think this has anything to do with "breaking-in" etc.