We've just towed our 2012 Prius as far as PA and found that the brakes are completely blown. What did we do wrong? Front wheels were up. We need advice before going on across the country.
So your rear wheels were rolling while the front two wheels were up? Did you leave the parking brake on? And what do you mean by "blown": Is there no feeling in the pedal and it goes straight to the floor? Do you have dashboard indicator lights on?
Does the parking brake use a separate brake shoe set on the rear rotor like other 4 wheel disc cars? I'm also interested to see what the symptoms are. Hopefully they found a good mechanic.
all vehicle has a parking brake for the rear, its either a small shoe behind the disc or a drum set up brakes. Sounds like he either left his parking brakes on. I would also like to know the answer to this.
The rear calipers on the Gen 3 are applied through a mechanical linkage from the cable. There is no other set of pads. The rear disc brakes sold on the Gen 2 in Europe had the integral drum parking brakes (drum-in-hat).
I agree but I guess now the only adjustment for the parking break is tightening the cable, no springs, etc. But potentially in this case, destroy the brakes if you leave it on, like the old drum ones.
Pretty sure in the manual it says to ONLY tow the Prius with a flatbed, no wheels rolling. Could be mistaken, I have only had one cup of coffee this morning.
Correction, poured my second cup of coffee and grabbed my manual. Page 490. It says to never use a sling type truck to avoid body damage. Does look like you can tow, with the front wheels up with a lift type truck.
Not sure without more info... the towing section starts on page 487 (2010 model anyway) and really doesn't go into a whole lot of detail, nothing that leads to issues with the breaks. Lots of transmission damage warnings though.
Thank you all.....we are keeping tabs on your replies as well as dealing with Toyota here. Let me assure you that the parking brake was NOT engaged and the front wheels were up. We will know more on Monday after they have checked with Toyota regional engineers. Let me clarify....when we removed the car from the dolly, we had multiple alarms: ABS, anti-skid and brake alarms. The speedometer indicated "0" no matter what speed we drove. The dealership discovered that the 12V battery was low and the rear brake pads were worn completely down. Also, apparently from the heat of the brakes, the rear hubs were damaged. I will get back with you all after our discussions with Toyota on Monday. Thanks again for your input.
Thanks for the update! When you put the car on the dolly, did you engage the parking brake and then disengage it before you started moving the car? It sounds like the rear brakes never relieved their clamping force on the rotor. Also just out of curiosity, how many miles was the car trailered for? My assumption: The rear brakes stayed engaged either without your knowledge or they did not fully disengage after you last engaged them. I can't figure out the 12v battery low though. Because rear brakes stayed engaged: - Rear brake system wore excessively (which you already indicated) - Resulted in damaged the hub due to heat generated (which you already indicated) - Rear wheel sensors were damaged from the heat (sensors are attached to rear hub for ABS, Stability control) - Because of the speed sensor damage, it created failures in multiple systems: ABS, Speedometer read out, and stability control. Good luck with the repairs. Sounds like, at a minimum, the parts list would be: (If they were nice, they would give you wholesale price which could save you a bit of money.) -Both rear speed/skid control sensors (approx $40 a piece) -Both rear pads (approx $68 a piece) -Both rear rotors (approx $100 a piece) -Both rear hubs (approx $270 a piece)
