I bought this 2010 new and have never heard this noise until three days ago. When I apply the brakes lightly, there is a somewhat high pitched noise almost as if air was being released. It is not a scraping noise. It comes from the right? rear. If I break medium hard the noise goes away. It happens warm or cold and doesn't change (or gets a little worse) during course of the day. There isn't regenerative breaking in the rear, is there?
Try to Jack up your car and rotate the back wheel s with hand and see if they rotate without resistance. Remember to have the foot parking brake released. Meanwhile check how much your brake disc /pad have been wear down. Regenerative braking only happens in the front wheel. Hope it helps Christian Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Sounds good to check. We drive on dirt roads 4 times a week, and it has rained a lot. However, rear brakes done and rusty backing plate romoved 5 months ago.
When I hear "rear brakes done" it has me wondering: did they get the caliper piston oriented correctly. There's pins on the pad backs that are supposed to lock in between the spokes on the caliper piston face. When the parking brake is applied this prevents the piston from rotating. If the pin is mis-oriented, or was not solidly seated, the pin may ride up on a spoke. This causes uneven application of pad pressure, rotor scoring, constant drag, all sorts of good stuff. For starters, have a look through the spokes with a good light, see how the rotors look. Uniform shiny, or scored? If you crawl under you can JUST see a little bit of the inside face of rotor. Does it look ok? Misaligned piston will evidence as about 50% of the rotor surface being unused/rusty. Then follow suggestion above, chock the front wheels, raise the rear (with parking brake off), and see how easy the wheels turn. A slight drag is normal, but it should not be a fight to get the wheels spinning a turn or two.
Not knowlegable about brakes. Removed wheel, nothing obvious stuck between rotors and pads. what should I be looking for?
A high pitched noise would indicate some type of metal rubbing. If there's a wear indicator clip, check if that's rubbing close to the rotor.
Okay, so here is where I am at. Jacked up, and only slight drag on wheel. Only slight squeek. Nothing obvious caught. wear seems even on rotor. Am going to go back out and have wife apply slight brake and see if noise.
When wife applies brakes very lightly, no unusual grabing or noise. Think will put wheel back on and take it to garage where brakes done. The guy is very understaning and reasonable, so will have him ride with me to hear noise, and see what he thinks.
While the wheel's off (if it is still) you can check pad thickness. Outside's relatively easy to see, and both sides visible through a hole in the caliper shoulder, edge-on.
