Bad caliper

No, it’s not normal. It wouldn’t surprise me if Toyota asks the dealer to return the part for failure analysis, though they probably won’t share the results, even with the dealer.

If the repairs are made at no charge under the warranty, it may be best to consider the matter closed, since the trouble could have been caused by foreign object damage, which wouldn’t normally be covered.

It won’t do anything for you, directly, but after you’re sure everything has been fixed, you may wish to report the incident to NHTSA. If they receive enough similar complaints, they may open an investigation, which could eventually lead to a recall, if they find that other vehicles are at risk of similar failures.

I’ll let others comment on this, but if it were just a small leak of brake fluid, I would have expected the red BRAKE warning light to have turned on long before other symptoms were evident.

The usual secondary damage is from the collision, but fortunately, there wasn’t one, so I wouldn’t think so. Any other problems with the brake system should be found while the dealer is making the repairs and testing their work. It’s clear that they recognize the problem is a serious one.

Any competent mechanic should do a road test after making a brake repair, but the service advisor shouldn’t be offended if you ask if this has been done. They also should have used the Health Check function of a Toyota Techstream diagnostic system (or equivalent) to confirm that there are no diagnostic trouble codes stored in any of the car’s computers.

For your records, even if the repair is done at no cost to you, be sure to get a copy of the repair order listing each part that was replaced and its ten-digit or twelve-digit Toyota part number.

It’s unfortunate that the dealer didn’t give you this advice when you called them, but for future reference, if the red BRAKE warning light comes on and stays on again (with the parking brake released, of course), and you also notice any trouble with braking, stop the car in a safe place, as soon as you can, and have it towed in, rather than taking the risk of further failures while you are driving.

 

certainly, the entire system should be checked visually, and by road test.

this is a very unusual problem, even for older vehicles. ask if it appeared that any road damage had taken place, or something might have happened before you purchased it new.

 

If one of your calipers was not releasing for some reason and your brakes were always dragging this could cause a drop in mpg, excessive brake wear and eventually brake failure. I had a friend that had a dragging caliper that eventually wore the brake pad on one side until the piston was touching brake rotor and when this happened all the fluid drained out of the piston. I couldn't believe it didn't make sounds that they didn't realize was catastrophic. It can be very easy to diagnose with a simple and quite inexpensive IR temperature meter. After driving a few miles without braking safely coast to a stop and check the brakes at each wheel for excessive heat. I would say if you were careful you could do this with your hand but I am sure someone could end up burning themselves. Dragging brakes generate heat and checking each rotor for excessive temp takes just a second.

I do agree that how you drive has a major impact on mpg too. When my wife drives my car she always gets 5-6 mpg less then I get but I drive it like a Prius paying attention to the gauge and understanding how to optimize the mpg and my wife just drives it like her camry . How often when you are driving and accelerate does it go out of ECO mode on the gauge? In stop and go traffic do you try and maximize driving in EV mode only?

 

We've had that same behaviour on our 2010, had it into the dealership to check (more than once), dismiss the lights. It's definitely not just mechanical, it's something in the brake system electronics, a "missed handshake" according to the Service Manager one time.

There could be a mechanical problem as well, but in our case, just resetting everything with their software, and my discontinuing the use of a Scanguage hooked up to the OBD port, problem did not repeat. Mechanic suspected constant ScanGuage connection to OBD as the culprit.

Your mention that the brakes feel weird is the smoking gun: when the brake electronics get messed up, the system goes into a default mode (again, according to the Service Manager). They still "work", but effort is noticeably more, and they aren't as responsive, linear.

Whenever there's warning lights, there should be trouble codes stored.

 

This is probably checkable by hand for most people old enough to have learned the way hot things feel from a few inches away before actually grabbing them.

My technique is to scout out a route I know where I'll encounter very little traffic for 10 or 15 minutes of driving, so I won't need to touch the brake, and it ends in a big parking lot that I can swing into using only B to slow down, circling around a bit, shifting into R around 6 or 7 mph and only stabbing the brake at the instant the car is stopped, before it picks up speed backward. Healthy Prius brakes will feel stone cold to the hand after such a test. (Using no brakes to come to the stop is important; even light use of the brakes at the end will mess up the test by leaving the rotors noticeably warm.)

Just reach for the rotor slowly enough that if it isn't stone cold, you'll feel the warmth hitting your hand before you actually touch it. I suppose some people might have a sensory deficit as to feeling radiant heat, and if you're one of them, maybe more caution is in order.

I once took an old Ford SUV to the dealer for brake work, and they misadjusted the master cylinder pushrod so all four brakes dragged on the drive home, which I noticed as soon as I got out because I could feel the heat radiating from the wheels through my pant legs as I simply walked past them. I could also see the air shimmering, as it does over a grill.

I did not reach down and touch those.

-Chap