Accident, <30,000, might be brakes. Sue?

It's more likely that the brakes were damaged in your accident. It's not unusual in front end collisions. Get them checked at a Toyota dealer immediately. If they were damaged and fail completely you will soon have much bigger problems.

 

Whether or not they were working correctly before, it sounds like there is a problem with them now. In any case they need attention. Get them diagnosed; that should shed some light on whether you should be thinking about suing anyone.

 

At any rate, the accident was your fault to start with. You can then recover costs etc. from Toyota if the brakes did fail. It's also possible, if you are charged or points are put on your license, that you can get them reversed, once you establish the brakes actually DID fail, and it wasn't due to your negligence.

Was the road wet, or was there oil on the road? When that happens many people think the brakes failed.

If it was the brakes failing, then you would need a lawyer to advise you. Keep in mind if the costs of the accident were fairly low it would probably be more expensive to sue than to swallow it. Yes, you can recover "all costs" if you win. This doesn't account for the months of aggravation, disturbance of your life, etc.

Good luck.

 

Did you have any warning lights on when driving the car last night?
Can you replicate the problem now?

If your answer is "no" to both of the above questions, then I doubt that any problem will be found with your brakes.

 

sorry, but no way you can get insurance company to change liability since law requiring "safe following distance" is so much that you could drag your feet and still stop in time. so a slight delay in braking simply means you were still way too close or simply not attentive enough.

if the weather or road conditions were not optimal, that is simply more facts stacked up against you since the law puts the burden of "determining maximum safe speed" for conditions on you. because of the accident. they will simply blame you for lack of judgment.

 

died?... ha. if it was only that easy...

it's hard to have a complete brake failure in a prius. i has 3 systems.. there is the main system.. the back up electric system.. and the 12v capacitor bank by the rear 12v battery. in case the others fail. if the others do fail, and you do happen to use this capacitor bank.. an alarm goes off under your dash. very very hard to miss ( even standing ouside of my car )


i've heard this alarm once in my life.. i don't care to explain why... it scared the @#@$% out of my brother though ( he was sitting passenger in the car when the alarm went off)

anywho... traction control... abs system.. there are many factors... nothing a 24year old would ever get away suing... keep your eyes forward... *shrug*

 

Sounds to me like you tripped the ABS system. This is even more likely if there were any bumps or loose gravel and/or if you still have your original tires. When ABS kicks in you will have much less stopping power, but it will prevent you from skidding and losing control of the vehicle. Even though it feels like ABS makes the car take much longer to stop, it still stops sooner than it would have if you'd lost traction.

 

It is still possible to have a mechanical failure in the master cylinder of the brakes. Rare, but possible. For example, metal bits from manufacture left inside, jamming the piston. I have even seen a master cylinder that was made without the rubber seal. NOT a Toyota, of course.

Nothing is totally immune from failure. If we don't remember that, we are doomed!

 

how long ago was the "one time" at the dealership?

 

Hi Whitespider,

Its unlikely there was a brake problem. But it could happen.

Here is what you are feeling when you brake a Prius. Lets start with normal cars. The brakes on normal cars slide along until you get to a slow speed, and then they grab. You feel this as a jerking stop when your pushing on the brakes hard. Engineers call this jerk to a stop - static friction, and the less friction of two running surfaces - sliding friction. Its a well known thing. They teach it in College Freshmen Physics.

A Prius does the same thing. But, before its starts using the friction brakes its using the electric brakes, which are more powerful. So, you feel heavy decelleration G's under electric braking, and then the car switches to friction braking which has less decellerating G's. There are still decellerating G's. But it feels like the car lost its brakes momentarily. Which is an illusion.

BTW, this happens around 7 mph. So, you want to be careful to get the car under 7 mph when you get close to something. Because you will only have the much weaker standard (like in traditional cars) friction brakes at this speed.

Another thing is that friction brakes get wet. On a standard car its usually when first starting off, with either wind blown watter on the brakes, or after runing through a water puddle. The next stop is "Whoa Where Did the Brakes Go!". But then heat builds up in the brakes and they work like normal as the water is evaporated away.

This can happen in the Prius, but you do not know about it til 7 mph (rather than 45 mph with the standard car) when the wet friction brakes are first used. This actually makes the car safer, because the electric brakes slow the car down to 7 mph even if your friction brakes are so wet you could never stop in time. Where in a standard car, you may slide into somebody at 20 or 30 mph because the brakes did not heat up fast enough. But its also something to be aware of in slow-and-go wet traffic, where you might not use the friction brakes for 10 miles of up and down speeds. And then get caught at a stop light. If your following too close and slam on the brakes, and they are wet, and not hot, there could be an issue.

Also, remember the Prius has that emergency brake actuation. If you hit the brakes at panic speed, the Prius hydraulics resoivour slams those friction brakes on so fast it will snap your head forward. But it also disables the electric brakes too for these panic stops. But if those friction brakes are wet, and cold, the stop wont be as impressive.

We are all used to wet and cold friction brakes when we first start off driving traditional cars. We are not used to them 20 miles down the road, yet. This is just something to get used with the Prius. Similar to looking around the A-pillar in traffic.

I have wheel covers on my car that cover almost all the wheel opening. I think this helps with the erant splash of water onto the front brakes of the car, from other cars running through puddles.

Another time the electric brakes switch off is when a wheel slips. The electric brakes have lots of torque. If you hit a slick surface, or a pothole (surface area of wheel contact gets too small for the braking torque) the wheel will momentarily slow down, which is interpretted as a lock-up. And the ABS comes on, and when it does, it turns off the electric braking and switches to friction braking. SO, when you see the yellow ABS braking light come on, even if you have rolled beyond the rough , or slick portion of the road, consider your not on friction brakes, till after you use the gas peddle the next time.

 

Take the car to a large parking lot or safe back road and at about 20 mph stand on the brake. Don't be tentative, really push hard immediately. You are using the friction brakes only then and you will know immediately if your brakes work.