Brake Calipers Noise??

Mine was quiet for a while after I was on a mountain trip. Now it's back to squeaking. I'm going to change my oil soon and I will investigate this problem myself. In the past I have used this anti-squeal spray on shims with good success. I will probably try this out.

Or course, there is the clank problem now to which I think is the springs.....

 

I think the clank problem over sharp bumps, is the caliper rattle I have been hearing....

 

Ya -- I haven't looked at the Prius brakes up close but most pads use little metal springs to keep them from rattling in place and I bet those are worn, fell out or defective.

I had a friend who changed his pads and forgot to put them back in and it was super clanky.

 

mine has been clanking since brand new.....

 

I just looked at my front brakes. The pads move around super easily in the caliper, no wonder they clank. There is only a single spring pushing the pad towards the front of the car. The pad has a dimple where it would grip a spring on both sides. I wonder how much two of these springs would cost? May be worth making a trip to the dealer to ask. I tried to find other Toyotas around where I could see the calipers to see how they were setup.

Also, as a side note, I have 2500 miles of city driving on my car and the rotors still have the milling marks on them!! Shows how little the front brakes are actually used. Those are usually worn off in a few hundred miles.

Also, some of the no-squeal spray on the shim should eliminate the squeal when cold too. It's a tacky substance that just "lubricated" the contact area between the pad, shim and caliper.

 

I can see marks on the shims where the pad has moved back and forth about 1mm. Plenty to clank.....

 

Well, I have this too on my 2012 Prius 4. I had a similar problem with a VW years ago, and it was loose pads. However, I noticed today that if I took off my silver wheel covers, it wasn't as bad. (At least it only sounded like it came from the front.) So I guess I really had two things making noise. Is anyone aware of a fix for the wheel cover noise.

 

There's a TSB listed for caliper noise, in the stickies at the top of this section. The first chance I get, I'm going to lube up the calipers and see if the noise stops.

 

I have noticed this brake rattle/clanking noise when I back out of the garage and the front wheels drop off a 1 1/2" ledge at the front the garage. Otherwise, it happens occasionally, but isn't all that noticeable. It sounds to me that the pads, not the calipers, are making the noise. Sometimes the shims on the brake pads work at keeping the brakes quiet, but often they are not effective. A DIY, or professional for that matter, fix is to remove the shims from the pads and apply a product like “CRC Disk Brake Quiet” directly to the backs of the pads, which will stick the pads to the caliper and prevent them from moving and creating noise. The CRC product has been around for decades. It works better than shims. I have used it on all four Toyotas, and other makes, I have owned. It will definitely fix this problem. It can be purchased at any automotive parts store. See below for a picture.



Edit:Clarified to remove shims and apply CRC product directly to back of pads.

 

There is a TSB. I took the TSB for a 2010 MY and it applied to mine (2012). I found the TSP on Prius Chat. Probably a sticky. Just search for it.

 

The Toyota TSB says to use brake caliper grease on the shims and pad ears to stop the clanking and, if your serial number applies, new bushings are installed and lubed along with the pins. I have some of the Permatex grease, so I'm going to use that. Dielectric grease should work, too.

 

I have the clank too, but, knowing what it is, I'm fine with it.

It's possible that the brake clips are purposely weak to encourage the pads to retreat more easily from the rotor surface, reducing drag. 40 psi in the tires also gives a sharper impact on certain bumps. I honestly can't really hear it with the windows closed.

 

Hi all,

Unfortunately, I can't contribute to a solution for this, as I've just had my car returned to me with the rattle still not fixed. I've now had my vehicle in 6 times over the life of the car to have this repaired, and while they did have it repaired for ~30 000 km, at the last brake service, all the work they'd done to repair the rattle was undone.

I hear the noise more with higher PSI (ie, 40 - goes away at 32), and with the windows down while driving in the city, especially next to curbs where the sound is more easily reflected. As the previous poster mentioned, it can't really be heard when the windows are up.

Still, I hate that my dealership is making me feel like I'm being too critical for wanting a near-perfect vehicle that I spent $35k on...

-Iain

 

Go to another dealership. There are good and bad Toyota dealerships, and the one you're dealing with just doesn't give a damn.

 

Just got done with the job. When I pulled it all apart, I looked the pads over very carefully. The pads are painted/coated green, so you can see where's there's any contact. The outer pads looked ok, but the green was worn off of the surfaces on either side of the ears on the inner pads.
Putting it all back together, I greased the surfaces per the TSB, and I also coated the worn edges on the pads with the grease. I drove the car around my neighborhood and it looks like the clacking is gone. I'll know for sure when I drive to work and back next week.

 

Here's a captioned clip highlighting the noise I've been hearing.

-Iain

 

If you're hitng bumps when it ticks, that should be it. Mine has gotten quiter, but can still be heard on the bigger bumps.

 

Someone mentioned on another thread that the calipers are weight saving aluminum, instead of the typical steel. I tested both the front and rear calipers with a magnet. Neither will hold the magnet so they are some type of nonferrous metal. The lighter weight calipers may have something to do with the clanking noise.

 

My car has had a clunk on the left hand side when ever you hit one of those center lane reflectors (Bott's dots). The dealership correctly diagnosed it today during my 5K service and is ordering the slide pin bushings and grease. The Toyota TSB is T-SB-0136-11 dated 9/12/11 and it is searchable online.