Seized caliper

1. The car is a prius c?

2. What location?
(Weather can be a factor, salted roads in winter.)

3. And miles on the odometer is 60,000?

4. Have you ever had a full brake inspection, either DIY or professional?

5. Brake fluid ever replaced?

 

Or... or perhaps... you just got a bad piece of equipment. It happens. Though, you are the first person in the 5+ years I've been a member to have ever mentioned a brake problem like this. It sucks that it happened to you, but outliers happen.

 

Is the piston plastic? I know our 3rd gen fronts are. Maybe they're swelling? That'd be disastrous for Toyota though, I'm thinking they must have tested that very thoroughly....

 

Or just go ahead and get the OEM rebuild kit ($39 list price, less from the dealers that sell discounted online, parts to rebuild two calipers), bring yours back to life, and in the process find out what went wrong, and post it here.

I would reuse an OEM caliper with the rebuild kit in most cases before one from a third-party rebuilder, unless something really made the original one unrebuildable. Voice of experience....

-Chap

 

According to Wikipedia:
As of January 2017, the Aqua/Prius c is the second most sold hybrid of Toyota Motor Corporation after the regular Prius, with 1,380,100 units sold worldwide.

With the fact that we use our brakes much less than a typical Yaris, this could indeed be hiding the fact they are shitty, or it could be exacerbating the issue due to lack of use. It's hard to say. But with the fact that we have members with over 300k miles on their cars, we'd probably have heard of this issue before now, somewhere, if it were a prevalent problem.

Maybe the hybrid setup takes some strain off the stock braking system?

 

Need more info.
Caliper piston would not retract....during a brake change or while driving?

Rebuild kit would be cost effective if the OP can DIY.
FWIW I too would like to know the "root" (torn boot, salt damage etc.) of the failure.

 

did you ask toyota for goodwill warranty?

 

That's what I used to think, before the quality of the cheap rebuilt I had bought forced me to go back and really compare them. (And the one I had bought was probably one or two tiers above any that sells for $36.)

-Chap

 

Doesn't hurt to ask: there might be a service bulletin regarding seizing pistons. The fronts on regular 3rd gen are some sort of high tech plastic: maybe they're problematic.

 

Wow $36 dollars for a complete caliper....that's great/ awesome/ wow.
I wouldn't rebuild either.
Guess I am use to other manufacturer prices.
I for one would still like to know the root issue.

 

It may be a US based forum, but there are plenty of members from around the world. If a person with an aqua/PC, or even a Yaris Hybrid in Europe, found they had an issue... I'm pretty sure the first place they'd visit is the internet. Guess what one of the first places to pop up is... that's right. Priuschat.

I bought the PC because it was not the ugly egg looking Prius and it was cheaper. I may not be the norm, but I'm sure there were others that bought for this reason.

I've never seen a Corolla get 50+ mpg... so no, I never considered the Corolla. But then again, I'm 5'9 and 155 lbs, so I must fall into that fat 'murican category you so broadly stroked with.

I agree that the rotors are undersized, but that's because they are far less utilized thanks to the regen system. If you're heavy footed, that absolutely could have contributed. Probably a factory of being an overweight 'Murican.

I did a search on da googles for Yaris and xD cars with a similar issue and I didn't see very many posts that specifically targeted the Yaris. Most were just how to unseize a caliper if sticking in all cars.

Though, I did find an interesting one on ToyotaNation that mentioned that water could get into the fluid if it isn't changed per interval cycle. With the water in there, it can start to rust internal lines and create debris flake. This debris flake can cause the pistons to seize by getting into the travel of the piston and preventing it from compressing.

Did the service department mention anything at your 55k service when they inspected your brake system? 60k miles isn't much, obviously, but I don't know the conditions the car has been through. You mentioned salt, but that it didn't contribute in other cars you've owned.

In issues like this where it isn't a very common thing among the car (either because the car hasn't sold a lot, or because it's not a big issue), it's hard to determine what caused it. You've put the info online now, though, so if anybody else experiences this, they'll see it.

 

Toyota USA has no recommendation for brake fluid change. Toyota Canada says tri-yearly or 48K kms (30K miles), for all their vehicles, since maybe 2012. Honda Canada says tri-yearly, regardless of mileage, for all their vehicles, as long as I can remember.