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Prius plus brake overhaul


Matt-norge
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I’ve had a bit of trouble with the brakes on my 2012 Prius plus. First off about 18 months ago one of the front brakes started to stick, I took the calliper off and cleaned everything up as best I could without stripping it apart. I had some trouble with the piston coming out as I wasn’t aware how the brake system operated but managed to get it back in eventually and it was working ok.

Last summer I had to replace a disc on the rear as the brakes had been badly wearing on the inside. Again I cleaned everything up as best as I could, the slide pins are stiff but everything seems ok.

Now I’m having trouble with the front brake sticking again. I cleaned it all up this morning and so far it seems ok but now I’m thinking it might be time to give the brakes an overhaul to get them all working effectively again.

Ive ordered new slide pin kits for all four corners and am thinking I should do the pistons as well. I’m just wondering if bleeding through brakes afterwards is straight forward? I see so many posts and videos for other types of Prius with some saying that a computer program is needed to do things properly. Can this be done normally at home with a bleed kit or is it a bit more specialized ( last brake bleed I did was about 30 years ago and things have moved on faster than I have)

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Hi, 

the brake system of Toyota hybrids is slightly different from other cars, very important before you start work to wait till  the pump depressurise the system then you disconnect the negative terminal of the 12v Battery. If the car hasn’t been driven for a while the system is depressurised and you disconnect the Battery before you open the drivers door, you can put a towel on the rear hatch lock to prevent closing the door and limit access to the Battery afterwards. 
When winding back the pistons if they don’t move freely means they are rusted, best option here is to rebuild them with all new seals and pistons if they are damaged, then change the brake fluid with new one with help from someone to pump the brake pedal, old fashioned way for front brakes and for rear you need to connect the battery and set the car into brake service mode: 

that guy has very helpful Toyota Prius videos, for reference. 
All brake discs and pads should be clean properly, no grease anywhere especially the cooper one, cause a lot of problems, only silicon paste for the Caliper pins and where the pads touches the Caliper you can put tiny bit of Textar Ceratech”, same you can apply to the pistons ring that press into the brake pads just to keek rust away. After all corners are fitted, pump slowly the brake pedal 3 times, then connect the battery terminal, set the car in valet mode and bleed the system as shown on the video. Job done. If for any reason you can rebuild the Calipers, no help for other person for etc, you can do cleanup without dismantling , you need to take out piston as much as you can without pop in out of the Caliper , lift up slightly the rubber boot and spray wd-40 silicon specialists spray inside, then push it back slowly, take it out again and lift up and clean the rust with something like cotton buds, then spray again and push back , make sure moves freely, if it does you may cleaned successfully and no need to open and rebuild, depends of how bad has been rusted. 
Regards 

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Thanks for the reply. I was actually watching that same video this morning. I think I’ll do a complete rebuild on the front ones as the one I have had off has been very stiff and then just change the slide pins on the rear as the pistons pushed back easily last summer when I changed the discs and pads.

I’ll order the parts to my sisters place in the UK and pick them up when I visit in a couple of weeks, saves me paying Norwegian prices for parts!

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That’s ok. Remember you have to clean pads and discs, and lubricate the pins every 20k miles or two years to keep them  rust and dust free, doing so will prolong the life of your brakes and you may never need to change disc or pads again, or maybe after very long time 100k + miles. 
 

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On 2/16/2020 at 1:40 PM, TonyHSD said:

All brake discs and pads should be clean properly, no grease anywhere especially the cooper one, cause a lot of problems, only silicon paste for the Caliper pins and where the pads touches the Caliper you can put tiny bit of Textar Ceratech”, same you can apply to the pistons ring that press into the brake pads just to keek rust away.

Toyota's recommended grease for the the caliper slide pins is their red "Rubber Grease" (sometimes called "Lithium Soap Glycol Base Grease"), you can get this from the dealer parts shop. I had trouble with the slide pins seizing, and the problem returned, until I used this grease - I checked the brakes 2 years later and they were fine.

I don't think Ceratec (sold under Mintex brand in the UK/Ireland) helps prevent corrosion, if anything it seemed to cause further corrosion on the rear caliper piston surfaces for me. I use it between the pads and shims and around the bracket, but not on bare steel surfaces.

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