Comments on: Toyota Admits Brake Design Problems with 2010 Prius

By: Jonathan Mathews

Jonathan Mathews — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 09:04:55 +0000

I had this problem twice, the last time it caused an accident. Toyota denied any problem and took no responsibility.

By: Haneesh

Haneesh — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 07:05:53 +0000

sorry that is electronic

.

By: Haneesh

Haneesh — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 07:02:53 +0000

As mentioned as in high speed there may be a safety problem, but it may not be acceptable becoz the hybrid vehicles use the battery power less in high speed that is the technology of hybrid system, so as compared to the ordinary vehicles the hybrid vehicles are similar in high speed, so the ABS should work similar to the other fuel vehicles, the failure may be due to the design of elecyronic control unit(ECU)
I am a design engineer in Mechanical field

By: imani1

imani1 — Thu, 24 May 2012 00:57:17 +0000

I like my Prius 2010 but the misfortune is that I just purchased it in late late 2011 off the floor. I fell in love with it, but now the problem – when I hit a bump I go skidding along as if I’ve hit ice. I called and went into the dealership and found that they claimed to know nothing about what I was talking about.
I did research and found that this was a common problem on the 2010 model and even the article at the head of this page says ” Toyota Admits Brake Design Problem…” Now how could they not know?
To complicate matters I took it to the dealer today, May 23, 2012 (I have only 900 miles on my car) and they said they found nothing wrong with the brakes and there was nothing they could do if they could find no problem. Does this sound familiar? It is – one owner traded his car in because of the problem.
Seems I’m always a late arrival, but I’m terrified of this car. Suppose a little kid runs into the street and I’m coming – hit a bump and the brakes and the car keeps going? A serious possibility??? YES
So I asked, they did not offer, to please allow them to do a test drive. So that is tomorrow. Hopefully they won’t run over any little kids. Any comments welcome. I

By: gabriela kalchbrenner

gabriela kalchbrenner — Tue, 10 May 2011 00:04:49 +0000

I own a 2009 toyota prius may 4 2011 had my car in the shop because brake light was on abs &vsc code 1247 was very difficult to stop!!!! today may 9 2011 having the exact same problem!!!! Is anyone having the same problem???? Iam scared to drive!!!! when they tell you they fixed the problem & it happens 5 days later-----whats wrong??????????????????

By: wendy maddy

wendy maddy — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:50:41 +0000

My brother Richard Jack Maddy was just killed while driving his Toyota Prius on a rural highway. A truck waiting for him to pass so it could turn left across Dick’s lane suddenly turned in front of him, having been rear-ended by another truck. Dick’s airbag deployed, but he was unable to stop or decelerate, and he was killed outright. The accident report says he lived between four and fourteen minutes. He was stuck in the wreckage for at least three and a half hours before the rescue crew could use the jaws of life to get his body out. That’s probably partially because of the extreme risk to rescue crews from the powerful electrical charge in a Prius. He was just minding his own business, on his way to help somebody, when he died. Toyota knew in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and indeed, from the very first day of production of a prototype, due to testing procedures, that the Prius had a slow brake response time, and why (because of the changeover from one to the other type of braking system at the time of deceleration -hydraulic to electronic), BUT THEY CONCEALED THIS INFORMATION FROM POTENTIAL BUYERS ON PURPOSE SO IT WOULD NOT AFFECT SALES FIGURES. Toyota decided it didn’t matter if somebody couldn’t slow down or stop at once when an emergency traffic situation occurred. Instead of admitting they had an inherently dangerous condition in their autos that would cost lives on the highway, and alerting the buying public about this problem, or fixing the problem in advance, acknowledging they needed to do something differently in order to ensure the safety of drivers of their product, THEY KEPT SILENT AND WENT AHEAD TO PRODUCE INHERENTLY FATALLY DANGEROUS AUTOMOBILES! ANYONE could die behind the wheel of a Prius: take your pick! Either the accelerator can get stuck and speed up to a high speed, or it can be stuck and not respond to taking your foot off the gas and braking, OR your brakes will not react in time to save your life at a high rate of speed, because your car’s braking systems are busy changing over from one system to the other, and so you are literally sliding on ice without any brakes at all while your doom looms ahead of you in the form of another vehicle hurtling toward you while you are completely helpless, trapped in your Prius as your death approaches and it fails to slow down or stop, no matter what you do, because it mechanically cannot obey your actions! Toyota built these monstrosities, these death machines, and to keep sales from hurting their bottom line during the worldwide economic depression, and especially in their biggest market, the USA, DELIBERATELY DELAYED ACKNOWLEDGING AND INFORMING THE PUBLIC AND ESPECIALLY DELAYED INFORMING THEIR OWN CUSTOMERS DRIVING THESE DEATH TRAPS THAT THEY NEEDED TO BRING THEIR CARS IN FOR ACCELERATOR AND BRAKING PROBLEMS. IN MY OBSERVATION, NO DEALER FIX WOULD HAVE SOLVED THE INHERENTLY IMPOSSIBLE BRAKING PROBLEM. THE CAR NEEDS TO BE REDESIGNED TO FUNCTION ONLY ON TRADITIONAL MECHANICALLY OPERATED HYDRAULIC BRAKES, WHICH ARE THE MORE RELIABLE AND CONSISTENT, TIME-TESTED SYSTEM. BUT NOTHING WOULD HAVE SAVED MY BROTHER FROM HIS FATE, BECAUSE TOYOTA NEVER SENT HIM A RECALL LETTER. THEY HAD ONLY BEGUN IN APRIL 2010 TO NOTIFY 2010 PRIUS OWNERS, AND THEY WEREN’T GOING TO GET AROUND TO NOTIFYING THE REST OF THEIR CUSTOMERS, ONE OF WHOM WAS MY BROTHER DICK, UNTIL LATE JUNE! RICHARD JACK MADDY DIED ON JUNE 16, 2010. He would have turned 62 and celebrated his birthday on July 13, 2010. Because of Toyota Motor Company’s overriding and selfish concern for their bottom line, which was very profitable this year for the first time since the US recession, my brother did not get the chance to celebrate his birthday and qualify for his Social Security retirement, a milestone that I happen to know personally he was looking forward to very eagerly for many years.

By: Joan1

Joan1 — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:05:49 +0000

DECELERATION PROBLEM WITH 2010 PRIUS: After stopping or slowing down my Prius has occasionally completely lost acceleration ability, Pressing on the gas pedal, even flooring it, has no real impact. There is an efficiency lag of about 5-6 seconds. Finally, flooring it has some results and the car will slightly move forward until it picks up normal speed. This total to near-total loss of power is very dangerous when trying to enter traffic. The only other person I know who has a 2010 Prius has experienced the same thing, but our dealers (in two different states) acknowledge nothing. ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM ?????????

By: Bill Carpenter

Bill Carpenter — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:13:16 +0000

If you like hybrids, this is part of the game damn near everything on these cars are electronic so you must rely on small soldered connections to save your life. Solder is applyed to these circuit boards and connections with heat. Electricity creates three things: light, heat, and a magnetic field. If there is a certain amount of resistance in a circuit heat is created which can easily break a solder joint in the right circumstances. Personally, I like small, light cars, and light duty trucks with manual transmissions and more than one mechincal fail safe.

By: AP

AP — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:51:37 +0000

LP,

It's hard to say whether your issue would be any different, hybrid or not. If there were ice under the snow, the ABS can only brake the car as quickly as the traction allows. Packed snow also reduces braking ability.

Also, magazines have pointed out that in DEEP snow, ABS may increase stopping distances, since the quickest way to stop is to lock up the wheels and let the snow bunch up in front of the tires. This doesn't sound like the conditions you're describing, though.

Being a Michigan resident in a hilly neighborhood, I am familiar with the "don't know if I will make it" feeling heading downhill towards a stop sign, and I've never owned a hybrid.

By: LP

LP — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:33:56 +0000

From a British article Toyota will recall the Priuses. After that exxperience, I had to drive about 3 miles and I was extremely careful staying way behind other cars and stopping far from the cars ahead of me. I did not know if the issue was road conditions.

I was coasting down the incline from my house to the light. I coast all the time in all kinds of weather because the light is almost guaranteed red ( 5-way intersection ) with no turn on red. I am in a cul de sac. The length of the incline is maybe 100 yards and it is not steep. But it is steep enough that brakes have to be applied to come to a stop. The car seemed to not want to stop and I was sliding away from the curb. I actually thought it would end up past the lights where cars were going across.

It was snowing, road was white, not sure if there was ice under it. But I would expect to have no issue if I have been coasting at low speed and am not slamming on the brake. I expected to have good all weather tires. It lasted seconds before I managed to control it and stop.

I had an appointment, otherwise I would have gone back home.

I will go with the brake correction for my peace of mind.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1249160/Toyota-poised-recall-270-000-Prius-models.html