Hi all TCH owners

I have TCH - 2007 purchased in April 2007 with just 9,500 KMS (5,900 Miles). I live in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. A city with extreme winters. Temp in Jan and Feb this year were around -20 to -25 degree Celcius. (yes Celcius)

Anyway my MPG is not bad for the fact that I live in cold city and my day to day driving is very short distance (about 7 kms form home to work). In spring, fall and summer I get about 38 MPG (US) and winter I get about 30 MPG (US). Not great but acceptable (I think)

I try to drive my car like good hybrid driver and hardly use break. Howevere, lately (for last 3 months) I have been hearing very loud break noise particularly when breaks are cold. It looks like noise is louder in rear breakes than front. Noise is so loud that not only all perosns in my car could hear it with all windows down but drivers on other cars with their windows down could hear it loud and clear. In fact this noise in so loud that other drivers give me a strange look as I am cheap and driving some old junk. Again it is so loud that if someone is considering buying TCH or any other Toyota car, they would seriously consider other options.

Last month I took my TCH to local dealer (only 1 in town) and they told me that Toyota's technical site has some kind of advise on this issue. I am not sure what he was saying but in short he ordered some parts and replaced something on rear breakes. Unfortunately after 3 or 4 days I heard noise again and louder than before. Yes, problem got worst.

When I phone dealer again they told me that they replaced some parts in rear breakes last time and may be they would replace same parts in front. However I had to almost insist that noise is mostly from rear. So now I am taking this car again on coming friady. I am not sure what they will do this time. I will update this post after this service on Friday.

I also wrote to Toyota, Canada and I tried to explain my problem and also told them that this is not good for America's top selling car. Not very encouraging response. In short I got a feel that, now that they are number 1, they just don's care for some individual problem.

Anyway, any feedback or advise on this post will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

 

pitokhato — There are two TSBs out on the rear brake noise, and one on the front brake noise. I don't know which of these your dealer knew about, or what the technicians did. You should check your invoice. Here are the US versions of the older TSBs (previously posted here). The Canadian ones will have different numbers but the same names. The newest rear-brake TSB has been discussed on this forum recently (do a search), but no TSB has yet been posted. It presumably replaces the rear-brake TSB from before.

Stan

 

Thanks.

I will print those TSBs and show them to my dealer.

Thank you very much once again.

An other feedback/comments from others will be appreciated.

 

I bought my pre-loved 2007 TCH a month ago with 36000 kms on it....how do I know if the last owner had the brakes fixed already? The reason I'm asking is that I hear a squeak from the rear brakes when I'm backing up, but it doesn't do this any other time.

If I print out the TSB's, will the dealer be able to see if this particular car has been in to get this problem fixed already? Should the VIN be in some sort of database?

Thanks!

 

Are you sure you are not just hearing the antilock braking system? When ABS brakes engage, they make quite a loud sound. It can be quite alarming if you don't know what it is.

 

dianmichele — Toyota has an electronic database that lists all the work done on your car by dealers, including which TSBs have already been applied. You should ask your dealer's service manager to check this out.

Stan

 

Awesome, thanks! Now I just have to pick a dealer.....the dealer I got the car from is an hour's drive away and there are 2 other dealers within a 10 minute drive....