My daughter kept saying her 2008 Prius was making a noise. I took it to a mechanic down the street to be checked. He didn’t see anything wrong. A few days later, she complained again that the noise was worse. I drove it and heard something cycling frequently, but Prius’s make strange noises so I didn’t know what was normal. Took it to the Toyota dealership to be checked out. They couldn’t find any problem. Four days later she tells me all the brake lights have come on. Took it back to the dealership and they diagnosed the ABS brake actuator had failed and the repair would cost around $3100.00. The car has 107,000 miles and has been mostly problem free. I understand from this site that this is a fairly common problem with this model. In Japan, Toyota has issued a recall for this problem. They should do the same here in the USA.

I just found out the noise I've been hearing the past 2 years is my faulty break actuator. I just thought it was a noise that an older car with some milage on it made so nothing made me wonder, I did see lights go off in the morning but within seconds they turned off so again wasn't aware of the issue until last month when ai started my car put in reverse and my car just rolled out of the driveway into the road.

I've called Toyota and gone to the dealership whom told me about the extended warranty and claim its my responsibility to have known about. They told me repairs are $3400 plus anything else they find once getting into it. I just replaced my hybrid battery two weeks prior for $2812 and now I'm bummed. I don't have another 3k to dump into this car. Toyota told me it's a safety issue they're aware about and that I should not drive my car, however they're not offering any solution other than $3400 + for repairs.

It does look like I can get an after market part for about $300 but I don't feel comfortable fixing it myself and don't want to trust a "Craigslist mechanic" Toyota knows of the danger/safety issue and they just want to sweep the issue under the rug. I filed a complaint with safercar.gov hope others do too so this turns into a recall. I'll create a YouTube video this week about this issue hopefully we can capture more complaints. Just like the odometer chip that went out I wasn't aware of it and missed out on the warranty replacement by a few months costing my $600.

I will not buy another Toyota they should stand by their product. I don't have a choice but to drive a dangerous car i cannot afford to fix. Shame on Toyota!