Clicking Noise When Braking in Reverse — Is This Normal

The pads do move. They have 'ears' that are held loosely in channels in the caliper bracket, so they can move toward the rotor and away. Being held loosely, they can also move a tiny bit in whichever direction the rotor is turning when they meet it.

They are held in "support plates" (a/k/a the "fitting kit"), little springy clips that fit in the bracket channels, and the pads fit into them.

Describing earlier generations (I haven't worked on a 2023's brakes, but expect this is similar), if you look at a set of those "support plates", they aren't all identical. They are pairs, where one of each pair has a longer bent tab sticking out. When you're careful to install them as the picture shows, the longer tab works like a spring and holds the pads pushed in the direction the rotor turns moving forward. That way when you brake moving forward (which is, after all, most of your braking), the pads are already as far that way as they can go, so there is no click.

When you brake while moving in reverse, the pads therefore have a little room to travel the other way, and make a click.

Ordinarily, as time passes and things get dirtier / stickier / rustier, that nice reverse click gets a little softer, or maybe stops being heard at all. If you're hearing it nice and clearly, it suggests your brakes are clean and moving nicely, as if they were recently worked on, or if they weren't, have at least been staying in a nice free-moving condition.

 

I would clesn and the caliper slide pins to see if they are sticking. If the outer and inner pad have worn to different remaining thicknesses, it would be a clear indicator of sticking slide pins.

 

To be honest, i never heard this before it started like.. 2 weeks ago? At about 51k km on the clock.. It does something similar on my 300k miles Civic Si, but the calipers have been sandblasted more then once so there is a slight slack and once the pad had taken it's place, it won't do it again.. The Prius however, can repetedly do it.. will tell that to the service dept. while the car is still on it's warranty..

 

Will do. Drove the Civic for 5 days straight as it was sunny but rain is forcasted for the next 3 days so i'll take the Prius now..

P.s. Definitely NOT normal. It never did this before..

 

Mine does it , it's normal.

 

Well sorry for the delay. What happened on my car was that when i had the brakes cleaned/serviced, they buffed the rust from the brake pads and it shortened them a tiny bit. When you went forward all was fine but when you backed up and braked, the pad got slammed on the pads support bracket and it made a "Klok" noise. New brake pads paid for by the dealer and all is well.

 

Mine click in reverse and all is still well.

The pads, clearly, cannot be interference-fit in the bracket. They must be free to move, so there is always a slight clearance.

The spring clips that make up the fitting kit are are of two types: when properly installed, the ones with the longer 'lips' act as springs to keep the pads pressed against the bracket in the direction they are forced when braking forward. That's how the design avoids clicks when braking forward.

The same design pretty much guarantees clicks while braking in reverse. On the other hand, a lot of things can go into whether those clicks sound sharp or muffled, or whether a particular driver hears them or worries about them. Given that what the clicks indicate is that the fitting kit is installed right and the pads are moving freely as designed, I choose to smile when I hear them.

 

This is common on disk brake systems. The brake pads move inside the caliper because they expand when heated.

 

Proud owner of a new 2025 Prime, replacing the 24 before it. No brakes noises whatsoever on this one so far..

 

When you first use the car in the morning, is the first motion of the car to drive forward, or to drive in reverse?

 

Depends how i park my car. Can go both ways. My 2024 was KNOCKING in reverser following a brake maintenance where they buffed the pads a bit too much and got silent with new brake pads. The 2025 is virtually silent.

 

I have the same noise in my LE, not only in reverse, but also when the car comes to a full stop, start moving forward after reversing, etc, all at very low speed. I'm thinking it is the pads moving, as I can hear the same thing in my other hybrid - the pads only engage at very low speeds and in reverse. But since the other car has better insulation, the noise can only be noticed when the windows are down.

 

Just adding my experience here that my brakes also made the clicking noise when I apply the brakes going in reverse. I brought it up to the dealer, did a brake service and it still clicks.

I’m also hoping that this is normal.

 

My brand new 2025 Prius Prime does this. They told me it’s normal, and it can be. I disagree.

My 2022 ES300h used to do this, but it was more weather dependent.

 

It isn't necessary to just hope it is normal. It's also possible to look at how the calipers are built, and understand why it is normal.