I've only been a professional wrench for +40 years with multiple licenses and I've seen and heard this all before. You asked, but the decisions are all yours. Wish you the best.
Again,,,, You should never 'add brake fluid'. You're just making a problem if you do. There is a Max and Min line for a reason. It's a translucent reservoir for a reason. Resist the urge to open that cap and let moisture in.
Most if not all of Toyota’s service recommendations are miles or months, whichever comes first. Concur about not adding brake fluid, it typically drops as a consequence of pad wear, and it’s pointless to “top up”. However, regarding the cap on brake fluid reserve, while a snug fit, don’t see it as being air-tight, sealed.
DOT 3/4 is most definitely not a 100K mile fluid. If your brake fluid drops close to minimum in the reservoir that means you need maintenance. Either you have a leak of some kind or you pads/shoes are worn. Fluid should be flushed every 2-3 years or 30K miles at minimum...regardless what you drive.
Basically means pads have thinned, pistons have come further out the calipers, and brake fluid has filled the increased void behind the pistons. With new pads you need to push the pistons back into the calipers, and the fluid level in the reservoir goes back to where it was at the outset. Barring leaks.
Having owned 2 Prii and an HV RAV4...as it relates...you will need to flush the fluid before the pads/rotors ever need work.
Yup, per Toyota Canada: Lovely maintenance schedule format (attached), for the last few years of 3rd gen. For 4th gen, they completely stripped it out of the paper/pdf documents, made it online-only, in a format similar to the US Warranty and Maintenance Booklet, event-by-event, so impossible to see the patterns, unless you labouriously translate it back to spreadsheet table (which is likely how it's created...).
See thread #27. That's what OEM maintenance manuals used to look like, before total cost of ownership (TCO) was weaponized in the automotive industry. OEM sought to lower their TCO, by deferring maintenance, claiming lifetime fluids; pushing out oil changes to10K miles and requiring full synthetic oils. That pushes their TCO over a 5-8 year period down; making them look more competitive. Some of us wants to drive a car until the wheels fall off or when the universe has other plans. We tend to do REAL maintenance, rather than just the OEM minimum - to get us past the OEM warranty period.
