I have a highly technical question about the breaks in the third-generation. I have been reading a brochure about the Audi A3 Turbo diesel that has just been starting to go on sale in Canada here. I was looking at the specifications, and of course the vehicle included stuff like EBD, ESB which is their version of vehicle stability control, traction control and so forth. To my dismay, the version of the car was not available with all-wheel drive. What it did have been specifications is that the breaks are dual independent system of breaks linked diagonally. This reminds me very much of the old diagonals systems of breaks that were used in the 80s and 90s. Basically the breaking of the front right and the rear left wheel as well as the front left and the rear right are controlled independently. But this set of two diagonal wheels are in fact controlled together. This is the bare minimum for braking system as if one system fails, the other system is still able to slow the car down but much less effectively. I was under the impression, that most modern cars with electronic brake distribution had four independent braking systems to control each wheels separately. This allows left and rear redundancy on the braking system as well as separate control from front and backs when the vehicle is loaded in the back more breaks can be applied to the rear wheels. Even Honda Civics in the 90s had a three channel system where the front to breaks were controlled independently in the rears were controlled together. My question is, does the third-generation use for channel independent braking or does it use some sort of diagonal system like the AUDI. One would figure an expensive car like that would have one of the better braking systems available. It seems very odd to me, that such a very expensive luxury brand would not have breaks that can compete with most other vehicles including the generation three. Does anybody know what the generation three actually has for braking system?
If you lose power braking, the manual master cylinder operates the front two brakes. The parking brake operates the rear brakes. Tom
Regenerative braking only acts on the front wheels, if you can't regen, then Ken has friction braking right and qbee has parking braking right.
The above three posts should give the OP some idea of the redundancy built into the Prius braking system: 1) Regenerative braking through the front wheels. 2) Four wheel ABS electrically assisted hydraulic friction brakes with backup electrical power. 3) Front wheel manual hydraulic friction brakes. 4) Rear wheel manual cable operated brakes. 5) Foot dragging out an open door. 6) Hitting something solid, such as a tree or bridge abutment. Try to avoid using numbers 5 and 6 above. Tom