This '04 has a bit over 50k miles on it, and the brake pads and brake shoes look near-new. However, when coming to stop, 20% of the time there will be a quite loud bang or two from the rear. The dealer inspected and found nothing wrong. There's nothing rolling around anywhere. I pulled the wheels and brakes and sanded the drums and shoes - I thought it made a difference, but perhaps it was autosuggestion. I've asked before but no one had any ideas that helped -- perhaps now? ???
this happens to me occasionally when its below 20 degrees my first few stops in the morning, its hard to come to a smooth stop as well, it jerks violently to a stop. But after a few stops the brakes 'warm up' & the loud noise & jerky stops disappear. my problem also definitely comes from the rear so it has nothing to do with the front regenerative brakes, I have always wondered about it, but can't understand why it would happen to you in nice spring weather.
The rear brakes are drums in North American Prius. It sounds to me like you may have a sticky brake pad or a weak spring. Take it to any mechanic you trust (the friction brakes are not hybrid) and get it checked right away since you have diminished braking with this condition. Most of the time, when regenerative braking slows you down to 7 mph, this isn't a problem, but if you had to brake in an emergency situation, that banging brake isn't going to give you full stopping power.
im not a car expert but if i was in your situation and the dealer told me the brakes were fine, the nexts thing i would automatically suspect is the suspension when a car comes to a complete stop there is always a bounce in the rear and that to me sounds like it would cause the one or two loud noises
