I've read a few posts about the Prius braking system. Just wondering what other owners have done when they experience the metal grinding noise and when brakes need to be replaced. My car has around 67,000 miles. I was planning to take it to a Toyota dealer, although prefer to find a certified Prius or hybrid mechanic at an independent shop. Thanks in advance for your response.
A conventional mechanic can handle it so long as he understands that he needs to disconnect the 12V battery before pulling things apart. It's possible that you just have a foreign object embedded or wedged against a pad and won't need a full brake job. This is a bit early for a typical Prius to need brakes.
+1, pads should be fine, a pebble in the wrong place is loud, reverse with a little speed and abrupt stops should dislodge it
+2 Noise also can come from the rotors developing a surface rust (particularly in the winter in areas where salt is used on the roads). Because the brakes are really not used very much on the Prius (our 2007 Prius has 148K miles and is still on the original brakes) this is not unusual.
