This morning, I had my brakes 'stop working' for the third time since I've owned the car.

I'm calling the dealership right now, because at this point, I'm worried there is something seriously wrong here.

I was travelling at around 30mph (after the car has been warmed up for about 10 minutes), travelling towards a stop sign.

I simply apply easy pressure to the brake pedal, and I get no response other than the pedal kicking back at me. I have to practically kick the petal 2-3 times to get them to finally start working again..

So, now I know that I'm not the only one with this problem. I'm getting scared to drive the car right now..

 

yea.. never had any experience w/ abs yet, because before i had an 92 accord, but now i know about it better. So it is true that the scions have that feature where they have the panic braking?

 

This is true. Toyota has been having problems with their 94 thru 2001 camry engines "gelling up" [oil] for some time now and only when threatened with a class action lawsuit did they acknowledge a problem and began to implement a 8 year unlimited mileage "extra" warranty on these cars.

 

"I'm convinced there's a problem in their braking system, ABS or not.. something's up."

Yeah, bad driving.

 

This is true, but remember that Scion is still a start up brand, and PR is at the utmost important. They don't want to turn into Hyundai now, with their mistakes in their humble beginnings. Toyota is not one to let serious problems linger, and they protect their reputation for reliable cars, at it is their selling point. If it were a performance brand, I could see why they wouldn't bother. But Toyota is a damn well run business. Let's hope I'm right, cuz if I'm not, it's bad news for us all.

 

Anything came out of this Scion rep visit?

 

I was told by Kaz a Scion Specialist that a Regional Rep was going to contact me within 2 business days...that was last week. No call yet. Yesterday I spoke with Matthew a Scion Experience Rep and he tells me that I have to wait for a letter.

WTF? is this...no one at Scion seems to know shhh...

 

Ask for their managers, then for the managers of their managers and so on. That's BS - you have a screwed up car...

 

Remember - on this whole board of enthusiasts who are probably driving more and much more concious about their driving than the general public, we've got two reports of this happening - it took a week of checking in to figure out that the aluminum **** was aluminum, and there is one of those in every car. Unless this happens to a lot more people or someone comes up with a car where they can make this happen ON COMMAND, I doubt Scion is going to have anything to say. What the hell would they say? They obviously don't know about this problem or what causes it - can you imagine them releasing this car with ____ed up brakes if they did? I'm not saying it didn't happen - I'm saying that if we want to get it fixed, let's make sure we collect everyone's stories and present them to Scion so they can help us out - someone want to start a poll to see if this has happened to anyone else?

 

all I want is for someone with some knowledge to get back to me...as of now my car has been at the dealer for about a week...

 

I finally spoke to a Toyota Regional Rep and they told me that a Field Engineer will be out to inspect the car in a week or so...And then it will be referred to their legal department.

This process can take 60 days. So for now I have to wait and make payments on a car I don't have...

What can I do???

 

I am the guy whose tC was totalled by this problem. And lets get one thing straight from the start; I do not lie, nor do I appreciate the people in here calling me and the 5 other people who had this problem such names. It was not bad driving and it was not being careless. And for the genious who keeps preaching about the great performance of ABS and how they don't lock up, then how come both Scion and Allstate are telling me that that is what happened or at least sounds like what happened but can not be proven because of the damages sustained to my vehicle. I have heard from 4 other people about this problem, some of them telling me that it happened more than once to them. It is indeed a real problem and no one is attacking Scion, we just want to be safe and them to make us that way. I have no problem buying another tC as long as my dealer checks MY car that I will drive and tells me that they see no problem. My car is getting entirely covered by insurance and the GAP insurance but I am taking a 102 dollar insurance increase every 6 months because of this and I have no carl. This happened as a freak accident to me, and to everyone else who is talking about it. Don't dare call them liers because you have a boner for your car, do not be that ignorant.

 

I called Scion HQ again today after hearing from tektc. This time though they took me much more seriously it seems. They are getting a regional rep to contact me now as when before they said 'we'll get back to ya' and 3 weeks later I heard nothing. I originally called just to see what was up with the brake issue before I try to buy another one and once they found out I had a previous problem they jumped right to getting me set up with a specialist. In 2 business days I will hear from a regional rep who will look at my totalled car and tell me what he thinks. Right now I do not even care, all I want to know is should I buy another one and I am caught up in the politics of it now. Oh well, if they find that it was a tC problem and the ABS failed then they can do something for me like get rid of my insurance increase at most. If they do not then I can buy another one and take the small insurance hike. Either way, whatever but Scion is finally taking the issue seriously. Also they now know about this site and the guys that I talked to were roaming it and taking note of comments. Apparently at least those guys did not know that scion life existed. So more of all of your questions may get answered now directly from them thru this site. In any case, good deal. OH and my Vin # is 5460

 

A Scion/Toyota Field Engineer was out at the dealer looking at my car yesterday. I know they drove it around because Network Car reported 10 miles on the vehicle. At first they could not even locate my vehicle at the dealer, and then they asked if I drove an xA. I spoke with the service department and they told me that Toyota would be calling me today about their findings.

Man Toyota is slowly losing credibility just based on their recent services...

 

nobody say you are liar, it is just that you are blaming it on ABS thats stupid sounding. Lets say that there is this manufacturing problem with rear calipers that made them lock your discs when you didnt do anything at all (except braking, but ok, we will skip that). How do you go from there to ABS being the culprit? It just seems that "ABS" is the catch word you recoginized and blamed for your incident. Which all might be true, I am not saying it isnt, but it is just unbelievable that you were able find out that the problem was ABS out of the blue.

So while bad brake calipers or bad discs or bad pads all sound very believable, and is something that could happen, how the heck did you manage to blame it on ABS? It is simply sounds as if you dont know much about cars at all, and you found pretty catchword ("ABS") to stick to.

as to tektC, of course you shouldnt drive your car if you dont feel safe, but then again dude, you were braking while cornering which is exactly something that might lock your wheels.

i hope you both solve your problems, best of luck.

 

My compiler generated a nop from this expression.

 

Oh so now your saying that we should expect to lock up the rear brakes when applying the brakes while turning?

Sure it could be any number of problems in the braking system, but when the brakes lock and there is a component named the "Anti-lock Braking System" ....

Gee you don't suppose.... nah.

 

ABS will help you maintain control, but you can definately overwhelm the system under extreme conditions. Don't expect ABS to save your car from getting sideways when you're braking into a corner. Traction control systems are much more sophisticated than ABS and can handle more situations well.

 

To be precise, the ABS is designed to prevent the tire from continuously locking up, it can't stop the car from sliding, or from locking up long enough to induce a slide.

If the description of the original poster is accurate (gentle braking into a gentle turn causing lock-up at relatively low speed), I'd be looking for a malfunction in the power assist part of the braking system.

 

Here is what I did:

I clutched in and applied the brake to slow down on a slight turn, the front and rear of the vehicle came to a screeching halt and the rear fishtailed to hit the curb.

I was not braking at the turn...