2014 Toyota PRIUS PLUG-IN HYBRID - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

"the brakes have not failed yet, but there is a known issue with the brake booster on my model year. i would like to have the government force toyota to guarantee the brakes for a longer period of time. currently toyota has extended the warranty out 10 years / 150k miles from date of first use. since these cars last so long, this should be 20 years / 300k miles from date of first use."

"the abs and traction control system in my 2014 toyota prius 4 are not functioning. they abs light an the traction control lights are both on. i work in the automotive industry and i used a code reader to pull the codes and got a c1391 which is a brake booster and brake booster pump. that means either the brake booster has failed or the master cylinder is leaking. i contacted gosche toyota in hemet and after waiting for a service writer to contact me (which they never did) i called 5 times till i finally got someone on the phone. they were very familiar with the problem. the problem is so common that some vehicles have been recalled. but for others like mine only a "customer support program" was made. that program covers repair "if the parts are available" only for 10 years or 150,000 miles whichever comes first. but for someone like myself who has 170,000 miles toyota says there's nothing they can do. the cost for me to repair it is $4800. the customer support program bulletin "zjb" even says that service writers are not allowed to tell customers about the problem or the customer support program. that way when the car doesn't meet the requirements, they won't be responsible for the repairs, even though they know it will eventually fail. there is a lawsuit somewhere regarding this very same problem but for me, i'm screwed. i depend on my car to make money and now me and my family are out of a car. this is a known defect and a safety concern. toyota is okay with leaving us with nothing."

"after i started my car and began driving away from a shopping center, i noticed that there were 3 static warning lights on the dashboard that had not been there before. they were the slip indicator light, the brake light, and the abs light. i also heard a short, repeating buzzing sound coming from the front of the car that i had never heard before. as i was driving, the brake suddenly felt loose. luckily, this happened as i was pulling out of a shopping center parking lot, so i was able to pull over to the side of the road instead of getting on the highway, which i was about to do. the following day, a toyota dealer indicated that the issue was the brake booster pump/actuator system and that my car returned with error code c1391. the dealer indicated that this is a known problem with priuses within my year range. i was told that i would have to replace both the pump and actuator. after talking to the dealer, i realized that there had been subtle clues of this problem beforehand. in the few months leading up to this incident, sometimes if i hit a big bump in the road, for a moment the slip indicator light would flash and i would feel like i had no control of the car i.e. i was ever so briefly slipping. however, because this happened so briefly and when i hit a bump and everything went back to normal, i didn't think this was an actual problem, but now i believe this was an early sign of the brake failure. i contacted toyota corporate office. they confirmed that this was an issue known to them with priuses and said that they had sent letters to the previous owner of the car in 2019 offering an extended warranty not a recall. however, apparently, the previous owner had not fixed the problem and the extended warranty expired. toyota refused to pay for the repair for this and refused to forward a copy of the 2019 letter to me,. this brake defect is a serious issue with no major warning signs. as of this writing, the part is available for inspection."

"was at toyota dealership looking at 2023 prius and 2023 corolla cross for daughter. i decided to leave and when i started backing up, my daughter noticed the brake, abs and anti-skid lights all came on at once. she asked if that was normal. it was not. a few minutes later, they stated flashing, then went out after i turned the car off. i live over an hour away and decided to drive it to walmart, which is approximately 2 miles from the dealership and upon getting into the walmart parking lot the lights started flashing again and upon applying the brakes, we heard a loud grinding sound. we didn’t think we were going to be able to stop! i immediately parked it and called my husband to tell him our horror story and to come pick us up. our prayers were answered when he came and we were able to drive it slowly to the dealer. it was a cold rainy night to be on the road with braking issues. this is a very dangerous if not deadly situation! shame on toyota for not recalling this. how many lives have to be lost before you take ownership of your faulty hybrid braking system. we demand this be fixed for free regardless of mileage and be made a recall…not a customer support program. ridiculous!!! i don’t think our daughter wants a toyota hybrid anymore…"

"2014 toyota prius. consumer writes in regard to hissing sound coming from brakes."

"my brakes completely stopped working while driving on a busy road. i took it to toyota and they said it was my brake booster pump assembly. there is a known issue with the booster pump assembly and toyota has a program to extend their warranty to fix this, but i was never once notified of this issue and never received any mail or notifications. they refuse to cover the repair because my mileage is out of warranty, despite the fact that this is an issue they caused and i almost wrecked and could’ve died. i was on a very busy road and my car was completely uncontrollable due to the brakes not responding. my passenger, others on the road, and myself could’ve died. the toyota customer service representatives confirmed that this is part of the “customer service” program and it does not qualify due to it exceeding 150,000 miles. no warnings appeared on the dash until the brakes stopped working. the vehicle was inspected by toyota and was confirmed to have said issue. this needs to be immediately recalled, i almost got into a very serious wreck."

"aloha! i got 3 lights lid up on a dashboard: traction control, abs and brakes. c1391 error is coming up on obd reader. i researched online and found that it’s a common issue , brake booster and actuator needs to be replaced. many people having same problem. i found your website because of this youtube video where many people found same problem: https://youtu.be/xa9jyrbzdwo"

"brake boaster failure. dashboard lights illuminated: brake, abs and traction. brakes themselves felt spongy. car felt very unsafe. i did find out that toyota has a hidden customer support program zjb. however, the dealer found my diagnostic code to be c1202 and the customer support program zjb only supports repairs for codes c1391, c1252, c1256 or c1253. however, the exact same symptoms and safety issues were experienced and all the exact same warning lights also came on. the dealer’s diagnostics resulted in a $2,087 replacement of the brake booster.  the dealer did contact the toyota district manager along the way.  he denied coverage based on the diagnostic codes reported but again i am arguing that my crazy expensive repair had the exact same symptoms, safety issues, and repair (e.g, brake booster replacement). the car clearly could not be driven. note my prius only has 92k miles.  attached is a picture of the dashboard warning lights that came on and the dealer invoice for the repair. "

"brake being less effective to be spongy and keep losing pressure. the brake actuator constantly making boosting noise. making driving unsure that the brake working even no warning light on yet."

"the contact owned a 2014 toyota prius phv. the contact stated while driving approximately 30 mph when the vehicle would not brake while the pedal was depressed, which resulted in the contact crashing into a vehicle in front of it. no one was injured and a police report was filed. the contact stated no warning lights were illuminated. the vehicle was towed to a lot and then towed to a local dealer where it was diagnosed as being totaled. the contact does not know which dealership the vehicle was towed to. the manufacturer was not informed of the failure. the failure mileage was 110,083."