Asking for a friend.
Friend has a 2010 Prius, 155K miles. The Brake Booster and Brake Booster Assembly apparently went bad. Codes include: C1391, C1252, C1256, or C1253. The symptoms I can see/hear is that the pump continually cycles.
Braking is fine. Stopping distance seems normal. But the dash is lit up with brake “CEL”.
If the car was younger and less mileage (less than 10 years old, and less than 150,000 miles), Toyota would take care of the problem, because it is a known issue: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10164923-9999.pdf
If the car was in perfect working condition, he could get maybe $4K-$8K for it. He still owes $4K-$5K on it.
But it’s not in perfect working condition, as this brake booster assembly issue is holding it back.
Dealer wants $4K-$5K to fix it. Indy mechanic is charging ~$2K-~$2.5K parts and labor (parts are expensive, and 8 hours labor).
He wants to know should he:
A) Sell it at a loss, full disclosure. And continue making payments until the loan is paid off, despite he would no longer have the car.
B) Just live with it, as it is working fine for the time being. His concern is safety in the future. He thinks eventually it may be harder to engage the brakes, but will it be impossible?
C) Bite the bullet. And fix it, even though the fix is potentially more than half the cars value.
D) Is it possible to fix this for cheaper and/or easier, without replacing the entire assembly?
Well that's the problem with hybrid cars. It cost a ton of money to fix them when they break. I mean I personally wouldn't take a chance with some kind of breaking system problem but if it's working okay and you monitor it. But truthfully, I've never seen a brake booster actually break on one of those. I'd love to check the thing out. If you're anywhere near Portsmouth Rhode Island I do it free. But if not you could always drive for a used brake booster which would cost a ton less. And like I say, I've never seen one break so the ones in junkyard should be perfectly fine
