Hi,
A lot of good responses here. I can clarify a bit on the details since this has generated a lot of confusion.
First, to be absolutely literal I can't say that I had "no brakes" whatsoever. I had some slight braking power--maybe 20% if that. The pedal went all the way to the floor and the vehicle slowed very little. The braking power was so slight that I felt I was going to run someone over in the parking lot of the rest area I stopped in--went from about 5mph to zero in about 3 seconds with the pedal all the way to the floor.
I by no means was panicked by the situation. I was in a location where I did not need to use the brakes much. Taking my foot off the gas was generally sufficient to slow the trailer down along with the marginal braking power that remained. However, this was only due to the terrain being favorable and there being no traffic. Had I been in the traffic I was in only 30 minutes earlier I would have been in trouble. Controlling your vehicle is not the issue, its being able to slow down rapidly enough when traffic requires you to. Traffic ebbs and flows in high congestion areas, and other people often do dumb things that require you to have effective braking.
If I needed to react to something I would have down shifted, and then used the emergency brake as a last resort, and perhaps applied the trailer brakes manually.
The trailer brakes were not engaging correctly. I found this out at the rest area when I applied them manually and they slowed the vehicle MUCH faster than the brake pedal. I can only guess that this is a function of the fact that I have a proportional brake controller which runs off an acceleramator. Since the vehicle was not slowing down quickly, the trailer brakes were engaging only minimally--my guess.
I agree with many of the others above that this may have been a function of being hit by something or someone and therefore not Toyota's fault. I guess I will just have to see what the dealer says in the end; however, his initial assessment was there was no visible physical damage and it was not corroded. By the way I no longer live in MD but in VA now. Salt is not a real issue here.
As to the comments that I can't be too upset with Toyota over a $5 brake hose--I can appreciate that point too; however, I disagree. I don't think it matters what the part was, how simple it was or how much it costs. The fact of the matter is that it was a total catastrophic failure that made the vehicle unable to be driven, and more importantly caused a serious safety hazard. It was not a faulty battery cable that resulted in the vehicle not starting (catastrophic failure but not a safety issue). The brake system failed. Period. Hose, washer, whatever, it doesn't matter. The brakes failed during normal use, low mileage, and within two years of vehicle purchase. Isolated incident---sure---doesn't matter either though.
Think of the space shuddle that exploded back in the 80s. Isolated incident--yes. Reason it happened--$5 O ring failed. So, does it matter that it was an isolated incident and a cheap part?
I am not trying to be dramatic, but how about this--what if my family had been killed and they did an inspection of the vehicle afterwards and found faulty brake lines had failed. Would it matter that it was just a $5 brake line? Or that I should have been able to handle my vehicle with only 20% braking power? Or would Toyota be liable?
I am not sure what the answer is, and again I am not trying to look at this emotionally or one sided at all. I am just throwing that out there for argument's sake and I think it's a good point. Was Toyota liable for floor mats slipping and getting caught under the gas pedal? Was Ford liable for defective Firestone Tires? Shouldn't someone be able to deal with a blow out? They still have 20% steering ability in their car.
I will see what Toyota says. Again I really do appreciate everyone's points, but for me I am not a satisfied customer given that my truck is 2 years old and has 29k miles on it. I don't expect to have a catastrophic safety failure in that time period. Of any sort...whatsoever...for any reason. Am I expecting too much and being an unreasonable consumer?
Toyota probably can do nothing and that's fine, but they need to balance the fact that they may lose a life long customer and that is a business decision for them. And like I said, what if the conditions were different (which is a matter of luck) and I had been in heavy traffic and the results were not as lucky as they were. Would my family not have any expectation other than Toyota fixing the brake lines under warranty? I don't know.
For me as a consumer realiability is my number one criterion in choosing a tow vehicle, and for this reason. This incident does not make me happy with my vehicle choice based on my number one decision criterion.
I will report back on what happens.
Matt
