Brake Master Cylinder problems of the 2002 Toyota Sequoia

Last month, while traveling home from summer vacation on flat ground, at approximately 60 mph, the vsc, trac lights came on in the dash. There was a terrible grinding noise from under the car and beeping inside the car. The car pulled hard to the right and decelerated abruptly in the middle of a busy highway. Thank goodness I was able to pull into the turn lane and limp into a gas station. This occurred three more times over the next 500 miles until I got home. I took it to the dealer, they replaced the yaw sensor. Only 3 days after that, it happened again. Took it to the dealer, they replaced two brake sensors and a master cylinder. Today, five days after that, it happened again. This time, thankfully at only 25 mph with no traffic. This is a very scary, dangerous problem that Toyota should not be ignoring. It has been recalled in the 2003 model, and should be in the 2002 model as well!.

Again, after picking the vehicle up from the Toyota service department in which the skid control ecu and brake booster assembly was replaced, the vehicle repeated all alarms and malfunctions as before: slippery lamp illuminated, alarm sounded, vsc trac and trac off lamp lit while abs brakes engaged while driving on a slight decline at 45 mph. I returned the vehicle to Toyota immediately! the technicians informed me on the following Monday that the seal for the master cylinder was cracked after replacing the brake booster assy. Surprisingly, it has happened again and I am taking it back to the service department tomorrow morning. There has to be a systemic problem as this problem is a known issue with this type of vehicle. It is disappointing that Toyota would keep these vehicles on the road with know problems of the such. Fortunately for me, there hasn't been any accidents. I fear for the safety myself and my coworker as we commute in the vehicle daily. More importantly, that of my wife and children when we drive the vehicle.

I purchased a new 2002 Toyota Sequoia in April of 2002. In January of 2004, I was on the new jersey turnpike and when I went to stop my vehicle, my brake pedal went all the way to the floor and I was luckily able to get into the shoulder and finally get the vehicle stopped without hitting anyone. It appeared to me that the master cylinder might have malfunctioned. The truck was towed to a Toyota dealer and they could not find anything wrong with the vehicle. When I picked up the vehicle, it appeared as though the brake pedal was back into its normal position but the dealer could not explain why. During the week of February 12, 2010 this same problem occurred twice and I was almost involved in two separate accidents. I took the truck to the Toyota dealer and once again the computer and other indicator lights were not showing any problems. After several hours of sitting there the brakes returned to their normal position just like before. I then took the mechanic for a ride in a back lot of the dealership and was able to make them fail once again. After this occurrence, the brakes never returned to their normal positions. I left the truck at the dealership for them to investigate. The mechanic said that there were no known problems in this area and he said after talking to several Toyota engineers that it could be a number of things: 1) master cylinder 2) brake booster 3) brake actuator 4) computer the mechanic and the engineers felt that is was probably the brake actuator so I went ahead with the repair. But they were not 100% sure that this was the problem. But they did agree that the vehicle was unsafe to drive. The brakes of course are working. I talked to several other mechanics and they have said that Toyota knows that these actuators are bad but are not doing anything about it. They also mentioned that the vsc/ecu computer modules are a defect as well.

The contact owns a 2002 Toyota Sequoia. The contact stated that the vehicle stability control and the traction control light remained illuminated. Also, the contact mentioned that while driving during inclement weather, the brakes made a loud grinding noise and did not engage in a timely manner. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. The technician diagnosed that the master cylinder needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 60,000.