NHTSA Complaint #11564940 — 2010 TOYOTA PRIUS

All the lights on my dash board came on suddenly, and the brake emergency, traction control and ABS lights stayed illuminated. Upon exiting the interstate I could not come to a complete stop at the end of the exit, which was very scary. Fortunately the cars driving on the road the exit merges into did, so we avoided a terrible accident. The brakes were spongy and not operating properly after that. The next day with all the lights still on, I slowly drove (20 mph) to the local Toyota Dealer , who claimed that error code (C1391) was being displayed and according to Toyota, that means the Booster is or will be leaking. Therefore the Pump and Booster needs to be replaced (estimated at $3K). No lights or errors were given before the incident, the brakes just suddenly malfunctioned. However Toyota apparently is aware that the booster and pumps fail without warning, because I discovered with an on-line search that code had a "customer extension" warranty (by googling the code C1391), I called customer service but they refuse to help. They claimed I was mailed a letter in October 2018 (they didn't offer to supply a copy.) However, I never received a letter or any notice from Toyota or the Toyota dealer that I have repeatedly used since I bought the car in 2010 (I have had brakes replaced there when it was under 150k and no one said anything!) Now they are stating that the extension has expired as it was only good up to 150,000 miles or 10 years which ever came first. I can't understand why they have a known brake issue and not replace the part when the vehicle is already at the dealer (It's there for every oil change 3 x a year!) Brakes are an important part of a vehicle, a failure like this should have been recalled, and Toyota should have been made to replace the faulty parts!