I've owned my 160k mile GS 460 for about a year, and the brakes feel pretty imprecise. The best way I can explain it is that from a stop it's difficult to slowly inch forward. I will slowly let off the brakes and it feels like it holds and holds and then suddenly lets go, there's an extremely small range in which I can let the car inch forward. Is this normal? It's something I can live with, but whenever I drive my wife's civic I'm reminded of how on/off the brakes feel at really slow speeds.

Other than replacing worn pads I haven't done anything to try to fix this.

 

have you made sure all of your calipers are sliding freely?

 

Sounds like a gummed up brake caliper, this is what I would do. Remove all the calipers, clean the inside throughly with a brake cleaner. If theres rusting or pitting on the center pins or anywhere grab a fine sand paper 320grit and sand them smooth. Next grab grease and grease the inside tracks of the caliper where the pads slide on, aswell as the pins, the silencer pads etc. Also make sure on the rear calipers the bottom pin that the caliper attaches to is not seized in any way and that it floats smoothly. Its possible that could be your issue.

While your at it I would replace the brake fluid, our cars require you to use a scan tool to bleed the abs system. If you just drain the brake fluid from the calipers and topped off the bottle, you will more likely have air pockets in the brakes. A simple easy and quick way to replace the fluid is to buy a turkey baster. Siphon out as much brake fluid and simply pour in the new fluid, you may have to repeat this 2 or 3 times but sure beats paying the dealers for the service. Just make sure to drive a week or some in between to make sure new fluid circulates with the old.

 

I appreciate the ideas, I'll give it a try.

 

Keep in mind that it is a brake-by-wire system. Read up before you do anything to your brakes (even changing pads). The system is on at all times - even when the car is "off" and the key is nowhere near. It can very well pinch your fingers while self-checking itself for whatever reason.

Mechanically, it should be the same as the other GS models with EBD (460, 450h due to being a hybrid, 430), LS(460/600h), Prius, TLC100... basically anything with EBD, which includes all hybrids.