Brake Capacitor Unit replacement

[Nicol]

Hope someone can offer advice about this...The conversion company that we bought our Alphard from (3 years ago) has quoted £1,463 to replace the Brake Capacitor unit.

Does this seem reasonable? Thanks in advance.

[Picasso]

hello susan welcome i dont know much about this part im sure some one with a bit more knowledge will come along and help you. regarding the age of your hybrid parts for this are getting harder to source i personaly say if they are able to sorce the part its probaly a good quote to keep the vehicle on the road not many garages would want to do the job.

[smurf]

What is the brake capacitor? Not a component I have ever heard of. 

[Picasso]

I been reading up on it .it's only on the hybrids from what I can see 

[smurf]

I have had a quick look, as it piqued my interest, and the part appears to be shared with the Prius of the same era. Consequently, it is available in plentiful numbers and quite cheap (under £50) second hand. 

 

From what I can find online, the part is 89680 in the image, which appears to show it is located in the rear on the passenger side. Depending on what needs stripping out to get to it, the rock and roll bed might have to be removed, but other than that it looks like a simple swap. I can't see why it would be nearly £1500, but there might be an explanation. 

 

 

[smurf]

As it has now got me really interested, I thought I probably know exactly where that is. 5 minutes later and I have my hands on it. My rock and roll bed is on rails so I can move it forward out of the way, but this really is the easiest job in the world to swap out.

Edited October 5 by smurf
Typo

[Jeza]

I presume it is the ABS unit which has an electric pump and accumulator in it. I have had an unexpected leak from the accumulator, after it had been in the garage for an MOT, which lights up several warnings. I suspect they had pushed the brake pads back away from the disc, anyway a few hard pumps of the brake pedal cleared the fault. A bit of muck on a check valve? 

[Goldstar]

Ben Hau in the Facebook Alphard Owners club would likely give you a quote even if you don’t live near Birmingham- 1500 sounds like added headroom to ensure they cover themselves 

[Nicol]

Hello Lee, Richard, Jeza and Jeff - thank you all so much for taking time to check this out and for your helpful advice...I really appreciate it.  I'll have a chat with the company to understand a bit more about the work/hours involved. Possibly if the job turns out to be easier access and quicker than they allocated - there may be a reduction in the labour hours charged. (I can ask?) I'll come back to you all later when this is resolved. Thanks again.

Edited October 6 by Nicol
typo

[Peter Hudec]

Hi Nicol, I had exactly the same problem with my freshly imported hybrid alphard. A yellow exclamation mark in a circle warning light appeared on the dashboard so I took it to a local garage and they were absolutely sure it's the worn break pads that need replacing. After they replaced them for £250 the warning was still there. So I plugged the car into a diagnostic app trhough the OBD2 port (I don't remember the exact error message) and did some googling and everything suggested that the problem is most likely the break capacitorm, which is exactly in the place behind the little grill which @smurf posted. I found a used one on Ebay for about £20 so it was not much of a risk if it wasn't it. And it did the trick! After replacing it, the warning light disappeared and it never came up again. The only problem was that the place where it is mounted is a bit awkward to access.

Good luck with it!
 

Edited October 14 by Peter Hudec