How long should the brakes last? I saw a thread that said 150k miles for regen brakes. But how longs should disc/drum pads last? Should it be longer because of regen brakes? Most disc pads last 30-60k miles. Does regen brakes make them last longer ?
Yes, but we don't know of any high mileage Prius c drivers yet. See Hybrids prove very reliable | CTV British Columbia and Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity - Hybrid Electric Vehicles for examples of long brake life on Gen 2 and 3 Priuses. Many/most folks 100K miles on their Priuses were still on their original brakes.
some Gen II went 250-300K w/o brake job, there are a few Gen III which over 100K but replacing pads hasn't been done yet(?), except for the case when the parking was left on. I know mine at 84K are at 80-90%. "C" rear drums so unless you leave parking on and drive they will last forever, I have a '96 Protege which is about the same weight as "C" and in 385K they were never replaced. Front ones usually done every 60K. I'd suspect how long the "C" front ones would last would really depend on how you brake, but at least 2-3 times of what normal car would. If you trying to figure out cost of ownership, I'd say budget for one time, front only? Disk brake pads are 20-40$ for pair and are easy to replace DYI. You'd need a trip to dealer to reset computer not sure if you have to though(?)
coupled with regen braking, the friction brakes should last a very, very, very long time.. unless you brake like a maniac. if you're good enough, you can use the regen brakes primarily and it'll barely put a dent in the friction brake pads over the life of the car.
There is no service life for "regen brakes" - the regen system is just MG2. What you have read is how long friction brakes typically last. It's much longer than normal, since regen does much of the work. Tom
While I have a Gen 2 with Discs and Drums, the c has a smaller HV Battery so the Friction brakes may have to do more work than in a Gen 2. Plan for 100,000 miles on the discs, 3 times that on the drums.
"While I have a Gen 2 with Discs and Drums, the c has a smaller HV Battery so the Friction brakes may have to do more work than in a Gen 2. Plan for 100,000 miles on the discs, 3 times that on the drums." the c is notable lighter than gen 2 as well tho, and as for most prius that ive seen, i have yet to do a front brake job in 7 years and the lowest ive seen a set get down to is about 7-8mm about 75%. i have seen the rear drums get down to 25% in about 200k miles, and done a rear service on those. you should see an easy 100-150k if you brake hard, otherwise probably lifetime of the car.
So, my wife and I are in our mid-60s, and if we drive the 'c' about 3,000 to 4,000 miles per year. We might be in our mid-90s before the brakes need attention. Maybe I should add a note to the Will.?.
Seems you are most correct, sir, with some caveats. I have 95,000 on my C, and the brake shop says it needs front rotors and pads, but the rear shoes show little wear. The caveats- I used to be a race car driver, so I may use them more than others, and my son lives 2 hours away in the dirt-road mountains of Vermont, so I may see more wear than others. I do not see any repair posts on the brakes here, so I may be the first- an honor I don't want! Do you know of any tutorials on the front brakes? I want to do them myself. I bought the Power Sport drilled rotor/carbon matrix set.
I've had to replace the front brakes on my 2012 Prius C at 45,000 miles. Now the back brakes are making a hellacious grabbing sound in the last two feet of stopping. Since they are drums, I tried the old backing up while braking hard bit, which seemed to address the issue, for now. Any ideas as to what/why is happening ? How does the self adjuster work on the C ? Other Prii we own have disk rears, so not a concern there.
How long have you had your c? Over three years? If so, and if you've been following the recommended maintenance schedule you should have had at least one in-depth brake inspection by now, it was due at 30K miles or 36 months, whichever comes first. Pad thickness should have been checked as part of that inspection. New, the pads were very likely 10 mm thick, and service limit is 1~2 mm. You should be able to extrapolate from that and miles on the odometer how long the pads will last. FWIW, with our 2010 regular Prius, the last time I checked the front brakes was at 66K kms (roughly 35K miles), and all the pads were down to about 7 mm. Putting that in a ratio equation, with the current wear (3 mm) and the wear to get to service limit (8 mm), I'd put our pad life at roughly 90K miles.
Service recommendation for brake pad change comes at 120k miles IIRC... 45,000 miles is nearly impossible on a properly functioning car... unless you are a heavy footed, two-footed driver... This seems severely premature...
I don't think you "recall correctly" lol. The only service recommendation is to change them when they're down to 1 mm remaining thickness. Personally I would change them if they're below 4 mm, too close for comfort.
Regenerative braking certainly does reduce wear on the pads and rotors a great deal, but corrosion still attacks our brake components the same as any other vehicle. It's usually terrible in any areas that use road salt in the winter. The cooling vanes in the rotors, non-braking surface on the rotor face, rotor hat, metal pieces on the brake pads and shims, all the tiny springs and clips in the drum system...they all rust. The grease in the caliper slide pins will eventually break down making it impossible for your pads to move. Brake fluid gets contaminated, and air gets in the system over time too. Personally, I don't mess around with brakes since they are kinda important. It's true that many shops love to sell brake jobs because they are low effort in labor time, and cheap aftermarket parts can be marked up a lot, but that's not an excuse to ignore them. Servicing disk brakes is also really easy DIY work. I already looked for the C, and two good coated rotors + Akebono pads is ~$130.
You're correct, I just double checked the maintenance guide and it was spark plugs that I was recalling.
Well...funny thing is I found this thread because I was thinking it was awfully early to need to replace my breaks at 55k miles....yet here I am...
