Replace front brakes and rotors at 43,000 miles??

i doubt it, you're usually on your own with dealers, i suppose it's worth a go though. it's buyer beware out there, and they love to prey on the innocent and ignorant. being a social sort of country, might canada have some good consumer protection laws that might help her out?

 

I've found break wear seems to accelerate towards the end. Plus my attitude towards the pads as thickness drops evolves: I start getting nervous if there's only (say) 3 mm left, am inclined to do the deed sooner than later.

Plus: low mileage in Montreal, winter after winter? Could be partially or completely seized guide pins. Why not just pull a wheel and see for yourself what pad thickness is remaining?

 

An eight year old car in Montreal? I would fully expect the rotors to be rusted and in need of replacement.

Particularly if the car is parked outdoors overnight.

 

Mine were replaced at ~55k miles, just before I bought it. New discs and pads.

On most cars that I have owned I would never see more than 25-30 on pads, but as previously stated, I don't like when the pad gets low. The braking capacity always to be less and less, even though there might be meat still on the pad. I'm the sane with tyres, grip lessens as the thread drops

Have look see for yourself

 

When used in non-salty conditions and non-commercial use with non-aggressive driving, the Prius pads and rotors will last 100K to 250K miles. Seriously.

If the lady you know is a speed racer that brakes hard all the time, I could believe it pads being worn out around that time. But keep in mind the majority of non-panic braking in a Prius is regenerative and the friction brakes never even get touched until the speed drops to around 7mph or less and by that point there is very little momentum still needing to be slowed. This is a very different model than all non-hybrids on the road.

Being in Montreal, there is considerable salt usage on the roads. I think the dealer is fishy because I would expect either clean rotors and worn pads, or rusted rotors and almost-new pads. Having worn pads and rusty rotors? That doesn't make sense. If you are driving like a mad-woman and braking hard all the time, the small amount of surface rust that would appear over night would be scraped off by the friction brakes themselves and wear out the pad as in a normal vehicle.

If the regenerative braking is used like on most Prii, the surface rust could most definitely grow and become a problem that requires replacement, but then the pads should look great.

To me this sounds like the old wallet emptying trick. Surprised her invoice didn't include a fee for filling up the blinker fluid.

 

Might be case of just popping the discs and pads off, giving them a good clean and grease the calipers carriers and putting them back together. I do that a couple of times a year on every car I own as it gives me piece of mind as to what condition they are in and that I cuecked them myself

 

Be careful you know what you are doing in the Prius. The Prius is never off unless you pull the 12v battery. It is very possible that as you are cleaning greasing the pads, the pistons shoot out of the brake lines as the onboard computer tries to repressurize the system hopefully not into your flesh.

 

Thanks for that. The more I read about the car, the more I realise that it is not the same as most cars

Good advice, thanks again

 

when I traded in my 2007 Prius, it still had the original brakes on all four wheels
I think when I did the 95k maintenance, they said it still looked new

 

Actual the advice around here is even simpler. Every few months or so, get up to ~40mph (but under 42mph) shift into neutral and then brake moderately hard. This is all you need to scrape the rust off that may accumulate and make the rotors nice and shiny. Shifting to neutral is the key because it disables regenerative braking.

 

Rusty rotors can accelerate pad wear, but not likely to the point that they wear out in under 40k on a Prius.
Could the rotors be rusted enough to require replacement, possibly, due to excessive road salt use.
Rust serious enough to warrant replacement will typically intrude deeper into the surface than could be cut while remaining within tolerance.

Most likely scenario is that the brake rotors were rusty enough to at least be suspect, and there is little reason to go through the process without changing the pads at the same time, but we will never know. 40k is certainly early to need brakes on a Prius. My 08 with over 190k still has the originals all the way around!

 

This depends strongly on the driver and conditions. Regen braking is limited by the maximum allowed battery charge rate, and will produce only moderate braking at low speed and light braking at higher speeds. 'Normal' drivers doing 'normal' braking will spend a good deal of their braking time above this limit and engage the friction pads, though this can be greatly reduced with a bit of care and foresight.

That battery limit is roughly 25kW, and differs somewhat on different generations and versions. Full force highway speed braking can exceed 500kW, which must come almost entirely from friction.

 

Believe me, I have had rotors rust beyond the point where they can be turned. Rotors that are that rusty will provide poor braking performance.

And yes, the rust can prematurely wear the pads.

I'm hoping that you succeed in retrieving the rotors that were taken off.

 

my '04 with 95,000 miles when i sold it, was getting close to needing new front pads. it spent 5 winters here and 4 in vermont.

 

Tony 2K1 was quite correct about the Prius brakes. Under no circumstances try to remove the brake pads without first disconnecting the 12 volt battery, do this before removing a wheel to work on the brakes as this allows time for the backup power supply capacitors to discharge before you get to the pads. The dismantling procedure after this is much the same as any other car with one other difference. Do not undo any hydraulic bleed nipples or lines to push the caliper pistons back in as this again will give problems. Just push them back in. You cannot bleed the brakes in the normal way.

John (Britprius)

 

Another precaution I've heard is to (after everything is bolted up) pump the brake pedal several times, to restore pressure, before reconnecting the battery, to avoid the car detecting low brake fluid pressure, lighting a warning light. Don't know how needed this is (or effective), but it couldn't hurt.