3rd Gen Prius Brake Replacement Question

If (and this is the big if) you always brake gently, the electric motors can convert some rotational energy into electricity so that energy did not become heat in the friction brakes.

If you slam on the brakes, it is all heat in the pads, and your brakes will last no longer than any other car driven the same way.

Between 'gently' and 'slammed' is why various owners will report different distances.

(This is why Consumer Reports can get such low MPG scores for hybrids, slam on the brakes and you get no regen)

 

I would have a look at them yourself, just to get an idea of what they're seeing. Just looking through the rims you can get some idea. If you remove a wheel, you can see the outer pad thickness pretty well, and looking through the caliper opening you can see edge-on view of both pads.

How do you know they're "ceramic"?

 

There are some minor regular checks and maintenance items that you should stay on top of if you want to get the celebrated theoretical life out of your Prius brakes. The regen means the frictional wear is really slow. But rust never sleeps, regen or not, slide pins get sluggish, etc. If you rotate your own tires, everything you need to check might add an easy 20 minutes or so to the job (add maybe 1/2 hour if you find the start of rust trouble you can sand away) and cost you nothing. Just basic car ownership rituals. Stay on top of those things and you might have original brakes for the life of a Prius.

Benign neglect for 100,000 miles isn't a good strategy, because any small problem undetected in that time can easily balloon until pads, rotors, etc. are toast.

When I say "rust never sleeps" I don't mean the light surface rust that can regularly spring up on Prius brakes after damp weather. That makes a bad sound but is completely wiped off if you shift to neutral and stop a couple times. That needs no further attention.

However, rust on other areas of the rotor where the pads don't wipe it off can be a growing problem over time. One example is where it starts at the edge of the rotor and starts to work its way down. By the time it spreads to where the pad is, it is too thick to be wiped off. Instead, it chews away the pad. Then it can spread even further, a continuing cycle. Eventually you see this:



That was too late for hand sanding. If you simply keep up with inspection (say, no further apart than a year), your hands and a sheet of 150 grit paper will keep you from ever having to see that.

-Chap

 

And you know when it comes to just the basics like the disc brakes, pads, rotors, they're all same; hybrid or non-hybrid vehicles. I would just take it to Brake Check or one of the other places that just do brakes to get a second opinion. Again, not like these are specialty items. Brake Check or any place like that can turn the rotors if they're not warped and don't really need to be replaced, replace the pads and do everything that Toyota is looking to do for a $1,200 much, much cheaper. Just my experience.

 

my '04 didn't need pads until 100,000 miles and 8 years of boston and vermont winters. my 2012 with 34,000 miles looks like brand new.

you may want to get a second opinion, although there have been rare reports of gen III rear discs having early wear problems, but there have also been reports of dealerships making a nice living off of unnecessary repairs. all the best!

 

I'd be cautious of a generic place. One thing, the system can pressurize while the calipers are removed from the rotors, with disastrous results. And I've found install of the rear pads requires some diligence, paying attention to the piston/pad orientation, and careful seating before using the parking brake. I've heard too, not sure: bleeding the system requires Techstream, or some work arounds.

This is not the norm with other vehicles, and they may screw it up.

 

156,000 miles here, just got through a tire rotation and brake inspection.

As I have always found with this car, all the slide pins are just fine, with a couple in-n-outs to wake the grease back up, no reason to even remove them. Everything at the front calipers is good. At the rears, it's time for another fitting kit (the little teflon-ish coated springy clips that the pad ears slide in), and my rear rotors have begun doing that rings-of-rust-from-the-edges thing.

The pads do not slide well in the rear fitting clips at all. I think that is not just because the clips are bad, but because the channels in the mount brackets, where those clips fit, have rusted and that rust is putting the squeeze on the clips. I will probably replace the mount brackets. (I could go at the channels with a file, but I am feeling too lazy for that. If I get new brackets, I can get the dimensions from those, then try to resurrect the old ones at leisure for spares.)

It is nice that the mount bracket is the same part number for left and right in the rear. The calipers are different, of course (mirror images), but there's just one rear bracket that goes either way. (That's not the case for the front; distinct left and right brackets there.)

Still, for the rear, there are two different bracket part numbers:


2010 Toyota Prius Disc Brake Caliper Bracket (Left, Right, Rear). REAR DISC BRAKE CYLINDER - 4782112151 - Genuine Toyota Part


2010 Toyota Prius Disc Brake Caliper Bracket (Left, Right, Rear). REAR DISC BRAKE CYLINDER - 4782147040 - Genuine Toyota Part


Has anybody figured out the difference between them (other than 23 dollars)?

 

A while back, some thread reported rotors available at NAPA that had a polymer coating, making them extra rust resistant (except for exactly where the pads rub the coating off, but that keeps the rust away there too). And in that thread they were something like $40, so a better price than the dealer.

That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. NAPA does have a few different rear rotors for a Gen 3 liftback.

There's the "premium" one, which has a phosphate and "graphite guard" coating, and is advertised to pass a 120 hour salt spray. It is priced at $69.49 as I write this.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NB_48880704

That's about nine dollars less than a Toyota rotor at full list price:


4243112310 - Disc Brake Rotor (Rear). AXLE, Brakes, CVT - Genuine Toyota Part


I haven't seen Toyota say anything about the specified salt-spray duration for their own rotor. At dealers that discount, it is more like $56.

And there's the NAPA "Adaptive One Coated", with the polymer coating, rated for 300 hour salt spray. It is priced at $109.99 as I write this, $32 higher than dealer list ... almost double a dealer discounted price.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/UP_880704CR

I wonder if somebody like @Elektroingenieur has a way to find out if Toyota has some salt spray durability spec for their own rotors, and how that stacks up to the 120 hour NAPA "premium" or the 300 hour NAPA "adaptive one coated".

My local dealer parts counter has started doing something annoying. It happened the last time I was there and I thought it might be a fluke, and it happened again today. They now print me off quotes where what is shown in the "list" column is way higher than the MSRP clearly shown on parts.toyota.com, and then in the "net" column, they tell me they've "discounted" that to ... wait for it ... the exact toyota.com MSRP, to the penny.

Anybody else running into that, or is it just my dealer here?

 

Changing the brackets is good plan and do not cost much. I did it for my other car when i replaced calipers. Now the brakes are and feel brand new, literally. Zero dragging.

 

In my west coast location, low miles, I’d opt to clean the clip coves, apply a little anti-seize. In Canada this is likely the cheapest option for me, for the front brackets:

 

Belated follow-up. I didn't end up replacing the brackets. I did hit the channels a little bit with a file, but I don't think that made much difference. I got new Toyota pads and fitting clips, with the usual teflon-ish coating, and that was enough for the pads to slide freely again. Needed one hand to squash the pads together while setting the caliper over them, so the little V springs wouldn't push them apart. That's the way it should be.

The new pads being sold at the dealer are the ones specified in T-SB-0248-12, different from the ones used at the factory. The TSB also shows different patterns for applying the shim grease to the shims than what was originally shown in the repair manual. I also bought new Toyota shims, which come with a little packet of the correct shim grease (which turns out to be Molykote AS-880N, according to the safety data sheet that also comes with).

As for rotors, I didn't go Toyota. You can see back in #10 I was comparing several different rotor offerings, which included some that were more money than discounted dealer pricing, and even some that were more than full dealer pricing!

I had also noticed my local auto job shop, which carries Federated, had rotors with the best price by far that I'd seen, SilentStop brand, half the discounted dealer price. At first I didn't take those seriously. The guy showed me a photo on his computer that made them look like plain metal with no coating at all, which was about what I expected at that price.

But then I noticed a favorable review thread at Bob is the Oil Guy, saying those rotors have coated hubs after all, and the silentstopbrakes.com web site said so too.

So I went back and said "I saw the picture on your computer that made them look plain, but would you mind going in back and getting them so I can look?" and he did, and they really do have a nice gray coating both on the hub and around the outer edge. So I took those home, for the best price of all I had seen, and I couldn't be happier with them.

On each side, I followed the repair manual recommendation to try the rotor each of five ways on the hub, and pick the one with least runout.

On the left side, on the second position I tried, it actually had zero runout. Dial indicator needle didn't budge. (I didn't bother trying the three remaining positions. )

After a little test drive, that one stayed a little extra warm, and I put that rotor back on the first position, where it had a couple thou of runout, just enough to help knock the pads back a bit when not braking.

 

”On each side, I followed the repair manual recommendation to try the rotor each of five ways on the hub, and pick the one with least runout.”

what does this mean? Alignment is checked by monitoring runout of fluid? I cannot follow, sorry

edit: nevermind, i figured it out

 

For anybody else who might also wonder:

 

Checking rotor thickness is the other check, more info in attached.

 

Thanks! I’ve actually never done this. Next time i’ll do, makes sense

 

I tend to do it infrequently, only if I’ve concerns about disk thinning, or feel some pulsing. My magnetic base folds a very particular way to fit in its case, and to get it refolded just right can take me an absurdly long time…