New Nightshade Trim and Yellow Colour for 2025.

Hmm, think about that for a second. An electric parking brake makes your vehicle safer multiple times per day. But that's not worth it because it makes changing the rear brake pads harder? Something you're probably going to do no more than half a dozen times over the car's LIFETIME? Does that seem rational to you? It doesn't to me.


It reminds me of the Technology Connections video on LED traffic lights. Where some people said cities shouldn't switch to LED traffic lights because they sometimes don't generate enough internal heat to melt snow off the lenses. But that's a false argument because it looks at one specific scenario where incandescent bulbs are better than LED, but ignores all the other more common scenarios where LEDs are better than incandescents.

 

How often are brake pads changed on a Prius? my son had his 2005 10 years without changing them. He did not change them on his Prius V either before trading it in.

 

I think a good estimate is never. Prius brakes are for lifetime (one million miles or more) unless you drive the car hard, in which case you shouldn’t be driving a hybrid anyway.

 

I think two or three times is realistic over a full lifetime(300k-400k miles), but I played it safe and said half a dozen just in case.

However, a tip is to at least pull the pins every couple years and scrub them with a scotchbrite pad just to clean off any oxidation build up. Maybe even pull the pads every 50k to give them a cleaning and reapply brake grease. It can make the difference between just replacing pads and (maybe) rotors down the road, or having to replace everything because the pins and pads have seized into the calipers from a decade or more of oxidation.

 

Toyota USA recommends an in-depth brake inspection every 30k miles or tri-yearly, whichever comes first. Very subtly, but it’s there, in the Warranty a Maintenance Booklet.

 

It is actually every six months/5,000 miles, which is part of the regular tire rotation at the dealer.

 

Take a look at 30k, 60k and so on. The “visual inspection” note is gone, and in its place a very low- key mention of checking other brake stuff.

 

Not in my Gen 4 PHEV maintenance manual. It is the 5,000-mile pad and disk (and related hardware) inspection and 15,000-mile hose and line inspection.

 

Now I remember why I put you on ignore.

 

In the US 2021 Prius warranty & maintenance manual, the 5000 mile interval brake item is "Visually inspect brake linings/drums and brake pads/discs". At 30k mile, brake items are moved to the "Inspect the following" section, and includes "Brake lines and hoses". The dropping of 'visually' can be read as doing a more thorough inspection. There is also a footnote to "Inspect thickness measurement and disc runout".
https://assets.sia.toyota.com/publications/en/omms-s/T-MMS-21Prius/pdf/T-MMS-21Prius.pdf

As @Mendel Leisk mentioned, it is a subtle change in wording, but it being included among other items that are more involved to inspect points to Toyota calling for more than a look at the brakes while rotating the tires.

 

What are you talking about?

I missed the footnote about "Inspect thickness measurement and disc runout" every 30,000 miles, but that is inspected every 5,000 miles during tire rotations at the dealer anyway—among many other things. Do you think the dealer is not going try to replace your pads and discs even if they are only slightly worn?? Moreover, you said "in-depth brake inspection." What is "in-depth" about pad thickness and disc runout?

 

Brake lines and hoses are every 15,000 miles, not 30,000 miles. I missed the footnote about the pad thickness and disc runout every 30,000 miles because I was only searching for "brake."

 

The electric parking brake makes towing interesting when the 12 voltage battery fails and both front and rear wheels are locked up.

 

Any tower will have jumper cables at hand if that ever happens. Besides, you need to fix a dead 12-V battery before you tow a car in any case.

 

Do you think the dealer would actually perform the inspection? I took my 2017 Prius in for its first inspeation.tire rotation. They failed to check the 12V battery saying Prius had it in a different place even though it was under the hood starting in 2016. They also saud, in writing, they adjusted the tire pressures to a value lower than required for the Prius. In actual fact, they did not touch the tire pressures.

I know know my local dealer cannot be trusted without me verifying the work. Needless to say, I performed my own oil changes.

 

For the newer hybrids, the car is locked in Park after a collision when the hybrid system is disabled. Ask me how know. There is a procedure to het the car into neutral. I would expect it would release any electric parking brake too.

 

My wifes' 2024 Corolla Hybrid has the electronic parking brake and we love the thing. You can set it to automatically turn on and off so it's pretty cool. (You can hear a quiet sound of it doing it's thing.)
It, also, has a new feature "hold" which is button on the center console that presses the brake while you are waiting in line like at a stop light or drive-in...works great, too!

 

Traditionally a brake inspection involves lifting off the caliper, removal/cleaning of the pads/shims, clean up and relube of all faying surfaces, clean and relube of the caliper pins, check of rotor thickness and run-out (with micrometer and dial indicator). It's somewhat akin to a dentist doing tooth scaling; while they're at it they're on alert for other issues, decay or whatever.

Toyota is remiss in spec'ing this in detail. Honda's much better in this regard, has dedicated section in their Shop Manuals, titled something like "Brake Inspection", and detailing the steps involved.

Toyota's Repair Manual has info on all this, but just scattered throughout the brake section, most of which seems to be a complete brake disassembly and caliper rebuild, which I don't think happens often, if ever, with the prevalence of rebuilt calipers.

 

Toyota dealers are franchises. In a big city like LA, I have the luxury to pick one with a better service department. Even then, different technicians have different skill levels.

 

Traditionally perhaps, but none of which you said now is in the maintenance manual, which was your previous claim.