Since I have been driving 60 miles round trip in bumper to bumper rush hour interstate highway traffic it has occured to me that the brakes are working very hard. As evidenced by the daily sight of someone crashing into the rear end of another car. So has anyone looked into the following: 1) Expected brake pad and rotor life? 2) Changed from the stock brake pads to ceramic pads? 3) How to know when to change the pads? (Before crashing into the car in front of me.) As usual your thoughts and comments are appreciated. Please remember to vote!
1) there are wear indicators on the OEM pads (squeelers) 2) Ceramics are only really good in extereme application where you get them really hot, IE. racing 3) taxi operations go about 80,000 miles to a set of front pads
ceramics are great as they are very low dust and have a slow wear rate and low noise but the disadvantage is they do cause premature rotor wear (they are harder than the rotors). i would stay with stock toyota pads myself and listen for the indicators (you'll know when its time to replace it sounds like fingers on a chalk board)
I have owned a 2001 Prius since October 2004 and have logged over 104,000 miles. When I had the brakes checked at my last oil change, the front pads had 80% remaining, and the rears >50%. I expect to change traction packs before brake pads. Dave
OOPS! I should say I have owned the vehicle since October 2000 (I ordered over the internet and bought it new) Dave
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill60546\";p=\"42926)</div> 1) 150,000 miles + 2) No. 3) Audible Front Brake Pad Wear Indicator will let you know with a horrible squeal.
Got my PA state inspection done today ( required yearly) and the mechanic took me out in the shop to show me the brakes. Front pads are at 90%, rear at 100%....after 19,500 miles!! Regen braking REALLY pays off. We're harvesting the energy of braking to recharge the battery and avoiding costly brake jobs at the same time. He wouldn't venture a guess at when they might need replacement but it will be a LONG time.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jerry P\";p=\"44058)</div> I live a little to the south of you (Pgh., South Hills), where I think it is quite a bit more hilly. I wonder what effect the stoplight at the bottom of every long hill will have on brakes. Don't know about your past experience, but I have to plan on new brakes every year with a normal car and I am NOT a heavy braker. It appears that your mechanic was surprised though.
Since the regenerative function of the HSD works so well in normal driving, I wonder if brake jobs might be few and far between? I'd stay away from ceramic pads. A guy I know put some on his 2001 Chevy Silverado, thinking it would improve the anaemic brakes on that thing. Just the opposite happened: unless he rode the brakes to get them super hot, he needed both feet on the pedal to stop. The U.S. Department of Justice did a test of standard police cars (Ford Crown Vic and the new front drive Chevy Impala) using many different brake pad materials. The DOJ concluded that ceramic pads were dangerous, as you needed both feet to get reasonable braking when the pads were cold. They actually had the best pedal feel AND the shortest cold stop from 85 MPH using the cheapest pads. So use caution with some of those "premium" pads!
Re: Ceramic brake pads Over Kill? Are ceramic pads over kill (in this case)? Although I have had good luck with ceramic pads for my standard break systems (larger van, truck). Can I assume the highway driving I do and the low demand breaking design of the Prius that my Ceramics are trouble? I replaced my previous pads with Ceramic and resurfaced the rotors. Now after only 7K mi of use the newly resurfaced rotors & new ceramic rotors are causing breaking pulsations. Furthermore, at final stop (7 mph-0mph) is get a nasty jerky grab or final clamping down-to stop. First few thousand miles with the ceramic pad went well. Now the “rotor warpingâ€/cementite issue is apparent. This Gen II has 250k original miles. on it. I know it got at least 100k out of the previous pads I just replaced. (I purchased the car with 145K miles on it. All prior owner maintenance (down to the wiper blade replacement) was done by the dealership; so I assume my previous pads were OEM. I’m pulling the rotors off today; to machine the rotors. Should I toss the ceramic pads & switch back to OEM (semi metallic) pads?
