Brake Pads- Hard to believe!

Prayers sent for your wife!
Hope you don't mind, but my family has some experience with this and my neighbor's wife (33 yo) is battling stage 3 as we speak. A former shipmate had to kick his CPO initiation to the right for a year for the same thing. His wife is also in her early thirties.

OK...brakes.
Not my area of expertise, ESPECIALLY with Priuses. I don't even know what flavor of fluid they use.
Regenerative brakes help in wear, no doubt about it, but so do driving habits.
I know Prius drivers that have killed brakes before they got to the 60K mark. I just took our backup vehicle down for a brake clean and inspect (06 Envoy) and the pads are well within specs at 115,000 miles. I don't remember the thickness, and they use inches. Something like 55-percent of the pad remained, and the surfaces were good, so I left them on.
I did flush the fluid!
I keep reading in the daffy TCO arguments that Priuses are crazy good with brakes, but this may be in part due to the fact that Priuses are fairly small, and they're driven by folks who want to be fuel efficient. You can get lunar mileage out of truck brakes if you rarely use them!
If you wear out the brakes on ANY car at < 100,000 miles, then you need to take a serious look at your driving patterns unless you work for the USPS!!!

The brake fluid can be a different story altogether!!!
Both of my M/C's are on their original pads, but when the brake fluid turns from amber to coffee color, I immediately flush the system. Brake fluid is cheap, and you can use a mickey-mouse bleeder system from Harbor Freight to do it with. It'll just take you a little longer than the bigs.
The brake fluid on my (non-Prius) vehicles turns dark and eerie colors for a reason!
The regenerative brakes on Priuses are different, I'm sure! One of the disadvantages of having a Company Prius is that I don't get to swing wrenches on them, and I've read (but not verified) that self-maintenance on the brakes is a little "special" where bleeding the system is concerned.

I'm just humbly suggesting that the fluid may be a little more important to change than you may think...even in a Prius.

Ask around!

Good Luck!!

 

Here is Hobbit's discussion of brake fluid replacement. Scroll down a ways to get to the topic.

I recalled incorrectly earlier -- the dipstick measures copper content, not water.

 

^ I'd take the dealership up on the offer. It's difficult for people who are going through tough times to accept such helpful gestures, but it would benefit the service manager as well as yourselves. People want to help!
Let them.

Good luck!!

 

I just tried Texas Toyota after going to Don Davis for years. Truly a breathe of fresh air. Took both our cars (2004 Package 9 and 2010 IV) for service in the same week. On each visit a random service person gave my 1 year old daughter a free stuffed animal. Nice waiting room too.

They've earned my business as a customer. I figure my 2004 (almost 90K miles) is up for a brake inspection. I am car repair inept so I trust them for take a look see.

 

why do u ned to leave the hatchback open after disconnecting the battery before you do a brake job?, just wondering, thx

 

@MC MIKE...this sounds better (lol)...did you happen to check the rear shoes? What is the thickness? I think I will change my brakes soon. I got 217k. I was waiting for the squealing, but the ceramic pads sound so good.

 

Brake fluid is hygroscopic: it slowly absorbs water over time. Brake fluid that has water in it will have a lower boiling temperature, meaning your braking system will lose strength faster with heavy use. Think of it this way... if you're going down a very long hill, do you want your brakes to work when you hit the stop sign at the end of the hill, or are you okay coasting through that stop sign because you've pushed the pedal to the floor and nothing's happening?

I'm not saying your fluid is bad, I don't know your exact driving habits, environmental conditions, etc., but many maintenance schedules include a brake system flush and fill after two years, regardless of miles.

A car is a flying death missile, and brakes are the only things that are keeping you from going splat inside said missile. Do you really want to gamble with a "well I kinda figure I'm sorta ok"? What's more valuable, your life or that $200 brake job?

What next, jury rigging a set of seat-belts out of packing tape to save a little more $$$? Replacing your air bags with microwave popcorn bags?

I mean, look at this... even $50 is too much to ask for some people. It's not just your life at risk... it's those who ride with you, those who share the road with you...

 

No offense but if I was as hard up for money as you make it sound I would have looked at the perfectly good pads on the car and returned the ones I just bought. Your old pads look almost new.

 

Take a look at the bottom of this page

100K maint - 1

where Hobbit evaluated his brakes and brake fluid at 5 years and 100K miles. His conclusion was that low usage (as indicated by the pad thickness and driving habit) helped keeping the fluid in good condition. YMMV of course.

 

Hi Mike,

OK, then don't worry about this particular issue as brake fluid replacement is not absolutely necessary. It might help the ultimate longevity of the brake actuator - but the failure rate of that part is not high.

Further,

1) Toyota does not recommend a specific time when brake fluid replacement is required.
2) The Prius brake system typically is very lightly used since regen braking handles most of the braking workload. This is why the brake fluid looks almost new after the odometer has logged six-digits, unlike conventional vehicles.

Best of luck with your wife's recovery.

 

...and the rest of it might go missing if something becomes of you after a hacked-together brake job.

I'm not here to stir the pot. I just hate hearing how folks pinch pennies in situations that might turn into catastrophically bad results. I can't believe there's a situation where saving $10 is worth risking $100k, even if the probability of such risk is a fraction of a percent. Probability is meaningless when you're the one statistical event.

 

202,000 on my '04, 40% remaining on front, 50% on rear, I've done nothing, no fluid replacement, nothing, brakes still work perfectly; helps when I put my foot through the hole in the floorboard to stop the car, however.