Brake corrosion in UK

Very strange. Here in the Netherlands we have about the same climate I presume (this winter we had a lot of salt on the roads, for example), and my previous Prius ('04) was driven by me for 145000 km in 5.5 years, and never had anything done to its brakes, except for some standard cleaning at the regular services.

 

I hear what you're saying but I don't think it's a fault with the materials used but because of the regen braking the friction brakes don't get the same usage they'd in a normal car.

With light use you're going to get corrosion. On the other hand I am pleased with how little wear my discs and pads are getting. Normally drivers of an automatic car in my job would expect front pads to wear out in 15-20k miles. Mine are upto 23k now and the back set are hardly worn at all.

 

Yeah i was amazed to notice when washing mine after a month that i couldn't see ANY build up of brake dust on the rears!

Dave, what sort of driving pattern do you do?

 

This is easy....

Like Grumpy said you may have to go the extra yard and push a button to get rid of the corrosion. I have that issue here in Florida too.

Like Grumpy was referring to because of the regen the friction brakes are hardly used at all.

When you take your foot off the gas an electric motor is connected to the wheels and the wheels then drive that motor and the motor is then used as a voltage generator to charge the batteries. You can see that function on the mfd. The load of the motor on the front wheels slows the wheels down so much little friction braking is needed.

Her's how to fix that the corroded discs:

Keep an eye on how the discs are corroding to tell you the interval of cleaning needed. When your driving on the highway put the car in Neutral. Shift it into Neutral at speed. Neutral negates the regen feature and you are then friction brakes only. Push the brake pedal pretty forcefully now and then at speed in neutral with no one behind you. Do that a few times and later take notice how much corrosion is disapated. You may have to do it everyday. Only takes a few seconds.

Please be aware if you have never done this before using just the friction brakes in Neutral you will have alot less braking force than your used too. Alot less! Get used to it. Its disconcerting the first time. Do not do this with someone right in front of you.

I do it all the time and so do alot of PC'ers. My discs look perfect.

Good Luck and keep your Prius.

 

During this period of changing disks an cleaning disks every 10000 miles (KM?) what was the symptom? Were your brakes not working? working poorly? You did not mention changing pads, so I assume your pads were ok?

 

Hi Dave Bean,

We have this issue in Illinois, but probably not as severe as on that end of the Gulf Stream.

I put on metal skins on my trim rings, making flush wheel covers. This helps with blowing rain, puddle splashes, and salty slush splashes getting into the disk brake rotors.

I rarely have to do the friction brake technique since I put on the flush hubcaps.

 

Please post a picture of these.

 

1 post and not come back? Fail!

 

Hi All,

Sorry for the late reply. There is a thread on Prius chat regarding my flush hubcap mod to the Prius trim rings already. http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-modifications/41338-aero-anticorrosion-mod-trim-rings.html .

Important comment - do not use metal valve extenders. Use plastic ones. The metal that the TPMS sensors are made out of is incomatible with the metal used to make valve stem extenders. Additionally, the metal springs in the plastic extenders rust easily and blead orange stuff out of the valve extenders. So, get some vinyl caps (I used SMA connector caps I had around here) and put them over the plastic extenders.

 

Just an update I live in a hilly area of surrey UK and every winter a lot of grit salt is applied to the roads I don't have any wheel trims (for the last year ) and have hit 120,000 miles with original brakes, that is no change of pads or discs. I Just came back from my toyota dealer who told me my brakes are 80% worn back and front and recommended I have them changed. I am thinking of perspex discs riveted to the the original wheel trims at least for winter as I do get surface rust on the discs. any thoughts welcome

 

It would be far better to do as Edthefox5 said in post 5, and at 120,000 miles on the OEM pads you cannot complain. Most driver in the UK would expect 15 to 20,000 miles from a set of pads and on some cars discs as well.

John (Britprius).

 

As an afterthought to the above, hills in Surrey? Come to the area I live in and i'll show you hills.

 

I have had an advisory for the second year in a row on my 09 gen 2.

"Offside rear disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened"

I'm not particularly worried but the garage did quote around £200 so hopefully it will be good for a few more years.

 

Good quality named rear discs are available on Ebay, I paid £16 a pair and they are an easy DIY job with precautions 90mins to do both sides, or any small local garage could do them in 1hr if you warn them to disconnect the 12v battery. So even with pads added £100 would be more realistic.

John (Britprius)

 

I didn't disconnect the battery but removed the relay for the brake fluid pump or accumalator as some people call it, saves loosing any important data and I can listen to the radio while working

 

Last year I had my front pads and discs replaced (corrosion) at 120k - the dealer confirmed via the history that these were the originals, and 100k+ is not unusual depending on the area and driving style. Just had an advisory on the rears for corrosion.