Calipers, brake pads and rotors all needed replacement at 60,000 Km...

Means: defective (lemon), sabotaged, or just improperly serviced. Not sure which.

 

New Brunswick? Could the previous owner have driven the car on a beach, or seabed at low tide, and have exposed all the wheel brakes to salt water?

 

There seems to be a don't-touch-the-brakes attitude at Toyota dealerships. The maintenance schedule specifies a frequent visual inspection, and a less frequent "service", but no detail on what a service entails.

IMHO, every couple of years (max), the calipers should be rotated up, pads removed, and at the least calipers shifted side-to-side to make sure the pins are still lubed and sliding ok.

Having just gone past the second anniverary with ours, when the "service" is spec'd, I phoned up our nearby dealership, talked to a service writer, and he basically talked me out of it. Maybe I should persevere...

I think part of the issue is the touchy electronics: it's possible to trigger a warning, or the car may try to pressurize the system while you've got the caliper rotated up, which might spit out a piston.

 

Mendel,

Agree that this is a routine maintenance item that does not get done often enough.
I try to service the caliper slider pins at least once half way through the pads life.
Often the pins get sticky or seized and this takes out the pads on that one caliper, while the rest still have long life.

But the OP is saying 3 of the 4 calipers went bad on one road trip.
This sounds like an electronic glitch or operator error....... left braking?

Although, I need to test this. Is left foot braking possible with the right foot on the accelerator, in a Prius?
My VW TDI, (also a throttle-by-wire car) would not allow it. It would switch to idle if you stepped on the brake and gas at the same time. I always wondered about this during the 'Runaway Toyota' days.

I'm heading out for a test drive now!

 

You're not the first to experience this, particularly with the rear brakes. The Gen2 has drum brakes in back.
I'm thinking this is something I'll want to check into when I'm rotating my tires.

 

This is the downside to Prius brakes lasting forever-and-ever. The caliper slides probably ought to be serviced every 30-40,000 miles, which is about how often non-hybrid cars go through brakes. Slide lube doesn't stay put forever, especially if the vehicle is driven in wet weather or exposed to salty elements in the Winter.

 

I can see the calipers could well need to be lubricated due to salt air and hard winters, but all the pads too? Did they show you the worn out pads or did they have some other problems? I would expect brake pads on a Prius to last twice that long.

I suppose since pads shouldn't be all that expensive they might have thought it a good idea to put them in as long as they were working on the brakes anyway.

 

If the pins are seizing, then the calipers' aren't shifting laterally, and this in turn could accelerate pad wear?

 

With a sticky pin/slider on a caliper, I have seen very uneven pad wear. One pad is down to metal, the other 1/2 worn, for example.

This thread, about most of the pads being worn at the same time, makes me think something in the electronic brake control system is applying the brakes.

The shop told the OP 'calipers seized' , is that the floating pins or the actual piston in the caliper?
This is probably typical for some shops:
"Installed new brake pads" means they spread the pistons, slammed some new pads in there, back on the ground in less than 45 mins !! Woo Hoo, they beat the book value of 3 hr job !!
They probably did not disassemble the floating pins, thoroughly clean everything and re-assemble with a light silicone grease, not the thick high temp stuff.

Hopefully the OP got a better brake job than the previous dealer brake job...

 

In all the years of rotating up calipers I never took the extra step of disassembling the pins. I'd be interested in hearing specific product names for the grease used. I've asked this before in other threads, and did I write down the responses?... Anyway, in the 3rd gen Prius Repair Manual they call for:

and Honda 2nd gen Civic Hybrid Shop Manual it's:

(the latter is also indicated for the pin boots, and caliper piston rings and boot)

 

3M Silicone Paste or Motorcraft XG-3-A has worked well for me. I use a wire wheel on the clips that attach to the caliper bracket (as well as area on the bracket where the clips sit, as rust will grow and cause the pads to lock in place). I've found that putting a small amount of Molykote M77 (sold by Honda) on the pad ears helps the pads slide much better.

 

^ Yeah I use Permatex Anti-Seize Compound sparingly on all the faying surfaces between brake pad, shims and caliper/piston.

 

Having never disassembled a brake assembly, all these sound too abstract to me (particularly pins Vs pistons). Sears says they will "lube" the brakes all around for $20. Any one aware what they do and how would I make sure it would include all that lubing mentioned in this thread with the correct lubricants?

Or is there a DIY video somewhere? Simply searching "brake cleaning DIY" didn't turn up anything.

 

I'd question that $20 fee. That's really cheap. How do they put the car on a lift and remove the wheels at that price?

The caliper piston is NOT something to get into. If the boot got pinched or cut and there is crud in there, it's time for a new caliper.

We are talking about the caliper floating pins. They hold the caliper in position and let the caliper float side to side as the pads wear. These pins do not take any braking loads and they don't get hot. That's why the light silicone grease.

Where the pads meet the caliper carrier is where the braking forces are. The pads get HOT. They are held in place by the caliper carrier. This is where high temp lubes are needed. Sparingly, but routinely. especially on a Prius where the pads can last a very long time. Some use this high temp grease on the area where the caliper squeezes the pads, but modern cars have teflon-like coated shims to stop brake noise.

Both areas require a through cleaning before replacing the two kinds of lube. More time cleaning than anything else.

>The pins need Q-tips and 'brake-clean' and patience. Use the silicone grease liberally but carefully clean off all excess when everything is reassembled. (I use 3M DC4, which is similar to the dielectric grease you can buy at auto store.)

>The pad contact areas need a small wire brush or small fine file. You can remove one pad at a time and detail clean that area. The pads should move freely in the carrier. Go easy on the high temp lube, only the small contact area.
No glops of grease in this area. ( I use those little 'ketchup pacs' of 'High Temp Brake Grease' at the auto store counter.)

This is serious business. Not for the first time DIY'r. Seek professional help. Or pay a shop and watch.
And don't let Sears spray some mystery stuff though your wheels and ask for $20.

 

They actually do a brake eval for $15 (I recently paid the dealer $49.99 for the same) where they do put the car on a jack, take the wheels off and check the brake pads/calipers. Of course they hope it results in more work in new pads, rotors and such.

Thanks for the explanation and caution.

 

Here's a nice DIY by Hobbit that I found referred to from a Gen 2 thread:

Brake service