Brake disc wear

I'm assuming when you say brake disc, you are referring to brake pad? 58k is very premature, I would get a second opinion. Most prius have gone over 100k before needing pads. I just changed mine out at 170k miles

 

Mine rear brakes and pads went out at 56k miles. On one wheel they wore out unevenly, so half the disk was rusty.

 

^ Concur.
Even with your wonderful climate, the rotors (discs) ought to be fine if the car is driven at least weekly, and you should be able to see if there's more than a few mm of pad left on the caliper. IIRC, the minimum spec something like 1MM.
You're some distance from London's stop-and-go gridlock traffic.
I'd say that a second opinion and an extra measure of skepticism are in order.

 

As it was said before, I would get a second opinion in a different place......

 

There was a member here a couple weeks ago that made a comment while at the dealer, saying his disc had some rust on there. The dealer resurfaced the rotors for an enormous amount and it seemed to have fixed the problem.

Here in CA we don't have much of a rust problem on the disc, but in colder wet climates, I guess it can happen. Just resurface them

 

are you talking front, back or both? there have been many complaints about rear brake wear on gen III due to stuck slide pins and rubbing pads. see posts from member 'mendel leisk'.

 

Standard thickness of the front disc is 25.0 mm, and minimum thickness is 22.0 mm. Are you still on first set of pads, or? If discs ARE near minimum that quick, you'd think either you're smoking through pad sets (they're not releasing properly, and wearing down the disc), or they're aggressively machining them.

OTOH, do they even say the discs are near minimum thickness, or they just don't like the looks of them? Try a second opinion?

 

Pads are easy to see, but many times rotors are called bad, that are not. Surface rust does not mean resurface...they all rust. Always call them on it...show you with a mic measured at multiple points...and make them zero it first. Seen a lot of crawfish in my days while playing the ignorant victim...mechanic in sheep's clothing.

 

wow, you don't hear about fronts too often, except for dealer scams.

 

Now we're talking.

Checked one of mine: at least with my 17" OEM rims, I was able to reach through the spokes and put micrometer on, very easy. I think the 15" rims are at least as open. There's a widened zone on the splash shield, to expedite putting a measuring tool on.

It might be expedient to raise the front end, just to rotate the spokes as needed (I got lucky, it was fine as-is, on the ground). Or just roll the car a bit. Only thing: you can't easily read it on the disc, need to fish it back out. I needed to open it up slightly to get it past the rust at the outer edge, but it's trivial.

Mine were still right at 25 mm. The car has a bit over 50K km's, and never been in for brakes, never machined discs. I have opened it up once myself.

 

at 58k you don't need rotors, and you shouldn't need pads unless you drive 2 footed. I have 127k on a LA freeway driven car and just changed the front pads 5k ago. I have had 3 track days on this car also. someone is blowing smoke.

 

My 2010 has done nearly 70k miles and the pads are only 30% worn, however there is a distinct lip forming on the discs/rotors. So unusually the disc is wearing out before the pads. I have put it down to the British climate and that I use the friction brakes sparingly. How so? Well after rain, even overnight there is a small layer of rust on the discs,wiped off by the pads, but not enough to wear them down. So the discs are getting worn through corrosion rather than friction breaking. This is not seen in ordinary cars because both the discs and pads would have been replaced over 70k miles.

 

The truth lies in the measurements. I doubt rust is a factor here. From my experience, plenty of shops, including dealers, base the necessity of replacing rotors on looks and/or greed while others machine them below specifications and put them back on the road. I'll add that most of the time I see paperwork with measurements, the measurements are incorrect.

I look forward to seeing the measurements you get.

Avi

 

At 98k miles, my pads were worn to 2mm thickness. I looked at the rotors and saw deep gouging in the rotors. I went to my local NAPA auto parts and got the top of the line rotors and new pads.

I did NOT want to deal with the Toyota rotors as they are crap. I had the wifes' RAV4 rear rotors replaced at the dealer, only to have them warp after a year. So, I went with the NAPA Ultra Premium rotors and been happy for 2+ years.

So, I bought the NAPA rotors and the job is done.

DBCassidy