My buddies at Sam's Club crossed threaded one of my lug nuts on my front left tire, so I had to remove and replace the lug bolt and nut. In the process of doing this I removed the brake caliper to have better access to the bolt. While I had the caliper off I inspected the caliper and measured the brake pad. I was pleasantly surprised to find the pads in very good condition with 9/32" of pad remaining after 125k miles. I am fortunate that I do not live in an area that has to put down a lot of salt on the roads and highways. So there is very little rust and corrosion around the brakes and calipers. I also disassembled the calipers at 70k miles and greased the slide pins. This makes me question when I see on here where dealerships are recommending brake pad replacement on Prii with much less that 100k miles. Unless, of course, they are in an area with a lot of salt on the roads.
I think it's just brake inspection, every 3 years or 30K miles in the schedule. Pad replacement only when warranted.
Yeah I've replace ONE rotor. Maybe they did both sides. But it needed it: it had cracked: the car sounded like it had a broken back every time you touched the brakes. I pulled the wheel, saw the crack, put it back together, made an appointment, told them the problem, brought it in. Half an hour later they called to say: "there was no problem, your brakes are fine, we washed the car, you can pick it up". I went kinda ballistic... Another half an hour, got a call to clear things up, from the service manager, the best guy they ever had btw: he had (cracked) the rotor on his desk.
Unless you have a known problem like yours, my advice would be always get a second opinion on brake repair recommendations on a Prius.
I thought of something else I wanted to add to this thread. When I drove the 3 miles to Sam's with the doughnut spare on the front right side, I was surprised at how rough the ride was at 45 mph. I realize the spare has 60 psi and is hard as a rock, but the whole right-hand side drive train sounded and felt noisy. Has anyone else noticed this? I cannot imagine driving with this spare tire at highway speeds like I have seen many times!! I get out of their way as quickly as I can!
I've driven about 10 km on the spare, was not bad. It was on rear though, and 60 km/hr tops. Pressure close to spec' 60 psi.
I've had a flat on the front before. I took the spare out, put it on the rear, then put the good tire from the rear on the front. Sure, it's one more tire change on the side of the road, but I felt a lot better with that spare on the rear than on the front. This weekend I should probably get in and take apart the calipers and have a good look at the brakes. 130,000 miles on my used car and I haven't looked at them good since I bought it used, and at least grease the pins.
I agree putting the spare doughnut tire on the rear is the safest way to do it. If I had more than 3 miles to drive, and especially if I needed to go faster than 45 mph, I would definitely put the spare on the back.
Hah, my daughter would argue that: she drove months on a temp spare, on the front of an AWD Pilot. Crossed over into Washington State. Twice. Common sense skips generations.
Mine was about 150 miles across desolate Wyoming before I could get to a place that had a replacement tire in stock.
Every time I pump up or check the air in my regular tires.... I forget to check the air in the compact spare. Bad, bad me.
Same here. When I checked the pressure of the spare it was only 40 psi. Fortunately I was at the house so was able to pump it up to 60 psi before driving. Note to self: Check spare when checking other tires!!
It's no trivial task checking the spare pressure. Especially with the amount of stuff I've squirrelled away in the underfloor tray. But yeah, keep on it, say twice yearly is good. FWIW, when we bought our car new, and I did the first check of the temp spare, it was at 40 psi. So much for PreDelivery Inspection.
Viair 00016: Air Extension Hose 6 ft. | JEGS 6 FT. extension hose. Keep it attached to the tire. Keep the tire inflated to 62-65 lbs to allow for air loss when you disconnect it if you have to use the spare tire. I need to get the valve stem replaced on my doughnut spare, it's leaking around the base.
I have one on my spare. I guess I do not have a good excuse for not checking mine other than forgetfulness!
