Brakes already!?!?

My original pads, drums, and rotors lasted for 300K miles on my 2nd gen prius.

 

Don't conflate pad/shoe longevity with the need for periodic brake maintenance though. Toyota USA says tri-yearly or 30K miles, do a full inspection, clean, relube various points, check pad/drum/rotor/drum measurements against spec.

 

I think the key to this particular case is that this is a Gen 4, which has significant changes since Gen 2. And TOYOTA did a full refurbishment without quibbling, which is almost unheard-of, which sort of indicates that they might be aware of some material issues with those particular parts on that particular car - maybe tracked it back by VIN?

 

and don't compare california to ohio

 

Yeah they don’t have rolling brownouts there.

 

a small price to pay for living in paradise my friend

 

At least I wasn’t one of the 800,000 last night.

But still parked the cars outside rather than have to deal with the manual garage door shuffle.

 

time for a power wall?

 

When I asked last April about that with the Solar City rep when we put the solar panels up, he laughed at the suggestion .

Said they were focused on cars.

I took that as queue and went with Sun Power.

 

moral of the story: don't get your bev from sun power

 

Too many people are continually comparing pac8 and big10

 

I’ve had three Prius now, and never manage to wear out breaks. But indications on the first two were that they would last 200 K. A few years ago I encouraged my sister to buy a Prius. She bought a brand new 2014, and managed to wear the brakes out in about 40 K she routinely stomped on the brakes, stopped 100 yards behind other traffic at signals, and commented many times that she just couldn’t get the feel of driving the car. Some people never get it, driving cars with regenerative braking. Happily she now drives a Mazda CX 5 Oh well.

 

Dealers are always "conservative" on brakes. They'll tell you to change them when you have 25% left which is a lot. I'd recommend that you ask for the actual numbers. My experience is Midas will give you the actual numbers i.e. your pads/discs are x.xxx inches thick and the minimum is y.yyy inches so you have 0.zzz inches left.

 

If I've taken the time to pull off the calipers and I'm looking at only 2, even 3 mm's, I'm gonna change them. I don't want that pending job on my mind.

Also, and I'm a broken record on this: don't conflate pad thickness with the need for brake service. Toyota's recommended three years or 30K miles interval is reasonable.

 

I also call BS on the dealerships story. It seems to me like they are trying to cover for their prior scam after corporate got involved.

if the rotors were severely rusted you would be able to see that just by looking at them while the wheels were still on. Rotors frequently get a little rusty and it is quickly and almost instantaneously removed the next time you apply the brake. Unless you were letting this sit for an extended period on a beach I highly doubt they are being truthful.

I would like to see real analysis, but I suspect that there isn’t one and they never contacted you again after this.

 

My Gen 1 front rotors developed really wide rust bands, only on the inboard side, scarcely visible without disassembly. Left only a skinny path down the middle where the pads were touching.



Light surface rust gets easily scoured off by the pads in normal use, but somehow once these ridges get started (however that initially happens) they are tougher than that, and they carve off the edges of the pads, so there is no longer anything to scour them, and they grow and grow.

I haven't seen the OP's rotors, but I know at least that is a thing that can happen. It has only just now started on the rear rotors of my Gen 3 (at 150,000; at my previous inspection last spring there was no sign of it).

 

I've found doing pads and rotors can have worse results sometimes than leaving the factory installed components on for as long as the pads wear. Unless the new or turned rotors fit back onto knuckle and turn to spec the wobble of the rotor can burn through a set of pads really quick.

If the OEM brakes have already been serviced that is another story, when considering replacing or servicing the calipers, pad and rotors.

 

The advice in the repair manual to try the rotor all five ways on the hub, measuring the runout each way, and pick the one with the smallest measurement, is not just a waste of time. I have definitely seen the runout measurement be well out of spec 4 ways out of 5, and suddenly nicely within spec for that one sweet position.

 

It also notes to mark the rotor and a stud before removing the rotor, and reassemble the same orientation. That presumably applies when runout is within spec as-is.

 

Did you get a third opinion regarding the brake work? Any idea about the root cause for the premature brake work? Did you end up getting the work done?

Thanks.