Gen II Brake Life - 83K+?

[Schmullis]

Just bought a used Gen II `04 and learned that while the previous owner replaced the brake fluid at 46K, the car still has the ORIGINAL pads on the front. Seems to stop OK, but I've never heard of a car going 83K on the same pads. Any experience if this is normal?

Thanks for a reply.

[wfolta]

Originally Posted by Schmullis

Just bought a used Gen II `04 and learned that while the previous owner replaced the brake fluid at 46K, the car still has the ORIGINAL pads on the front. Seems to stop OK, but I've never heard of a car going 83K on the same pads. Any experience if this is normal?

With regenerative braking doing most of your stopping work, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect to go 5-10x longer between brake pads. I've read about it here in the forums, and I'm looking forward to seeing the effect over the years myself.

[Tideland Prius]

Yup, seems reasonable. If you brake lightly, regen takes most of the work so the pads are really only there to slow down the car for the last 8mph and keep the car stopped at a light.

[john1701a]

Originally Posted by Schmullis

Seems to stop OK, but I've never heard of a car going 83K on the same pads.

Mine had 118K on them when I sold the 2004 in May.
.

[usbseawolf2000]

I have 101k miles and the front pads are not even half way yet. I would guess it still has over 70% left.

[V8Cobrakid]

with my rims and my driving habits.. i finally need to change my brakes. i'm at about 124336 miles or.. something like that. the fronts are making noise... i have yet to really look into it.. i figured they've had their use.

[dogfriend]

I just did my 30k service at 29,616 miles. I measured the front pads and the thinnest of the two was 9.7mm. The standard thickness is 11mm, so I have used 1.3mm in 29,616 miles. The minimum thickness is 1.0mm. So, if you extrapolate, I could get as much as 227k miles from the original front brake pads.

[archae86]

Originally Posted by Tideland Prius

Yup, seems reasonable. If you brake lightly, regen takes most of the work so the pads are really only there to slow down the car for the last 8mph and keep the car stopped at a light.

Yes, but the definition of "brake lightly" varies rather drastically with speed in terms of how it feels. I am disappointed that Toyota does not include any kind of display to clarify when you have exceeded regeneration limit and are actually using the friction brakes. However if you watch the battery current display on a scan gauge while gently varying the brake force, you can find the limit.

At 25 mph it is really, really easy to stay in pure regeneration. By contrast, at 75 mph the regeneration limit represents a very modest deceleration rate.

I would love to hear the truth from actual Toyota technicians who see a lot of brake pads, but I suspect that the rate of wear varies quite drastically from owner to owner, being driven both by driving conditions and owner habits. (even more so than with conventional systems)

[john1701a]

Originally Posted by archae86

I am disappointed that Toyota does not include any kind of display to clarify when you have exceeded regeneration limit and are actually using the friction brakes.

They do. It's on the new ECO-METER.

Remember what things were like way back in 2003 when the Iconic model was rolled out. Even the simple handheld GPS was just a dream still. A lot has changed since then.
.

[qbee42]

Very few posters on PC have reported replacing front brakes before 100K miles. While it isn't a scientific survey, it does give a good indication of long brake life.

I suspect most Prius drivers are not heavy brake users. It goes against the whole reason to own a Prius.

Tom