change front brake pads at 30000km?

The brake light will come on for various reasons. One I know is if you have the parking brake on. And likely if brake fluid level is too low. But I doubt very much it will come on for brake pad wear, which is likely the reason he wants to change pads.

30000km is abnormally early for worn out brake pads, in particular with a hybrid with regen braking. If you want to know the state of your front brakes: remove a front wheel and have a look. New brake pads are typically between 10~12mm thick, and typical wear limit is around 2mm. I wouldn't go lower than 3mm personally.

When checking thickness, be sure to exclude the backing plate, only measure the friction material thickness.

 

The brake light does not come on when your brakes need to be changed. Traditionally you hear a squealing sound from the brake pads as there is a noisemaker built in.

I find it hard to believe your brake pads need replacement. They should last way longer. Definitely get a second opinion or check it yourself.

 

I have 47,000 miles on my brake pads and they look brand new. I drive alot of highway miles.

On my last car I got 190,000 miles on the front pads and at 305,000 the rear were never replaced. I sold the car.

Two things that make the wear fast is constant city driving for overal bad driving.

 

That squeal is a soft metal tang, typically copper, that protrudes just a mm or so beyond the pad's backing plate. In other words, when your pad gets down to around 1mm it starts contacting the rotor. IMHO, that's too close though.

You can resolve your question yourself by just pulling a wheel and having a look. Actually, you might even be able to tell through the wheel spokes, with a good light.

 

Yeah, the sound of that squeal means you screwed up but if you are lucky you didn't ruin your rotors yet.

FWIW, the Official Prius repair manual says new pads are 10mm/9.5mm thick front/rear. Both are allowed to go down to 1mm per the manual. What they don't say is that if either pad on a wheel is down to 1mm in any spot that both of them should be replaced.

In reality you should replace at about 2mm because there isn't enough life left to make it worthwhile postponing.

I agree that 30k km isn't a reasonable mileage unless he runs full throttle - full brake every block.

 

Replacing your brake pads will be about has
frequent as replacing your fan belt.

al

 

xs650: do you have the Repair Manual, one or more volumes of the set of four? If so could you shed some light: are they all worth getting?

 

I have a CD with the 4 volumes on it, (6000+ pages!) that I bought from some long gone guy on eBay for $28. The table of contents feature works but the cross links in the repair sections don't. It actually pretty usable, which unfortunately doesn't help anyone else because the guy is no longer on fleabay.

I just looked and there is another seller with 2010 Prius manuals
If you want to make an inexpensive gamble, there is presently (10 Dec 2010) a guy on ebay selling a 2010 Prius repair manual CD for $34.95. By his description, it sounds better than mine because he claims it is indexed.

Go to ebay and search for 2010 prius service manual

 

I've actually had one on order for 2~3 weeks through that establishment. Money has changed hands, but no disc yet...

Helm Inc has the paper version at $70 per volume. They are legitimate, but still that's a lot of money. Just wondering if any of the volumes are not that much of interest, say detailed bodywork specs, or nothing but wiring diagrams?

 

I just got the $34.95 one from firstratedata on eBay. It arrived 3 days after I ordered it. It seems to be alittle more complete that the earlier one I bought from another sourfce and laods much faster from the CD. The service manual shows 7595 pages and there are also electric and owners manuals on the CD. I couldn't find the advertised full index but the table of contents is quite complete so no big loss.

 

Hi Socrates,

When the car was delivered to me, the dealer told me that the front brakes pads must be replaced on the 2nd service (30.000 klm or 2 years). I "knew" from this forum that such short time is quite early and told him so. The reply - lame to my opinion - was that the brake pads are "ecological" and softer than the usual ones! I believe is just an opportunity for the dealer to charge for the spares and the service. Anyway on the 2nd service I will demand to see the pads before allow them to be replaced.

 

At 30K miles my brake pads look like new. Before the Prius, I owned a 03 Civic Hybrid and at 45k miles the rear brake shoes had not even completely seated in on their full surface. Regenerative braking does the biggest part of the stopping in both cars.

 

Your front pads are probably just fine also. Why don't you get a second opinion? Brake pads are pretty much the same from car to car and you don't need a Toyota dealer to measure, or replace, brake pads. Any competent mechanic can measure the pad thickness and show you how to do it as well.

 

That's quite an accomplishment. My 2004 Prius at 213,000 miles still has more life in the original brake pads/shoes.

JeffD

 

Wow! I thought this was your first set. Maybe you could find some pads that will last longer. I used Akebono ceramic pads on one car I had (not a Prius) and they do last longer but I think they wear the rotors faster than normal pads.

I don't know if you can order from TireRack or not but they have ceramics for the Gen3 Prius: http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/resu...a&autoModel=Prius&autoYear=2010&autoModClar=V

 

I think 30k km is low but I replaced my front pads twice now and am at 63k miles (101k km).

It appears the European front discs and pads are made of softer material than the US version as apparantly Europeans like their brakes to have more 'bite' at the expense of a shorter service life.

They still last longer than other non hybrid automatic taxi brakes which last about 18k-20k miles.

If you wanted you could always install US brake dics and pads and get an extended life.