New Brake Pads and Rotors Hot!

Yesterday my dad and I jacked up my Gen 3 2010 Prius and proceeded to replace the rotors and friction brake pads.

My prius has 190K miles on it now and I've been alerted to needing new pads since 183K miles. So we put new ceramic pads on it. We replaced the rotors as well just to get it done. After the tires were off we realized that the rotors probably could've been turned but we just replaced them. This all seemed to go well enough. Although, I should mention that we forgot to disconnect the 12V battery. I just didn't think about it. I hope that wasn't a big deal or anything. I didn't hear the brake booster pump come on. If it did we probably didn't get to the disassembly process. We spent a good little while getting together all our tools after I turned off the car. That's usualky when I hear it go off, a little while after shutdown or is you open the door.

We got everything installed good and tight. We made sure to have all the little hardware that needed to be inn the pads, these pin things, stainless steel bracket things. All kinds of little hardware bits and bobs. We got it all on there. Didn't have a whole lot of trouble pushing back in the rear calipers. They're s screw-in style caliper. We used a pair of pliers and compressed each for all 4 wheels. They went in and we got the pads in their housing and got the tires back on.

No weird noises after all that, very ordinary. No lights inn the dash LCD. It booted up after all that like normal.

We took it for a test drive up to 35mph, with hard stops to test it all. It stopped like a champ. Afterward all seemed well. We did hard stops and we smelled a little chemical smells, but dad told me that was just the new pads and rotors getting initiated (broken in).

I drove home about 15 miles or So all high-speed on the expressway. I stopped on the way home to get a gallon of milk and I checked all the tires to see how hot they were. They were a little warm, nothing out of the ordinary though. The back left tire put out some heat though. It was hot. I got worried and called him. He said to just drive it below 50mph, and not drive all around, or on the expressway for now.

I felt the rotor with my fingers and it was hot. Not glowing red or anything. Thank goodness. He told me yo swing by today so we can look at it (all city driving to get there, speeds under 45mph).

I checked today after I drove to work. It was hotter than I think It probably should be for a 10 minute 45-60mph drive. If you smell up close you can still smell that chemical smell. But, you have to smell for it close.

Dad says this is probably the caliper staying out or not retracting or something. He says we can put some Anti-seize or NeverSieze stuff on it and it should move. Something like that. I'm not the mechanic, he is. He's a mechanic with ICE vehicles and tells me this is nothing too big to do friction brakes on my Prius.

Why is the back-left tire (rotors and pads rather) putting out a whole lot of heat? Is this normal? The other tires aren't throwing a lot Of heat too much. Not like that back-left. I'm not a mechanic, just a do-it-yourselfer.
I just don't want to fry my caliper(s), new rotors, or pads. I'm kinda worried, but dad, and some friends & family say not to worry.
Dad still is going to look at it though. I hate the old-fricten braking. I wish we only had regen so I wouldn't have to worry about this.

 

Yes, that's at least some help there. I appreciate any and all help I can get on this. I had hoped that Mendel Leisk would perhaps chime in on this post. He's always a help here on PC. Very knowledgeable guy he is, and seems to be explain things well.

Today, I'm going to drive back over to my dads house and we're going to try to take the wheel and everything off to get to the bottom of this. I looked at the rotor a little while ago in the daylight and it appears that its got a little bit of whitish chaulky residue on it. None of the other rotors seem to have this. This could be from the heating up. The good news is that the other rotors & pads appear to be on there successfully. Its just that one that bothers me. It was dark (9pm) when we got that one on though. So it could be something with the fitting, as you mentioned.

Yikes!

 

I never got the chance today to get the car up on jack stands and look at it. My dad had something come up and wasn't able to be home. I only found that out after driving all the way across town to his house in the south end of town (from where I was at in the north end). The distance was about 10 miles entirely through town in 35-45mpg traffic, stop-go-stop-go. I tried to drive in a moderate fashion. There I was standing out in his driveway at his front porch, and nobody was home.


After arriving though, with my hand I checked the temperature of everything I could; all four of the rotors, brake pads, all related components (that I could touch with the car on the ground and wheels on).


Much to my surprise there was no heat coming off of the really anything! I couldn't believe it! Wow.


Perhaps everything was a little warm, but nothing to really to write home about. It felt ordinary. Not at all like the night before when there was heat coming from the wheels half a foot away (the back-left I could feel the hottest last night). Now each wheel wasn't throwing any heat off of it at all.


So my dad explained that he had to leave earlier in the day, and we couldn't look at my car. Something unexpected came up. So he instructed me to drive it on the expressway to see if perhaps whatever it was last night (the caliper or something else) might've "locked back into place by itself" or "unstuck" as he called it. This was to see if it still gets hot or if it was just the 10 mile drive that might not have got it hot.


I then left his house, and I got on the expressway and I proceeded to put it to the test. I sped up to 65-70MPH and SET the cruise control. I drove it on the expressway at or slightly under 70MPH continuously for 26 miles and then got off and rolled into a parking lot. It was 5pm rush hour traffic too! So everything had some use for sure.


Immediately, I got out and checked over everything with my hand. Everything was only slightly warm. Nothing more. I was amazed honestly! The front was not really all that warm, and the back was slightly warm, but not so warm that I couldn't hold my hand on it. I had expected to see it throwing some heat, I'm glad it didn't. In that 26 miles of expressway driving there was some traffic jams with rapid stops and all. So I know I used the pads, rotors, and etc. Dad said if there was a drag on the rotors or pads etc, the rotors probably without a doubt would've been glowing red due to those speeds for that duration. He even said some part could've caught fire. He was confident at that point that everything is fine with my car.


He said "well, you got lucky". Haha. So I'm counting my blessings now. It appears whatever it was, is not doing that any longer.


I had some more errands and stuff to do, so I did a bunch more driving (mostly 70% expressway and 30% city). Dad told me that he believes it’s in the clear.


All-in-all after each place I went, I'd check how hot everything was with my hand. The back rotors did get warm somewhat, but not really too hot. The front rotors always really only felt slightly warm, but hardly warm really if I'm honest. Unlike last night, at no point in the day could I feel heat emanating from the wheel in general, such as a half foot away or anything.


By the end of today I drove 55-60 miles of pure expressway driving at continuous speeds of 60-70MPH. I had some slowdowns of traffic, but mostly all just driving. I like to click the Cruise button in on the stalk and SET it at 70MPH if traffic allows as much as possible and just let it ride.


At final days-end today after I was all done driving and I pulled into my apartment parking lot, I once again checked how hot everything felt. It all felt relatively cool! Only really the rear rotors once again felt warm. But, I held my hand on each and it wasn't hot or warm enough to make me pull my hand away or anything. I did do a lot of driving today.


So all-in-all It might've turned out that there isn't anything wrong now. I will monitor everything long-term but I think I might be ok even though I never got the chance to jack it up today. Dad seems to think its fine. I'm no mechanic but judging based on the evidence I've experienced today I'd agree.

 

Oh, so are you talking about those pin things that went on the edges of the pads? Were they shaped like a "V" somewhat? Is that what you're talking about?

Because if so, I personally made sure those were secure before my dad and I put the brake pad "housing" back onto the rotor. Both pins were on there. I think I can see them from underneath the tire if I crouch my head down there.

Not sure if you call it a "housing", I guess you'd call it (that whole thing that holds the inner/outer pads and then slides over the rotor with each pad sandwiched on each side). Sorry my terminology isnt the best. But, if its those metal "V" shaped pins that your referencing then, I know what you're taking about. My dad had a hard time getting those on since they kept falling off for him.

Otherwise, I can't quite understand what you mean for me to look for. I hate not being mechanicaly minded . Sorry about that.

 

Those pins are for noise reduction I think. The two fresh ones I put on were new out of the box, they came with my new pads.

I'll try to look tomorrow in the daylight and see.

 

So since Mendel Leisk said I should check it anyway, I've been kinda hesitant since I'm not exactly a mechanic. Also, I don't really want to mess up the caliper and move it out of whatever (even partial) alignment its in currently. I also don't really have any tools apart from the scissor jack that's in the trunk, and that x-shaped lugnut removal tool thats in the trunk also.

If I had the knowledge, tools, and confidence of others, I'd feel more comfortable. The cars working great right now and has been. Nothing has changed. I really understand what you've been saying and I don't want my new pads or rotors prematurely destroyed.

I've been fretting about this for the last couple days since we did the breaks on Thursday. My dad is moving cross country so he's got no time to look at it again. And I don't know if I want him too since he's not exactly a hybrid trained mechanic.

I made an appointment down at the service department at a local Toyota dealer for tomorrow (Monday August 21st).

For $33 they said they'll look over all of the break system. And they said they'd take it apart to inspect it (so that implies to me they'd have to recompress the rear calipers once they take each off its rotor). I explained the situation to them. I would have piece of mind then at least. I've noticed no scoring on the rotors outward side from what I can visually see. There's also no rust on the rotors surface, so I would assume that the shiny smooth surface is where the pad is hitting. But, I can't see the inner side of the rotor of course without jacking it up and doing all that you've mentioned of course.

When I take it to the dealer tomoorrow, I just hope they don't try to lie to me or mess something up on me (so then I'd be forced to pay to fix it). Like they did in the 70s and stuff. Otherwise my Prius is driving as normal. No smells, odd noises, excessive heat, no flaming rotors, and or etc.

 

Some pictures I was able to snap. I know not much use, but I just thought I'd share.

 

So what all should I do? Just jack the car up? I can do that. Although I've never done it with that little scissor jack thing before.

And then spin the tire to see if it spins 1-2 rotations?

Do you think going to the dealer is smart? How would you say they are when it comes to being honest and not sabotaging your car? My dad always sways on the side of never going to a dealer. He says they overcharge people and can take advantage of people. But, I have little other options since I don't know a lot and don't have the tools he does. Also with all the computer-related things of the Prius. Its scary.

We didn't even disconnect the 12V battery before we did all that! I had no idea we supposed to. I guess we got real lucky the brake booster pump didn't engage while we were doing that. I even opened the door once when I had to turn the wheel for my dad (when we did the front brakes).

I'll give it a shot and try to at least jack up the back end and spin each of the rear wheels to see how they rotate.