Opinion-like-new Prius brake pads at 100k miles:

yes

 

depending on how you drive and brake, absolutely.

I read about it all the time on PC

 

Shoot! I was getting close to that on conventional cars.

My wife's 1st Prius had the original pads when it got totaled at 175,000 miles. Mine had the originals when I traded it at 150k. Wife's current Gen 2 has 138,000 miles and 6mm of brake pad left.

 

I'm expecting 150-200k miles on mine.

I do all my own work, but the PO went to the dealer every 5k miles, where they measured the pads each time. From the receipts, several times, the thickness actually increased over the span of 5k miles. So maybe they're like fingernails and actually grow when not used much.

 

Pretty ordinary result. Now make sure your brake fluid is fresh- a 2008 ought to be on its 2nd flush by now, I reckon.

 

With salted roads rotor actually seems to wear faster than pads. Even with super coarse rotor surface the pads had lots of material left at about 220tkm or 140t miles at 12 years but rotor was bellow the allowed thickness so they would need to be changed. This is actually pretty common in hybrid cars and probably electric cars too.

 

230k+, never had a "brake job", but I did lubricate the caliper slides a few years back.

 

155000 on my bought new 07 haven't touched the brakes stops fine rotors look perfect and pads ok.

 

68,000 miles and 8 years, never looked at the brakes, never mind touch them. i suppose it will come back to bite me someday...

 

My record of measurements every tire-rotation interval also occasionally looks like 'growth' of a pad or a rotor.

Nothing is 'growing', but I'm measuring with instruments that give four significant digits, at intervals where I don't always remember exactly what spot on the pad I measured last time, and the temperature may be different, and the length of time the tool stays in my warm hand may be different. At least I have a certain technique that I try to be consistent with; the variation would be even more if different people were making the different measurements.

... why measurements in scientific work are always given with error bars ....

 

Yes, I know. Of course. But if the rate of change is so slow, there is no need to measure them at 5k mile intervals, which was the point of my joke. Dealer tricks to make you think they're doing something useful. They're doing something, but it is a waste of your money.

 

It is a bit like checking the dipstick. There is no reason to check that every fillup, until there is. Then it is good to have caught it.

With the brakes, if something has seized or a foreign object been caught since the last time you checked, it will make a kink in your pad-life/miles graph and lead to an alteration in your projected pad replacement time.

But not as much of an alteration as it would if you never noticed.

 

Yes.

Although perhaps just pushing or levering the caliper out while just visually check the pads might just as good or even better. You would move everything that could get seized. That way you would know if they were starting to get seized and you would also reduce the change of them getting seized in the future.

 

One thing that steadily happens, and has always begun happening on my car by the time I rotate tires and inspect brakes, is that the slide pin grease begins to take a set. That doesn't mean it has gone bad or the pins are rusted or anything like that; grease that hasn't moved much over a period of time just starts to get like peanut butter. It happens in this case because the caliper barely moves a quarter millimeter one way or the other when you normally apply the brakes.

The peanutbutteriness goes right away with a few quick in-n-outs with the pins (just as far as the rubber boots extend, no need to remove them or do anything more involved). You might have to put your thumbs behind it the first time, but then you'll feel it slipping in and out just like a nice well-greased pin should.

That's a lot easier to do if you just go ahead and loosen the two bolts (one all the way out) and flip the caliper up so you can shove it back and forth. You can't do that same back-and-forth with the caliper in position unless you're going to apply enough force to shove back the piston, which brings other considerations of its own.

That minute of flipping the caliper up also allows you to get an easy look at the shape of the pads in profile, the conditions of all the rubber boots and the fitting kits, and so on.

So far the parts I most commonly discover ready for replacement are the fitting kit clips; they'll reach that stage every couple, three years, it seems, in my climate, anyway.

 

I got 264 K on my brakes. There was no noise and brakes were working fine as well. But then my wheel mounting stud broke. So I had to take a rear wheel and brake drum out. The pad was at low end of tolerance and there was a groove in drum. I had all drums, rotors, shoes, pads replaced. All were near low end / below limits.

Savings on brakes alone justify the hybrid premium.

 

That did not "just happen"... Some gorilla improperly torqued that wheel nut.

Considering a single brake job can be $500+, but wait, a premium for a Hybrid? They are generally cheaper than a similarly equipped Corolla or certainly Camry.

 

There is definitely some premium. I do not know whether to compare Prius to a Camry or Corolla. Prius has cabin space similar to Corolla with more legroom but it can carry even more stuff than Camry.

However if you compare apples to apples, Rav4 Hybrid Vs equivalent Rav4 or Camry hybrid to Camry, or Highlander for that matter, Hybrids are definitely more expensive when purchasing. The difference in most cases between 800 - 2000 $.

IMO Toyota has certainly attempted to price hybrids attractively. But then at times it can affect negotiating room for hybrids. Gen 5 Rav4H as an example.

What I meant is that initial price difference, that I termed 'Hybrid Premium' is certainly offset by savings on brakes alone over the life of the vehicle.

 

See there, since I happen to OWN a RAV4 Hybrid, I can tell you that it was CHEAPER than the "equivalently equipped" non-hybrid.

Again, there is no hybrid premium, that assertion is vaporware. Now, dealer A vs B on a similar model can vary $2500++++/----. When you equip a non-hybrid to the same as, or very similar features as the hybrid, they are almost always less expensive, but admittedly not by much!

 

Yes, I would say that's about normal. My 2004 got new brake pads at about 120,000 IIRC. We're now over 190 k but she has been relegated to twice-a-week short trips.

I remember the old days (BT - Before Toyota) when brake pads & shoes were an annual or even semiannual thing. And they contained asbestos.



-Graeme-
2004 Prius with >190,000 miles.
Sent ?.