Brakes - 2008 16K miles Need New front Brakes!!!!

Normally they are good for 100,000+ miles. Something isn't right.

Tom

 

At 120k, mine were about 50% worn, so yours probably still look brand new. My suggestion would be to never return to that dealer for service.

 

Please tell me the dealer's name so I know to avoid it. I'm moving back up to the Puget Sound area in a week.

 

I concur with the other posts, I don't know how you could need new brakes at 16K miles on a regular car let alone a Prius. At 94K miles, my front pads had 60% left, the rears 80%-90% left

 

ewwww re: the smell. Hopefully they figure out what the issue is and it is covered under warranty.

 

Even if true, it is not a high compliment to that dealership that the person who noticed the early wear did not realize this is unheard of for a Prius.

I've subscribed to this thread. Should be interesting

 

On an older car, I had a caliper freeze and wear out a single pad prematurely. But that was on the second set of pads, at about ten years and 150,000 miles. Your car shouldn't have that much corrosion yet.

An even older car received improper adjustment of a replacement power booster, causing excessive drag and overheating. A lesser severe version of this could cause your pads to wear prematurely.

You shouldn't have either of these yet, unless there is an undiscovered manufacturing defect. But other kinds of brake system problems could cause similar symptoms.

Have any of your passengers been car hounds, who would distinguish the smell of overheated brakes from 'rotten cheese'?

 

If any aspect of this is not covered under warranty, desks must be pounded upon.

 

Maybe someone threw up in the car before you bought it and after a while you smell that barf. The dealer should detail the inside for you.

 

There are taxi drivers that don't have their brakes done till close to 100k so I can not see how this could be possible. How was your mileage? I would think dragging against the brakes all the time would negatively impact your mileage.

 

Ditto that. There's no way that Prius brakes in proper working order would wear out the pads in less than 50,000 miles. Either this one dealer is cheating you or mis-diagnosing a serious problem, or somebody has really terrible driving habits. Assuming a dealer problem, take it elsewhere.

Uhh, so what *was* the cause of the foul odor?

 

too unlikely

I would want to see proof that a. the brakes were worn out and b. the dealer had checked to see how this could have happened and found nothing.

The truly weird part here is that the brakes, according to this dealer, are just worn out with nothing else wrong. That makes no sense.

No matter how much you trust this dealer, something isn't adding up or you're the unluckiest Prius owner on the planet.

Even if someone drove the car with the brakes on all the time I would imagine you would notice your MPG taking a serious hit. Which brings me to that point, I should ask, what's your MPG?

There's just no way I would accept this diagnosis without some reason.

Good luck.

 

I took the Prius for the 70,000 mile service at the weekend and was told that I needed new brakes, that is both the pads and the discs, at £330. The discs had previously been replaced under warrenty at 32,000 miles and the pads were changed a little later the same year at my expense - suggesting that the discs had worn quicker than the pads.
I questioned the life of the discs this time around and the garage said 35,000 miles was typical. This seems to be double the rate of wear that my last car, a Nissan Primera, had and just seems excessive.
I have some hilly roads to drive but I do get 60mpg UK as a long term average and am certainly no jack rabbit. My tyres last about 27,000 miles on the front and 40,000 on the back.

 

I just took my 2004 in for some 60k mile work. Dealer said the front discs were rusted and pitted, and needed to be resurfaced. (This is probably because of all the road salt we use up here in Mich, plus not using the brakes very often).

Brake pads were fine.

 

Thanks MJFrog, my garage did list corrosion on the check sheet so it may be salt damage rather than wear. I wonder if giving the brakes some use at the very end of a journey would clean them off and actually make them last a little longer.

 

I do have a friend that drives with both feet. Every 20K miles, new brakes...