90k miles in 4 years, first real expenses.

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Sporin, Oct 9, 2014.

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  1. Sporin

    Sporin Prius Noob

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    Dec 10, 2010
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    Location:
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    2010 Prius
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    II
    Great, now that we've settled all that....

    I use the dealer every 5k for service, I figured they'd tell me when I needed to change the brake pads, and they did. Could I have done it sooner? Probably. Do I think it much matters? Not so much.

    I'm going to look into doing the rear pads myself. I can block out the time, and I've done brakes on a number of previous cars. Is there anything with the Prius that requires the car to be hooked up to a scan tool or anything funky? I was in a rush for the fronts as they were very bad and my wife needs the car to take to Maine this week.
     
    #21 Sporin, Oct 13, 2014
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2014
  2. The Critic

    The Critic Resident Critic

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    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
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    Three
    The Toyota factory service manual does not require replacement until 1mm.

    Most shops sell brake pads at 3-4mm as they will advise customers that their brakes have 1mm left until the metal indicator (which kicks in at about 2mm). They use this as the infamous metal-on-metal tactic.

    My front pads are at a true 3.5mm after 95k and the rears still have 6mm.

    With that said, once you get below 3mm, the chamfers are usually gone and you will experience a small amount of noise.
     
    #22 The Critic, Oct 14, 2014
    Merkey likes this.
  3. Sporin

    Sporin Prius Noob

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    Location:
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    2010 Prius
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    II
    Got the other wheel bearing done yesterday, car is so quiet now!

    On another note, my wife drove the car home and asked me to take a look because she could hear a strange noise. I was afraid they screwed something up with the bearing. Drove it around the block but couldn't figure out what it was. Turns out the tech hadn't secured the hood prop to it's clip on the underside of the hood so it was resting on top of the engine creating a little noise. Buttoned that up, closed the garage, and went in to bed.

    Went out this morning to put the snows in the trunk so I could take them for the swap today and low and behold I never turned the car off last night. :oops: I've been driving the 4runner almost exclusively so I'm out of practice I guess. The car was just running on electric last night when I pulled it back in the garage so it was quiet. I should have noticed it beeping at me that I was walking away with the key in my pocket, but I didn't.

    [​IMG]

    It barely moved the gas gauge, but it would have been cycling on and off all night. Luckily the HVAC was completely off (since I was listening for the noise), no lights or radio either. The overall MPG readout was at 26.9 since it was burning gas periodically to recharge the battery but wasn't actually covering any miles.

    I did this one other time years ago when I left the car on in the parking lot of the bowling ally while we bowled for an hour or 2 came out and the car was suspiciously cool inside (it was summer, AC was running). Lucky no one drove it away. :cautious:
     
    #23 Sporin, Nov 12, 2014
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