Feel of New Brakes...Yikes!

coach81 · Jun 22, 2011

I would not "bed in" my brand new brakes either.. I was just drive the car normally and allow the "breaking in" of everything.. including the brakes..

adamace1 · Jun 22, 2011

The Critic said: ↑

I picked up my 2011 from the dealer with 7 miles on it. Prior to the delivery, the car had only been driven by the factory, port and the PDI technician. On the drive home from the dealer, I noticed that the car did not stop well at all. The pedal was rather hard and stiff, which is typical of fresh pads and rotors that have not been seated.

Sure enough, when I checked the rotors once I got home, the rotors were clean and shiny with almost no pad material on them. In fact, the marks from the non-directional finish on the rotor were clearly visible. I guess in the time that the factory, the port, the dealer tech and me driving, the friction brakes were not used much.

Obviously the pads would eventually seat onto the rotors, and rather quickly too if you did a lot of hard braking. I did not feel comfortable waiting for this process to take place "naturally" as I felt the car's stopping power was borderline dangerous. I was planning to take a long trip the next day and did not want to hit someone if I had to make a panic stop.

So, I took it upon myself to manually bed-in the pads. I normally do this after a brake job on a normal car anyway, and with my new Prius having fresh pads and rotors, the situation is no different. I first drove around my neighborhood and made 20 near stops from 25 MPH, spaced as closely together as possible. These stops were made in "N." At the end of those 20 stops, the brakes smelled a bit warm, but were not smoking.

Next, I drove about a mile to an empty road to finish the bed in. I did so by making 15 near stops, in a row, in "N," from 40-45 MPH. At the end of these 15 stops, the pads smelled very hot and were smoking heavily from the front wheels. So, I allowed the car to coast into an empty parking lot to sit for 15 minutes to cool.

After the cooldown I saw light scoring on the front rotors and a moderately dark tint on the rotors from the pad material transferred. On the rear rotors, less material was transferred from the pads and as a result, the rear brakes were not hot enough to be smoking. When I drove the car after this pad bed-in, the car stopped decently and the pedal effort was reasonable and was no longer completely lacking in feel. And now, after 400 miles of interstate driving with a lot of moderate to hard stops, the car stops fairly well and the rotors look well used.

So in conclusion , I think new owners should seriously consider bedding in the brakes on their new Prius at their earliest convenience to ensure safe operation and to accelerate the pad bed-in process.

MB860 ?
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My prius does not hardly use the brake pads to stop, it's regen thats why it feels weird to you. electic motors in reverse charging the battery provides a different pedal feel than normal brakes.

But to what you did all i got to say is

Feri · Jun 25, 2011

Flaninacupboard said: ↑

Pedal feel in Prius has absolutely nothing to do with condition of your pads or discs. most braking in normal conditions is done via regen, i've 32,000 miles on mine and still have 90% pads remaining.

If you drive carefully and conservatively you are less likely to do an emergency stop. i think that's a better tactic than making sure your pads are "bedded in".
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I agree totally. Recently had an emergency stop.(first in 70,000ks, 43000miles) I've never experienced better braking even in a recent model Mercedes. No skidding just rapid decelleration. Brake by wire can feel odd at times but is totally safe.

Feri

Feel of New Brakes...Yikes!

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Feel of New Brakes...Yikes!

coach81 Active Member

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