How many miles on your Prius when you had first brake work done?

The maintenance schedule recommends regular brake inspections, a LOT sooner.

 

I replaced my front pads for the first time at about 140k miles on my '07. Rears still looked good.

 

154K miles so far and the brakes still have lots of pad left.

 

Ask any dealer and they want to replace at 60,000
I just did rear rotors and shoes because someone drove 600 miles with the emergency brake engaged, they admitted it, grr. But normally, the brakes last well, it's usually operator error involved.

 

Try putting your Prius in neutral at about 30 MPH and lightly apply the brakes to clean the runs off your rotors (repeat until no noise). I have 278,000 miles on my 2004 Prior with the original brakes! Some have had early brake problems due to stuck slider pins, so if you do have to replace the pads (and/or rotors), make sure to lubricate the slide pins to allow equalized brake pressure on the inside and outside of the rotors.

JeffD

 

My 2008 had just over 200k. I hit a deer and while I had the car up on jacks, I just did the front rotors and pads because it was convenient to do it. Was at least 30% remaining yet and rotors looked good too.. Oh well. John

 

The best way of making sure your brakes are trouble-free out to ludicrous mileage is to not neglect them, but do regular inspections every tire rotation or so, just as you would with any conventional car. Because of regen braking, the normal pad and rotor wear is crazy slow on these cars, but all the other things that need attention with brakes still need attention.

That way, if the slide pins get stuck you can unstick them, if you spot a tear on a caliper boot you can get the repair kit for cheap, if the friction surfaces are glazing you can find out why, knock them back down with 150 grit hand sanding, and have your brakes in top shape out to 200,000-plus miles.

If you let any of those small maintenance items get ahead of you ... ask me how silly it feels to end up having to machine rotors and replace pads that would still otherwise have something like 80% of their life left....

-Chap