Laurel caynon causes my brake to smoke.

For the $2300 you should be closer to a Toyota original new battery. New modules, but you re-use your old ECUs and things, they need to be swapped over, plus the core charge/refund thing.

 

higher end pads and rotors will probably improve things, but i'm not familiar. maybe in the mod forum?

 

Are you using "B" on the mode (gear) select when travelling down the Laurel Canyon?

 

I would HIGHLY recommend calling ahead before driving there to pickup this mythical $1650 packs. The member that keeps spewing that has not done it himself, and ignores when people say it doesn't work that way.

 

I was going to suggest Nicoderm

 

When coming down Mount Seymour I put it in B at the top, and the battery charge display shows "full" before I'm even half-way down, but the battery apparently continues to charge for some time, at least it displays that it's continuing to charge. Now even if it completely ceases charging, falls back to friction brakes only, that's not the end of the world: I've yet to have brakes overheat. I keep in B pretty much all the way down, except on stretches where it levels out enough that you'd need to touch the gas.

 

i thought when the battery was full, the engine soaked up the energy to avoid friction brakes?

 

With battery full, I think B mode will continue to use engine breaking, to help slow the car, and if it's steep enough grade that that's not cutting it, you step on the brakes, and it's solely the brake pads doing the work.

Again, even coming down Seymour, following that regimen, the car at least claimed to still be charging by the time I got to the bottom. The state of charge had been at full for some time though.

The only time I've ever noticed a hybrid switch over to friction brakes only was on our previous Civic Hybrid. There most any long steep hill, nearing the bottom there was good chance regen would quit, and it was actually unsettling: you suddenly needed to press harder on the brake, to get the same effect.

That said, I believe with the Plug-In the behavours are different? Also, I'd think the PIP battery can be charging a lot longer before topped up?

 

yes, pip behaves differently, according to reports. we don't have any mountains for me to test.
for the o/p's situation, perhaps the pads are necessarily wearing as you state. unusual situation, to say the least though.

 

For reference. I'm guessing with Laurel Canyon, beginning/end of the steep slope. Also, can't figure out how to display elevations on Google Maps. I'm guessing he needs a brake inspection, get the caliper pins relubed.

 

Exactly.

You think wrong, as this is not the way it works in B or even in D once the HV battery is full.

In essence what happens is, once the HV battery is (truly) full, the ICE is swapped in to provide the same braking force that was supplied by regen. This even extends to the the first part of the pedal press that would use regen, now uses the ICE. This can be heard quite distinctly when you depress the brake pedal. You have to be pressing the brake pedal pretty hard to engage the hydraulic brakes.

If the OP says this is not happening when his battery is full, then he has something going on and sounds like there may be something that is broken.

 

Read post #28.

I am one who advocates people price shop online dealers and see if their local dealer will price match or at least lower their asking price, as the OP has done. Good for him for doing the little bit of work in making some actual phone calls. Unfortunately too many people can't be bothered to do something that simple.

Yes, I have not had to replace the HV batt yet. But, I have already done my homework and know which online dealers WILL sell to the public at the listed online price. Now when the actual time comes to replace the HV Batt, I will reverify because I know workers/decision makers move around, which may effect my ability to purchase.

Don't blame me for people being lazy.

 

GOOD for you!

Don't forget. You will have to transplant some components from your current HV Battery case into the new replacement. Unfortunately it's not plug and play, like say a starter: bring your old one, leave with a working rebuilt/remanufactured one. Be prepared to spend some time doing this at the dealer
parking lot; hopefully they won't mind..

 

Presuming one does not alter the caliper or master cylinder piston area(s), there are exactly two things that affect brake performance and neither are marketed by ANY aftermarket supplier because they have ZERO clue about what those numbers are.

They are:
Coefficient of friction of pads and rotor
Mass of the rotor

Drilled and/or slotted rotors do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for passenger cars and light trucks, total marketing cr@p.

You want high friction components and the highest mass rotor you can by in the original design. Now, admittedly slightly greater mass does not assure one of more heat absorbing ability because the specific heat of steel, iron and their alloys are not all the same, but the idea is sound. The differences in specific heat are less than the differences in mass.

Brakes do only ONE thing: Turn inertia into heat, period.

 

I'm inclined to agree that there's not much room for exotic designs to improve anything for a Prius, but I'm not sure the whole brake market can be reduced to such simple terms.

It is not quite just that brakes turn inertia into heat, period. The name of the game is to turn inertia into heat and shed it.

Otherwise, nobody would do ventilated rotors. They would have more mass, and hence more heat absorbing ability, if that vaned area were solid metal all the way through. But the engineers add the vanes so that instead of just having to absorb more heat, they can get rid of more heat.

My understanding of drilling/slotting is that it's specifically to combat brake fade resulting from vaporized pad material floating the pad off the rotor. I doubt the brakes on a Prius are likely to encounter those conditions!

So, if the OP is experiencing actual fade (brakes working well to a point, then sudden decrease in effectiveness), there might be a reason to explore drills/slots; otherwise, yeah, just bling.

If the OP's concern is just that there is a lot of heat or some smoke, I would leave aside the exotic bling, inspect carefully to rule out any dragging of the brakes, and then just look at technique (get as much from regen/engine braking as possible, and if additional braking is needed on the descent, do it in occasional firm applications with cooling periods between, not a constant riding of the brake).

-Chap

 

While you are spot-on regarding the dissipation of heat as well, one is ill-advised to "stab-brake" on steep descents. Choosing the correct gear to descend a hill is critical and generally at least one gear lower than you can ascend it, if not two. Gentle constant pressure on the brakes will result in lower peak temperatures and zero fade risk, IF the correct gear is used. If the incorrect (too high) gear is used, you have bigger problems than can be remedied by the method of brake application.