Pads changed at 25000 miles?

Ron: I think your situation is definitely "out of the norm" for our brakes, but - "stuff" does happen. I swap out snow tires to regular tires on my Prius, and when I do, I always inspect the pads.

 

Hi tv,

I do agree that the situation is definitely "out of the norm", however it is important that everyone understand's that just because the Prius has the great regenerative brake system does not mean the pad's will "always" last 100K as many poster's have stated.

Things can go wrong with any car, including the Prius. As you wrote above and what I wrote in post #20 in this string, you have to keep an eye on things. If you just drive it and don't maintain it, no car will last a long time.

The purpose of my post was to illustrate that just because the Prius has the regenerative brakes does not always mean the pads will always last as long as many have stated (100K and more). If the pads get stuck on the glide pins which can happen in situations where there is salt and the vehicle is not driven a lot, the pad will wear unevenly which will cause premature failure.

Not everyone will keep an eye on their brake pads like you do tv, but if everyone keeps reading the post's out there about 100K to 150K life on the pads, then one tends to believe that they won't have to worry about it.

It boils down to simple maintenance which everyone should do, but not everyone does.

Ron (dorunron)

 

You tell me, it is your car.

 

The European brakes and pads are different to the NA/USA versions. Ours are softer to give more 'bite' when you brake as apparantly that's how we like them, but the down side is they don't last as long.

Now asking how long brakes last is like asking how long a piece of string is. Everyones use patterns and driving styles are different resulting in different results. I did lots and lots of slow start stop driving and my pads lasted 30k miles (in fact they still had a little left), whereas lots of motorway or gentle driving will result in double or more lifespan.

So I've had 2x front pads and 1x front discs in 65000 miles.