Question on brake rotors

Maybe he has different driving habits or conditions than you are familiar with.
I'm quite sure that they don't all last over 100K miles.
And broad generalizations like that are seldom true.

 

Unless he measured the brakes himself, at 45k miles, I would have gotten a second opinion. Well it's not my money and what's done is done.

Quoted from Art's Automotive site.

We’ve found Prius brake pads look almost new at 30,000 miles. New front pads are about 11 MM thick. The front pads on this Prius (at 29,177 miles) are still 10.5 MM thick! We have customers with over 150K miles on first generation Priuses, that still have 7 MM left on their pads. At that rate, they won’t need their first brake job until almost 400,000 miles!

We have seen a few Priuses with new pads installed by other shops, one had only 45K miles on the odometer, which is pretty suspicious in my view. If a mechanic tells you your Prius needs brakes, I’d recommend getting a second opinion.

 

Well in actuality there are two things suspect in his post.

But I didn't want to criticize him for agreeing to service that probably wasn't really needed AND and a price that sounds about 100% too high......if they just replaced the pads.

But two wrongs don't make a right and flatly stating that the pads last 100K miles isn't right either.

 

Rotors can easily be checked for proper thickness .. modern heat treated rotors have very little wear surface. Most of them, when you see a small lip they have gone past specification. Years ago, with older metal technology and manufacturing, rotors were thicker and often needed to be cut. Today, many manufacturers specifically advise that rotors should not be cut .. If the rotors are within specification and look good I replace pads -- if they are close I replace.

 

I swapped out my front pads at about 96k since they were down to 3mm. Thickness wise, they were near new, but there was enough thickness variation to cause a pedal pulsation if you put the car in "N" and hit the brakes at any speed above 60mph.

Due to time constraints, I replaced the front rotors with a pair of Centric Premiums. I cleaned the hubs really well with the 3M kit and indexed the rotors do that the lateral runout measured 0.001" or less.

 

Regarding wear, my 2010 info from the dealer summary sheet:
0 to 111,000 miles Green ( >6mm )
113,000 miles Yellow ( 6-4mm )
116,000 miles Yellow ( 6-4mm ) ... says actual=5mm elsewhere.
I'm at 118k now and have another app't soon. If you are wondering about the short mileage intervals it's because I moved so my commute is very short now. 3000 miles takes 6+ months.

Anyway, when the brakes become due, any guess what a dealership might charge for pads and maybe rotors?

(For comparison I think the drivers side window "scrapers" quoted out at $329. I bought those off eBay and did it sans tools in a few minutes.)

 

I had to replace all 4 of my "window scrapers" on my 2010, I'm not sure of their official name anymore. It costs around $150 for all of them through the dealer and easy to install.

The brakes are not as easy and it's considered a gravy job for the dealers. They will charge you $300 for just pads replacement. If you want rotors, tack on extra money. But seeing these lasted 10 years, I guess it's worthwhile to get OEM brake parts so it'll last another 10 years.