Time for the first brake pad change on my Prius...Suggestions?

If you're doing fronts and it's the first go-around at 120k and you're not going to fool with the rotors because they look good and they don't need it You can just slide in a new set of Toyota pads with or without the spring clips however you buy them or any of the mid to top of the line pads pick your poison it's like motor oil you know or additives I don't think there are any proven brake pads that do any real better than others realizing that Toyota doesn't make brake pads akebono and the companies that make the brakes for Toyota make brake pads but Toyota doesn't with that in mind

SM-A715F ?

 

OEM all the way for pads. I wish I would have changed the brake fluid when I swapped my pads too, so I would look into that if your brake fluid is still original or old. Pretty sure you need techstream to bleed the air out after, but research that.

If you have never changed pads before here are some tips I learned from changing them too on my 06:

If your car isn't very rusty, it will be a smooth process. If rusty you might need a blow torch to heat up the bolts or a long metal pole for more leverage. Brush off any rust too from where the back of the pads will sit.

I bought a 7 dollar brake piston compressor (think that is what it is called) from autozone, which made the job pretty easy too to make room for the new pads.

One more thing would be to pick up some brake lubricant to apply the sides of the pads and i think the sliding pins (cant totally remember, but youtube will explain this more and where it is needed)

 

I will follow up by saying I originally bought cheap pads from amazon and had to redo the pad job a month later. That is why I say OEM all the way

 

Do they actually need changing at 120k?

What are the old pads measured thicknesses?

One "easy install" technique involves removing a couple of brake relays under the hood, else the pistons may shoot out.

 

On my '09 the first go-around I disconnected the 12-volt because I thought the ABS modulator or pump might go crazy etc no problems I did not say bye cheap pads I said by middle of the road on up pads and just realized Toyota does not make brake pads akibono and their brake manufacturers make the pads that go in the Toyota cars but yes I wouldn't buy $9 pads off Amazon that's just silly You still want the same technology the carbon fiber etc etc all the big buzz words you look on Amazon or any of the big sellers and you will see from 16 to $40 range are the pads with the good stuff if you will if you want to pay $49 a set wherever ..

SM-A715F ?

 

This has worked for me on 3rd gen; "suspect" it'd be effective with 2nd gen, for eliminating the (aforementioned) risk of popping out a caliper piston, and/or getting a subsequent code due to excessive brake pedal travel:

Disconnect 12 volt neg cable before disassembling anything. Then, when everything's reassembled, pump the brake pedal multiple times, till it firms up. Then, reconnect neg cable.

My go-to lubes:

Caliper pins: Sil-Glyde Brake Lubricant
Pad/caliper/shim contact points: Permatex Anti-Seize (also good for rear brake shoe contact points with drum back plate)

Second gen Repair Manual excerpts attached:

 

No listing of an individual's "go-to lubes" would be complete without disclosing that Toyota specifies greases for these applications.

For the spots with the hollow arrows here, the specified grease is an opaque gray stuff that is silicone-based, probably similar to a lot of disc brake greases you can find elsewhere.

For the spots with the solid black arrows here, the specified grease is a clearish red stuff that is not silicone-based; it is glycol-based with a lithium soap thickener, 08887-01206 as seen in the tube at the top of the photo below. So it is not very much like Sil-Glyde or similar products.

It's often unnecessary to buy tubes of the stuff; if you buy shim kits from Toyota, a little packet of the gray shim grease will be included, and if you buy the rebuilding rubber kits, a little packet of the red glycol grease will be inside.

I do not claim there aren't people who substitute other grease formulations and maybe get away with it and are perfectly happy. It's just irresponsible to post about those substitutions and not be clear that they are substitutions and are different from what is specified.

 

I can always count on you Chap.

 

Sure, but if you had pointed out something I was misinforming people about fifty or more times in the past, I would have stopped counting on you for that by now.

 

If using a readily available product that works is misinformation, guilty as charged.

 

No. Knowing that there is a manufacturer spec, and that it is chemically different, and plugging your favorite stuff while knowingly omitting that there is a manufacturer spec and that it is different, is misinformation.

There is a super easy way to plug your favorite stuff without misguiding PriusChat readers. You say there's a manufacturer spec, you say what it is (you have seen it often enough, and you know how copy/paste work), and then you say there's this other stuff you like even though you know it is different, and it works for you.

I've done that any number of times when I'm describing something I do that is different from the manufacturer spec. The reader then gets to make an informed decision about the proposed alternative.

This isn't hard.