New Disks And Brake Pads After 14K Miles

[DrCez]

Update: I went back to my dealer and we had a discussion about how much life was left in the rear discs. It became apparent that the corrosion was pretty well advanced, especially on the inside of the discs, so I got the rear discs and brake pads replaced (for £266 including labour).

The dealer was unable to offer more than tea and sympathy (and a car wash :)) although the service centre manager did recommend periodically braking hard from high speed as a way of preventing this happening again on the new set (but to be careful doing this!).

I wouldn't say my mileage is especially low (about 7K p.a.) but I think my main problem is it's a lot of city driving (max 40 mph), not helped by the local (Scottish, coastal) climate ;). So if you're in a similar situation read back through this thread for some excellent advice from CO2Slave and others.

I do plan to get in touch with Toyota GB and I'll let you know what, if anything, they say.

[sjrainsford]

A good way to clean the brakes is put the car in neutral when going down hill, then if you gently apply the brakes it is more likely to use the friction brakes rather than so much regenerative braking.

But no, the climate up there wouldnt help I guess!

[Madasafish]

I would add the following:

Washing cars and wheels - and especially hosing the wheel arches- leaves the disks wet. Unless you drive and dry the out ,, they will corrode.. See used car lots for examples. I usually wash my car before I use it,

If not I move the car around and brake hard several times to dry the disks off.

[B&J]

. . . lack of use, exacerbated by following advice in the user's manual to maximise fuel economy (brake gently to maximise regenerative braking). . .

I just don't get this advice. When moving, the car has kinetic energy and, when braking, regenerative brakes utilise this to generate electricity. I can't see how braking gently does anything different from braking hard; of course, passenger comfort will suffer more from the latter than the former, but the kinetic energy absorbed is the same.

Formula 1 drivers don't brake gently, and they've got regenerative brakes (KERS).

Explanations/alternative theories welcomed.

B&J

[Cyker]

Well if you brake gently in a HSD, the regen braking kicks in, whereas if you brake hard the regen AND the friction brakes kick in.

The thinking is that if you brake earlier and gentler, only the regen braking is used and so you'll recover more energy from the braking than you would if you braked later (And thus harder).

[Opifex]

Free brake pads for life - your's not the car's!!

That's a new offer from Halfords.

Have a look here

[B&J]

Well if you brake gently in a HSD, the regen braking kicks in, whereas if you brake hard the regen AND the friction brakes kick in.

The thinking is that if you brake earlier and gentler, only the regen braking is used and so you'll recover more energy from the braking than you would if you braked later (And thus harder).

Thank you for that. I should have Googled for info before posting!

This seems to be a good explanation of how it all works.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-parts/brakes/brake-types/regenerative-braking.htm

I mistakenly thought that it was the heat generated by the friction brakes that was being converted to electrical energy. Stupid boy!

B&J

[wass]

I was brought up to be dubious about anyone advising me about anything to do with cars if they stood to make any money out of it. My dad dutifully taught me the basics of car mechanics and supervised my initial attempts at servicing.I subsequently became very interested in things automotive and take a very keen interest in things mechanical.

When we bought our prius gen 2 with about 20K on it, my wife complained to me about an embarrassing squealing sound in town which appeared to be coming from the brakes. That week end i took all of the calipers off and gave them a thoroughly good clean out making sure that the brake pads could slide freely within the calipers and also that the calipers slid freely on their mounting sliders.The noise disappeared, the car was quicker and it used less fuel.

The problem was due to the brakes being routinely checked during the service but never cleaned out.I guess that this is one reason why brake pads and discs are being consumed at accelerated rates sometimes.