Brake Pad Life

[T Sport 1978]

Hi all,

Just after a bit of advise please.

My 2010 Auris HSD has done around 23k miles, at my last service I was told that I will be needing new brake pads but as always I just wanted to get a second opinion before I commit.

So here is a pic of the depth left of the front pads, can anyone who is in the know (a mechie perhaps) give me an opinion on whether it needs changing imminently?

Thanks in advance.

[timberwolf]

Sorry, I don't know the Auris HSD specifications. On the Prius Gen 2, the brake pads maximum 11mm (new) - minimum 1mm.

I'm not an expert by any means but there looks to be at least 6-7mm of brake pad left?

Questions I do have:

It looks like the brake pad is in contact with the wheel, did you have helper in the car pressing the brake pedal down?

Why does the disc look rusty in this weather?

[wass]

I think that maybe you should ask the person making the recommendation what it is in particular about your brake pads which leads them to recommend that they be changed. Are they damaged? contaminated with oil/petrol/solvent? Are they just looking at the mileage and assuming they need to be changed? do they think that they are excessively worn and will need to be changed before the next service? If the answer is the latter, ask them what thickness all of the pads were measured at and at what thickness they recommend a change of pads.

I am just guessing that there is good business in pad and disc changing and perhaps the garage has forgotten ( or thinks that you have forgotten) that with regenerative breaking, hybrids don't use their brake pads as heavily as other types of vehicle.

[kithmo]

There's probably about 7-8 mm of pad left on that one, good for another 30-40k miles, but it's worth checking all 4 pads on each axle, inner and outer, that one may be less worn than the others. Sticking pads are not uncommon on the Prius due to the lesser use of friction brakes, I would assume it's the same with the Auris.

At 23K miles I would not expect to be changing brake pads on a hybrid, unless they were sticking.

[T Sport 1978]

Sorry, I don't know the Auris HSD specifications. On the Prius Gen 2, the brake pads maximum 11mm (new) - minimum 1mm.

I'm not an expert by any means but there looks to be at least 6-7mm of brake pad left?

Questions I do have:

It looks like the brake pad is in contact with the wheel, did you have helper in the car pressing the brake pedal down?

Why does the disc look rusty in this weather?

Hi Timberwolf,

The friction part is VERY close to the discs, which i assume is normal as thats how it appears in my wife's Audi also?

Its rusty because I have just washed my car just before that pic was taken.

As for the depth, surely you would be pretty much pushing it with 1mm left! But thanks for the info.

[T Sport 1978]

I think that maybe you should ask the person making the recommendation what it is in particular about your brake pads which leads them to recommend that they be changed. Are they damaged? contaminated with oil/petrol/solvent? Are they just looking at the mileage and assuming they need to be changed? do they think that they are excessively worn and will need to be changed before the next service? If the answer is the latter, ask them what thickness all of the pads were measured at and at what thickness they recommend a change of pads.

I am just guessing that there is good business in pad and disc changing and perhaps the garage has forgotten ( or thinks that you have forgotten) that with regenerative breaking, hybrids don't use their brake pads as heavily as other types of vehicle.

Wass,

The point of hybrids being easier on the braking system due to regenerative braking was EXACTLY what I used to make the point that I wanted a 2nd opinion to the dealer (Jemca Croydon), I simply could not believe that my car at 21k miles (of which 8k was under my ownership) needed new pads. I have read before and pointed out that Toyota uses this as a marketing selling point, that hybrids should require less physical braking with the friction discs, and I know that during my ownership at least, that the car have had a pretty easy life with gentle braking.

[T Sport 1978]

There's probably about 7-8 mm of pad left on that one, good for another 30-40k miles, but it's worth checking all 4 pads on each axle, inner and outer, that one may be less worn than the others. Sticking pads are not uncommon on the Prius due to the lesser use of friction brakes, I would assume it's the same with the Auris.

At 23K miles I would not expect to be changing brake pads on a hybrid, unless they were sticking.

Kithmo,

Thanks for the tip about sticking pads, but I do not believe I have that problem. I think I have pretty much all I need to feel more assured that I don't need new pads for now, unless someone else sees differently.

[johalareewi]

FWIW, my brake pads needed changing for the first time at 60,000 miles and that was only because one of the sliders stuck and the pad wore away. :(

[timberwolf]

One of the things I dislike about alloy wheels is that I can see the rusty discs, in the good old days of steel wheels, I never had to see them except for when I took the wheels off!

The 1mm is what the specification says, I would imagine the dealers have guidelines on when to replace the pads to ensure that pads don't go below 1mm between services.

Who advised you that the brake pads will need changing? It could just be that one of staff serving behind the service desk got their technical advice wrong.

Stuck slider pin, probably because your local Toyota dealer doesn't service the brakes properly, I suspect they should be dismantling and lubricating the slider pin at certain intervals. I wonder if any of the Toyota dealers do?

[kithmo]

I'd change them when they go below 3mm, which looks like where the shoulder is on that picture.

I once had a Ford dealer tell me that my brake pads were 70% worn and I changed them myself 20k miles later when they got to 3mm thick.

[sanzomat]

I've certainly noticed how much less brake dust is being generated compared to previous cars so I'm hopeful that the pads should last much longer due to the regenerative braking, unless of course Toyota put much smaller pads on to counteract this! In my previous cars I've actually found the rears tend to go before the fronts, even though they hardly do any work, mainly because they have much smaller discs and pads. Last car - Volvo V70 At three years and 68,000 miles the original fronts were only half worn so looked to be able to go on to 100k+ but the rears needed changing at 55k. Before that I had an Audi A6 (dreadful car but thats another story). After 2 years/52k miles the fronts were about 60% gone and the rears almost ready for a change. Before that a Renault Megane - after 2 years and 68k the fronts were only 50% worn and the rears were getting to the limit. I conclude that its not just the work they do but the size of the disc, size of pad and other factors such as hardness etc. Also, higher mileage cars tend to make their pads last longer as 1) they do more motorway miles so sometimes the car will go 200 miles without touching the brakes and 2) cleaning the rust off the discs wears the pads more than when they are shiny and cars used more do a greater proportion of their braking on shiny discs. E.g. my wifes car only does about 6k per year and hardly ever sees the motorway. The car is now 6 years old, has done 33k miles form new and the rear pads had to be replaced last year and the fronts won't see 45k, i.e. less than half the miles I'd expect to get out of my higher use cars. With some modern cars having 20k service intervals I guess garages have to recomend changing if they don't think the pads will make the next service so might change them when only half worn.

[taximerv]

Hi I read these things about tyres brakes ect. I am so puzzled why buy a hybrid if you don,t use it right you pay the price what dose the whole thing stand for Eco driving I have 170,000 miles on prius and I drive to get the best out of my car that's why I bought it .

Front brake pads replaced at 102.000 miles rear pads and discs replaced at 152,000 . I feel I am professional at my job I follow cars down the road for 8 to 10 miles and see them hit the brakes so many times drive with some thought distance instead of tail gating I get people ask what the diagrams on the prius mean . Easy they try to tell you how to get Eco out of your vehicle take the foot of let the car slow down don,t hit the brake every 20 seconds and moan your brakes need replacement keep your distance adapt to the car and get the best results

[IanIanIanIan]

All my brake pads have a piece of metal (which looks like a Lucar connector) pointed towads the disk as a wear indicator. This touches the disk when the pad is right down and screams (thus it is known as a screamer). Google "brake pad screamer"

Have you got these? are they in the right position? and what is the distance between the screamer and the disk?