Had the 15k/6month service done on thursday. dropped in motorcraft 5w30, seeing as mobil 1 has shot way up in price, and now is just a GFIII grade like most mainstream syns. ok enough talking. I had them check the breaks which was free with a coupon. Front is 10mm left, Plenty. Rear is 4mm! 4mm is in the yellow zone..is this normal? how much material does the rear brake on a prius have anyway? They said it was all good, but the rear may need new pads in a year... yet I hear of people driving pri for several years without any brake issues, and rotors looking almost brand new after 70k+ miles. tread on stock tires was 8/32 which is fine a tad low though for the amount of miles, but is expected on these cheap rubbers. btw I really don't use my brakes often, I guess you could me a tailgater and a coast to stop kinda of guy, they get used but not hard. I realize the engine braking is used more, and the actual rotors should only kick in under 8mph, or on HARD stops, not using soft touch and letting the HSD do the braking...very strange that pad would be worn this much.
i think this is a non issue, because the prius ships brand new from the factory with only 4-5 mm of rear brake material
ok good to know, wasnt sure on the amount of material on the rear. the prius barely uses the rotor brake, unless you drive like speed racer. hmm dealer is usually pretty honest, but no dealer is perfect.:lock1:
FYI, Japanese Prius Technical manual says the initial and worn-out thickness as follows; Front brake pad: 11.0 mm, 1.0 mm Rear brake shoe: 4.0 mm, 1.0 mm Ken@Japan
fyi, automotive types say that the rear brake only does 30 % of the braking, so the rears should last 3.33 x longer then the fronts, heh i have all my sevice records over 40,000 miles, each service record has a completely different front brake measurement its like the brake material is shrinking and growing and shrinking again!
The only reasonable cause for rapid rear brake wear in Prius is poor retraction of the pads. Anyone who suspects this can do the easy test. Drive from cold for a few miles, them stop and put a wet finger on the drums. They should not be hot. If hot, something's sticking in there or the parking brake cable is adjusted wrong. RigorM provides an example showing it is not always easy to collect accurate data
