Author Topic: Prius Brakes  (Read 1965 times)

saijoe

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Prius Brakes
« on: April 27, 2018, 01:34:21 PM »
My wife's 2015 Prius has roughly 50,000 miles.  We've noticed no brake degradation, but I am curious.  I've heard that the brakes last a long time on the hybrid cars because of the regenerative charging.  What is the deal on that?  How do they differ? 

Optimiser

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Re: Prius Brakes
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2018, 04:29:19 PM »
Instead of using the friction brakes like a normal car does which causes wear to the pads and rotors, a hybrid uses the regenerative braking to recapture the cars kinetic energy and store it in the battery so it can be used again in the future. There is a limit to how quickly the car can slow down from regenerative braking alone, so the friction brakes are still used some, but less than on a car that does all of it's breaking with friction brakes.

This probably explains it better than I did. https://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-parts/brakes/brake-types/regenerative-braking.htm

Rcc

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Re: Prius Brakes
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2018, 08:26:53 AM »
My DW drives a Lexus CT (Prius guts) with about the same mileage. Under normal circumstances the brakes aren’t heavily used until the last 10-0mph. Less if you use the B (engine braking) mode.

dezfreeze

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Re: Prius Brakes
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2018, 11:12:05 AM »
I have a 2004 Prius with 200k miles, still has life left on the ORIGINAL brake pads.  This is with mostly in town driving.  You shouldn't have to worry for a LONG TIME

Blindsquirrel

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Re: Prius Brakes
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2018, 06:04:48 PM »
  Second on that, had a 2007 Prius that I drove for 80k miles from 80k to 160k. Looked at the brakes after I bought it, looked at them after 50k miles and they really had a ton more pad left than I ever would have thought, not new but in really good shape. Looked at them at 160k before I sold and they were somewhat more worn but by no means were they shot or in need of replacement anytime soon. They probably would have gone another 50k miles at least. YMMV but they really do last an astounding number of miles.

Debts_of_Despair

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Re: Prius Brakes
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2018, 07:34:46 PM »
I drive a Prius at work.  I drive it very conservatively in terms of starting and stopping.  I use the heck out of the “B” mode on the transmission and find that I hardly ever need to use the brake pedal.  It’s pretty impressive.  I’d imagine that I’d run into corrosion issues with the brakes from salt before the pads or rotors actually wore out.

alanB

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Re: Prius Brakes
« Reply #6 on: June 05, 2018, 01:14:08 PM »
I replaced the brakes in my prius at 185K miles (bought at 160K miles, brakes never changed).  I read that you should only use "B" mode on long hills, I have no idea how much of a difference that makes in brake life or efficiency though:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius/Driving_tricks
Quote
In a normal vehicle, the driver handles that condition by slowing to an appropriate speed and shifting to a lower gear (2nd or 1st). This forces the vehicle to spin the engine faster than needed, "wasting" energy through vacuum losses but helping maintain a safe vehicle speed without overheating the brake pads.

In a Prius, the driver handles that condition by selecting "B" mode. This tells the Prius to attempt to emulate "engine braking" in a conventional vehicle. Depending on the vehicle's speed and the battery SOC (state of charge), the Prius will do this using regenerative braking and/or high-RPM zero-fuel-flow engine braking.

Engine braking is inefficient because it uses the engine as an air pump, converting kinetic energy into heat. Unnecessary regenerative braking is also inefficient because of energy conversion losses. (Regenerative braking is good when it replaces friction braking, but it's not as efficient as coasting at a constant speed.) Because of this, "B" mode will not recharge your batteries more efficiently than just braking and is not recommended for general driving. Just as you might downshift into 2nd gear when going down a long, steep hill to prevent brake damage, you can "downshift" into "B" mode on a Prius. "Shifting" is all electronic, so the system won't let you shift in a harmful way. (Even if you try to shift into reverse when moving quickly forward, you'll just end up in neutral.)

Debts_of_Despair

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Re: Prius Brakes
« Reply #7 on: June 06, 2018, 10:08:03 AM »
So don't use B mode unless you want to slow down?  Shouldn't that go without saying?

 

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