I had my calipers frozen on my old Nissan, but not in the first 5 years and not because of rust. What happened on my car, the grease simply solidify, probably from overheating and lock the calipers in place, but I would imagine any mechanic would see the problem right away and notice uneven pad wear and therefore they wouldn't need to call Toyota for advice??

 

It would not hurt the car at all...

The other thing that you can do is to lubricate the slides with a light smear of chassis lube (grease) and then wipe them clean. This will treat the steel. If you did this annually as part of your tire rotation schedule that would give you the best brake wear. However - I find that few people will go that extra mile to make sure they get full value and performance from their brakes..

 

Well - here's an update on my saga:

The service manager returned my call today saying he talked with the Toyota rep. Basically the pads are wear and tear and not covered under warranty, even though my front pads were only at 70% while the rears were down to 5%. He stated there were more instances of TCH pad replacements near the 25,000 mile mark. Apparently Toyota has gone to metallic pads for the TCH that are grooved to minimize brake noise, but do not wear as long as the old abestos pads. I emailed "Ask Toyota" and got the same wear and tear response. They did not answer why the 70% versus 5% wear differential?

I guess this re-confirms the dealer's high profit margins are in the shop and not the showroom.

 

You know, my aunt had a Suburu that the break pads went on under the 3 year/36k mile coverage and they were replaced for free. I thought the bumper to bumper coverage is suppose to cover abnormal wear as well.

 

I understand why brake pads are considered wear and tear. Some folks drive like Speed Racer and go through pads like water.

However, I would push the question of why are the rears at 5% when the fronts are at 70%? This sounds like a problem somewhere in the brake system or in how the hybrid system phases in the hydraulic brakes. My dealer measures each set of pads every service as part of the brake inspection, and the fronts and rears have been wearing the same on my TCH at 25,000 miles.

If your dealer does the same, a page with a checklist and measurements for brakes and tire wear should have been left with the vehicle after each service. Go back and check and see if the uneven wear was noticed at a prior service. They may not have mentioned it as the brakes were still in the "good" wear range at the time. With any luck you may see they wore evenly for a while before this problem appeared.

 

You are exactly right. My dealer gives me a page after each service that shows % of brake pads left, tire tread remaining, etc. I check those numbers every time to make sure that everything is wearing evenly, and I save all the paperwork. If you have any of your previous paperwork, I would gather it up and take it back to the service manager for explanation. It really sounds like you have a mechanical problem in the rear, and replacing the pads would not cure the real problem, in fact you'll just have to replace them again very shortly!

 

Flopshot & Nash,

Good news!

I had the wear data also since new and sent that info along with a displeasure letter to Toyota USA in Torrance CA. They gave me a case file number and when I called them thay said the excessive rear wear was unusual and would reimburse me for the rear brake service ($214). They didn't admit to any design problem but said there is now a TSB out. I guess they are in the data gathering mode to see how big of an issue this may become?

Anyway - if anyone has excessive rear brake wear - hound your dealer and tell them to look up the TSB.

 

But are they going to fix the cause of the excessive brake pad wear?

Both my front and rear pads look like they will see over 150,000 miles at the rate they are wearing. (I am currently at 42,000 miles.)

 

A little off topic but.........not many have over 40,000 miles on the TCH. How are things? Any changes since new, and anything to tell us about your experience so far?

 

So far everything is good.

I had a wierd shutter a month or so ago, and was not sure what it was, but it did not happen again.

I am still getting great mileage, and the batteries seem to be holding up like when they were new. I do notice they stay between 50% to 90 % charged almost all the time. The only time they really get any lower is when i force a bunch of e-mode driving.

A few more years and the car will really be tested for the battery durability.

I plan to put about 200,000 miles on the car before replacing it, and by then I hope toyota will have a hybrid sequia that gets mid 20's for gas mileage.