Thoughts from experience on brake condition.

[Cap71n Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Cap71n]

Hi Folks,

First post on here, feels like i'm 15 again fumbling around in the dark. In terms of my story I've bought a 2014 GXL 3.0 Diesel with 96,000km on the clock. Loving the car for fishing, camping and getting the 3 kids around. Best car I have owned, and I have owned a few.

The question - in April 2019 I had a mobile mechanic that is quite prominently advertised on radio, TV and internet come to my place to fit new rear brakes and rotors. Two days ago I pulled up home and my neighbour tells me the cars making a horrid noise, passenger rear wheel.
I called my mechanic who popped over (not the one who installed brakes). He pulled the rear wheel off and said mate the brakes are shot, metal to metal and rotor is warped as result. I told him they are relatively new and he said based on the appearance there is no way they are less than a year old.

Now the original installers came back today and replaced the rear brakes and rotors with new Bendix under their 20,000km warranty. They said that they hadn't seen this before and it could be a caliper issue or stuck piston. They even suggested I take the car to Toyota to get the brakes recalibrated from the unit next to the master cylinder. My current mechanic said he's never heard of this recalibration. I called Toyota they too said this is not something they do on a 2014 Prado.

Soooo... based on the photos and your experience is there a possibility that new brakes were never installed back in April? Do these things look more than 13,000km old and 8 months?
I ask purely because if there is a larger issue at play here outside the pads I need to get it looked at sooner rather than later. I am assuming the mechanic who installed the brakes today would have noticed a seized piston/caliper upon reinstall?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Kirk

Image of Brakes

[nudgebar Member Find all posts View Profile Close nudgebar]

looks to have some corrosion on the exposed bits , they dont look like they were replaced. what was the other side like?

[Cap71n Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Cap71n]

Thanks Nudgebar - otherside was metal. I'm not going to take any action or make any accusations I am just stumped trying to figure out what the initial bloke did because he handed me both sets of pads he took off. Only thing I can think is he handed me pads from another job or he put second hand pads on.

[Leethal Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Leethal]

Without seeing the material side of the pads it is hard to be sure but if both pads are down to the metal you can rule out a tight/seized piston or caliper slides as if it was one of those issues only one pad wears away. would be checking the opposite side pads to see how they are wearing. Possibly the other side is not working and more load/wear happening on the worn out side. I would expect the rear would be unstable under hard braking though if that was the case and I would expect you would sense that. Also 96,000 kms seems low for a rear pad change, what is the condition of the fronts? Perhaps they are not working well and more braking is being done by the rear.

As you have suggested possibly only part job was done or conversely very poor quality (soft) pads were installed, if poor quality pads then there should be a lot of wear on the other side as well. Have you noticed a lot of brake dust on the rear wheels which would indicate high wear?

Brakes are one area to definitely buy the best you can afford IMO.

Lee

[mal58 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mal58]

If the pads were rubbing due to seized cylinder, I would have thought that you would get a lot of brake dust on the rim of the rear wheel.

Were both sides worn the same ?

I also think your fuel economy have been effected too.

In addition, I think that the rear brakes would have smelt and felt hot after driving.

[Cap71n Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Cap71n]

Thanks again for all the responses.

In answer:

No brake smell / overheating sensed
Wheels are quite black from what could be brake dust absolutely.
Rear pads were changed at 96,000 as they needed replacement when I bought the car. I am second owner.
Fronts are 70% remaining according to two mechanics reports.
Fuel Economy stable, no noticeable increase.

@ Leethal- no noticeable back end heaviness. As you say - I also never save money on brakes or tyres - the Rotors plus pads were $670 installed from $#!$ Mobile and invoice states Bendix. Had to use these mechanics at the time due to availability of engineers / service centres.

[Leethal Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Leethal]

I think the rear pads were quite soft which gives good braking, poor fade resistance, lots of dust and short life duration.
That the original pads were changed at 96,000 makes me think it would be worth getting the front calipers and pads checked, maybe even change the front pads in case they are too hard and not working as well as they should be causing the rears to work harder. That is the trade off, soft high friction pads stop well but can be prone to fade and tend to not last overly well. Some performance pads work well once hot but are pretty average when cold, possibly the fronts are that type of high performance pad which would promote rear pad wear in normal day to day driving as they would not be getting hot enough to work properly

Lee

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

Bendix pads are excellent quality & last. Ive done all my own brake pad changes & servicing on my own cars & some family members cars since the early 2000’s. Brakes & rotors are easy to replace. I have never in my life heard of brake pads fully wearing to the bone by 13,000km. The shims don’t begin corroding within 6 months either. You were taken for a ride my friend. When he tried to get rid of you by mentioning calibration as a fix Toyota could do, and Toyota not doing that for your Prado or your regular mechanic not hearing of that needing to be done before.... That’s your red flag right there. I reckon he left your brakes & rotors on and took your money for not doing the job. I guess he just does the actual brake replacement if you eventually complain. Weird, but I’d be steering clear of him in the future. He’d be the sort of bloke you see on A Current Affair who’d charge you $1,000 to plug in a loose plug that was causing your car to run sick. Is there a comment list on the internet related to his business with like a billion complaints written by angry customers? If he did that to you, he’s doing it to heaps of others too. Hate to think what he does when someone pays him to change their engine oil & filters. He prob buys the nastiest cheapest oil and pours it from pre-filled reputable branded oil bottles to fool an onlooker or someone who might lift out the dipstick after. And filters... They’d never be replaced. He prob just wipes the outer casing of oil filters clean and job done!