I have a 2007 Prius with 130,000 miles on it. I plan to trade in about a year, maybe a little less. I have noticed my brakes grabbing. My mechanic says that the front brakes are sort of grinding and the rear brakes are grabbing. Both are worn, the rear brakes to about 30%, front brakes to 60%. They also say they will probably last out the year. Should I put new brakes on to be safe and to be able to sell the car with new brakes, or should I just wait it out and trade it in with worn brakes? My mechanic says we are talking about $800 or so.
Probably not. The pads should last a lot longer. Especially on a hybrid.
Did your mechanic offer an opinion as to why these things are happening?
Could it be the hybrid system–the generators are part of the stopping force…
I’ll go off-topic
I think you should drive the car a few more years . . . 130K is nothing for a Prius
Unless it is rusted out . . .
You are aware that pushing down your brake pedal doesn’t make the brakes on your car work, right?
Is your mechanic trained in the brake system on your car?
$800? Even for doing front and rear at a dealer is roughly $300 a axle. The brakes on a Prius are controlled by the brake ecu, I would get a second opinion.
No experience w/Prius brakes, but I’m presuming at least part of the brake system is a pad/rotor arrangement. That amount of pad wear (I presume that is what the %'s mean) is normal and I wouldn’t replace pads with 30% remaining myself. If you do decide to replace the pads, only replace the ones with the most wear. The ones with 60% remaining are still good to go.
The more important issue tho isn’t the pad wear, but what is causing the grinding and grabbing. I’d focus on figuring that out. It may be that replacing the pads is the fastest and least expensive way to diagnose this problem. If your mechanic thinks it is advisable to replace the pads for diagnostic purposes, I have no problem to replace the pads and probably the rotors on all 4 wheels. Not for pad wear, but to diagnose what the problem with the grinding and grabbing is.
The pads are normal, but I’d be reticent to guess at a cause of the noise unless I were a lot more familiar with the regenerative braking system on these.
A visit to a few Prius forums might yield information for the OP, however.