Brake Guilt

[dave]

Anybody else have brake guilt?

Normal, conservative driving means you shouldn't have to use the brakes at all. Just regen to slow down and stop.

I however, can't resist driving a tad faster, and therefore find myself having to use the brakes more often. Then I feel waves of guilt for having to use the brakes, because that means I was driving too fast and not being energy conscious.

The other day I had to drive our ICE, and I felt even more guilty using the brakes as I envisioned all of this kinetic energy that was painfully produced by burning gasoline, being wasted away on my brake pads.

So much guilt. Will need to bring this up with my therapist.

 

[Jason S]

Lol. Tho it is a fun game to try to minimize brake usage.

 

[sp4rk]

Anybody else have brake guilt?

Normal, conservative driving means you shouldn't have to use the brakes at all. Just regen to slow down and stop.

I however, can't resist driving a tad faster, and therefore find myself having to use the brakes more often. Then I feel waves of guilt for having to use the brakes, because that means I was driving too fast and not being energy conscious.

The other day I had to drive our ICE, and I felt even more guilty using the brakes as I envisioned all of this kinetic energy that was painfully produced by burning gasoline, being wasted away on my brake pads.

So much guilt. Will need to bring this up with my therapist.

I thought TMC was our therapy?

 

[derekt75]

I didn't spend that much money on a car to drive it like a Leaf.
So no, I have no brake guilt.
nor any brake squeaks.

 

[Kaivball]

I didn't spend that much money on a car to drive it like a Leaf.
So no, I have no brake guilt.
nor any brake squeaks.

Lol. Exact. If I wanted to hypermile I would have bought a Leaf.
I got the Model S instead of a 612.

 

[Joyrider]

Anybody else have brake guilt?

Normal, conservative driving means you shouldn't have to use the brakes at all. Just regen to slow down and stop.

I however, can't resist driving a tad faster, and therefore find myself having to use the brakes more often. Then I feel waves of guilt for having to use the brakes, because that means I was driving too fast and not being energy conscious.

The other day I had to drive our ICE, and I felt even more guilty using the brakes as I envisioned all of this kinetic energy that was painfully produced by burning gasoline, being wasted away on my brake pads.

So much guilt. Will need to bring this up with my therapist.

Fortunately it appears the Model S will never "brake...um break your heart."

 

[GSP]

Guilt? No.

In the rare occasions that I have to use my friction brakes it feels more like a chess opponent taking one of my pawns. Minor setback, but I am still in the game and maybe winning.

When I drive a gas car it feels strange not to have an option to pull the shifter to "L" for some regen. Brakes are your only option. How primitive. :biggrin:

GSP
(35-mile EREV driver)

 

[SigGuy]

I don't mean to hijack this thread and mods may want to separate this out but... I have brake squeaking pretty much every time i slowly come to a stop. It's not a "sometimes" thing- it's a "nearly always" thing. Tesla has basically told me I have to live with it because it's a fact in all Tesla's and for that matter, in most cars with high performance brakes. They've told me that because of the regenerative braking, the coating never heats up enough to come off and therefore, the squeak. In other words, if I DID use the brakes more than needed, I'd lose the squeak (at least temporarily).

So I don't have any guilt over using the brakes but I do have some unhappiness around it. Are others out there NOT having this issue?

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

mine squeak because I rarely stop super hard....but when I play really hard and slam on the brakes they don't squeak for a while after

 

[sp4rk]

I have brake squeaking pretty much every time i slowly come to a stop. It's not a "sometimes" thing- it's a "nearly always" thing. Tesla has basically told me I have to live with it because it's a fact in all Tesla's and for that matter, in most cars with high performance brakes. They've told me that because of the regenerative braking, the coating never heats up enough to come off and therefore, the squeak. In other words, if I DID use the brakes more than needed, I'd lose the squeak (at least temporarily).

So I don't have any guilt over using the brakes but I do have some unhappiness around it. Are others out there NOT having this issue?

My breaks squeal intermittently. brianman ... told me to apply the breaks HARD a couple of times from, say, 60, (when there's no one following you preferably ) I did that and it seems to have cleared, as he put it, gunk from the break linings?

- - - Updated - - -

I didn't spend that much money on a car to drive it like a Leaf.
So no, I have no brake guilt.
nor any brake squeaks.

OOOOOY! You're going to hurt mine (and all Leaf's out there) feelings.
Nothing wrong with a Leaf; great training wheels and you understand its range. :frown: It's just not a Tesla!

 

[EchoDelta]

Nice name. I've had brake guilt every time since I've had a car with regen.
I also thought of 'downhill emptiness' - that wasteful, yearning feeling when going downhill braking in an ICE.

 

[SteveH]

I do have brake guilt. But it's too often unavoidable. Why does regen shut down below 5 mph? I

 

[kendallpb]

Anybody else have brake guilt?

A little. I like to drive fast, but then I want to get the rated miles (hah!). Plus regen braking is so magical, I feel like I should be able to make it perfect every time, so I just roll to a stop behind people at a light. So like Jason S says, it's a little bit of a game. I'm obsessing a little about rated, projected, etc. miles, plus a bit paranoid about being pulled over for just having that stupid strip of paper from California (sigh, Tesla...really?). And I'm still a little more conservative than I used to be (but still a maniac) thanks to a ticket last year....

So I'm driving more conservatively than usual, but that'll probably change as I get used to the car more, get real plates, and tire of the regen game. ;-) 'Cuz yeah, this car's made to drive.

 

[artsci]

I don't mean to hijack this thread and mods may want to separate this out but... I have brake squeaking pretty much every time i slowly come to a stop. It's not a "sometimes" thing- it's a "nearly always" thing. Tesla has basically told me I have to live with it because it's a fact in all Tesla's and for that matter, in most cars with high performance brakes. They've told me that because of the regenerative braking, the coating never heats up enough to come off and therefore, the squeak. In other words, if I DID use the brakes more than needed, I'd lose the squeak (at least temporarily).

So I don't have any guilt over using the brakes but I do have some unhappiness around it. Are others out there NOT having this issue?

You have to bed the pads. To do this make 5-10 very hard stops from 40-50mph. Find an good road to do this where there isn't much traffic. The squeaking should go away.

 

[Kaivball]

You have to bed the pads. To do this make 5-10 very hard stops from 40-50mph. Find an good road to do this where there isn't much traffic. The squeaking should go away.

Isn't that why the car already has 25 miles on?
I believe they are seated by the factory.

I do what you recommend when I change my own rotors and pads.

 

[Todd Burch]

I've had brake guilt for years, long before I ever drove an EV or Model S. In my Saturn/Corolla I'd try to minimize use to see what kind of mileage I could get. Partly a game, partly just to be efficient. Being efficient is not difficult. Being efficient and not annoying drivers around you is.

But yes, my goal is for my S brake pads to last the life of the car, so I feel bad when I use them. Guess I need therapy too...

 

[olanmills]

I hate when some other driver does something unexpected that forces me to use my brakes. I hate that feeling of wasting energy with no tradeoff (like the joy of accelerating fast or something).

While the feeling is a little more intense with the Model S, I still had that same feeling when driving my ICE too.

 

[artsci]

Isn't that why the car already has 25 miles on?
I believe they are seated by the factory.

I do what you recommend when I change my own rotors and pads.

I doubt the factory does this before shipment.

 

[SByer]

I practice what I call asymmetric hypermiling. Using the friction brakes is a last resort, but I'll use the go pedal all the way, every day, any chance I get.

Though I still have yet to have the mythical friction-brake-less commute.

 

[pete8314]

Back in the day I had a Vauxhall Astra GTE, with an LED dash and little status lights for various functions. Very high tech for the time. Anyway, one of those status lights checked the brake lights were working, and would stay on until I braked. Needless to say, I used to go as far as I could without using the brakes, my record was to my then girlfriends house, which was about 8 miles away, all through residential streets. It was a big achievement at the time