Brake replacement already?

[steilkurve]

Hey all. My P3D is 2 and a half years old with only 12K miles on it. Live in a winter climate. Booked mobile service for brake maintenance. Had not done it thus far. Tech said all pads and rotors need replacement. Seems early. Thoughts? Could it be caused by snow, salt and the like or having not done maintenance yet? Should I trust the reco?

 

[Wennfred]

Sounds like the Caliper Pins are sticking, there’s something going wrong here. 24,400 miles on my Model 3 and I hardly use my brakes so they are as good as new still.

Drive the car and park it without applying the brakes touch the rotors and they should be cool to the touch. If they are hot then it’s a stuck caliper. The caliper pins will need to be cleaned and Lubed with Mission Automotive Silicon Paste. Lots of videos on YouTube on how to clean and grease the caliper pins.

Fred

 

[KenC]

Hey all. My P3D is 2 and a half years old with only 12K miles on it. Live in a winter climate. Booked mobile service for brake maintenance. Had not done it thus far. Tech said all pads and rotors need replacement. Seems early. Thoughts? Could it be caused by snow, salt and the like or having not done maintenance yet? Should I trust the reco?

How much meat is left on the pads? Are the rotors scored or warped? You weren't towing your Airstream with it were you? Seems ridiculously early for pads, but we don't know how you drive, but 12k miles is not much mileage. Did the mobile tech give you a reason?

Take it to a brake shop to verify.

 

[jjrandorin]

OP doesnt say what they do with the car. There are valid reasons why brakes could be worn out by now. It could be as simple as OP is one of those people who drive resting their foot on the brake. They could be autocrossing the car. They could be towing things with it, and using the brakes a lot while doing so.

There isnt enough information here to advise this OP on whether this could be valid or not.

 

[Gasaraki]

OP doesnt say what they do with the car. There are valid reasons why brakes could be worn out by now. It could be as simple as OP is one of those people who drive resting their foot on the brake. They could be autocrossing the car. They could be towing things with it, and using the brakes a lot while doing so.

There isnt enough information here to advise this OP on whether this could be valid or not.

My brakes are worn out after one day of ownership!

Turns out they were doing 24 hours of Le Mans.

 

[steilkurve]

You weren't towing your Airstream with it were you?

lol. No, I tow the Airstream with my Model X. ;-)

 

[steilkurve]

Following up. Had the second mobile tech visit today. Was scheduled to change pads and rotors. Different tech. His diagnosis was that the only issue these brakes had was the typical low use issue and they were fine aside from some rust on the rotors that likely explain the rubbing noise I was hearing. He performed regular brake maintenance and saved me a bundle. Suggested some repeated agressive breaking to fully free the rotors of the rust build up. Thanks all for the input.

 

[KenC]

Following up. Had the second mobile tech visit today. Was scheduled to change pads and rotors. Different tech. His diagnosis was that the only issue these brakes had was the typical low use issue and they were fine aside from some rust on the rotors that likely explain the rubbing noise I was hearing. He performed regular brake maintenance and saved me a bundle. Suggested some repeated agressive breaking to fully free the rotors of the rust build up. Thanks all for the input.

Thanks for the followup, but that first mobile tech is not qualified if he thought you needed new pads and rotors.

 

[jjrandorin]

Thanks for the followup, but that first mobile tech is not qualified if he thought you needed new pads and rotors.

Yeah, right? "bedding in brakes" is something that seems to need to be done more on EVs because of the low usage of the brakes in general. It should be something they see often enough to be familiar with it.

I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that either they were rushed, or "had a bad day" but a bad day shouldnt cost someone a bundle of money. People are supposed to be able to trust the recommendations of service representatives when it comes to servicing their vehicle, especially since service is not supposed to be a profit center for tesla and tesla is the manufacturer, not a dealer trying to make up for low margins on new car sales with high service dollars.

Certainly not good.

 

[derotam]

Following up. Had the second mobile tech visit today. Was scheduled to change pads and rotors. Different tech. His diagnosis was that the only issue these brakes had was the typical low use issue and they were fine aside from some rust on the rotors that likely explain the rubbing noise I was hearing. He performed regular brake maintenance and saved me a bundle. Suggested some repeated agressive breaking to fully free the rotors of the rust build up. Thanks all for the input.

Just curious, how much did they charge for the regular brake maintenance?

 

[Mash]

Following up. Had the second mobile tech visit today. Was scheduled to change pads and rotors. Different tech. His diagnosis was that the only issue these brakes had was the typical low use issue and they were fine aside from some rust on the rotors that likely explain the rubbing noise I was hearing. He performed regular brake maintenance and saved me a bundle. Suggested some repeated agressive breaking to fully free the rotors of the rust build up. Thanks all for the input.

Did you see the first guy taking out calipers and measuring rotor and pad thickness? It's not like they can advise you on that without checking it. Or can they?

 

[steilkurve]

Just curious, how much did they charge for the regular brake maintenance?

$280 Canadian. My brake are performance.

 

[steilkurve]

Did you see the first guy taking out calipers and measuring rotor and pad thickness? It's not like they can advise you on that without checking it. Or can they?

No, he didn’t. Just looked at them and said new brakes needed. Sounds more and more like he didn’t feel like doing the job that day and so deferred it by saying you need to swap them all and I don’t have the parts...

 

[ilyak]

$280 Canadian. My brake are performance.

For comparison, USD 68.25 at Deadham this week for non-performance brake service.

 

[steilkurve]

OP here. So, after the first mobile tech suggested I needed new rotors and pads when I had booked a simple brake cleaning and the second mobile tech who came back with the parts for the job said I just needed brake cleaning, which he did, I’m now noticing my brakes make noise and ‘slip‘. On hold mode, they’ll make a ‘rubbing‘ noise and the car move forward a tad more so on hills but even on flat roads. I also notice the same rubbing noise when I release the brake pedal after breaking hard. The noise is exacerbated if I set regen to low and turn off hold. Anyone knows what‘s up? See link to video below. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

[fiehlsport]

I am familiar with that noise. I try to find the sweet spot on the pedal to make the noise last as long as I can to bug my wife when she's in the car.

If you can, turn regen down to low, then go hit some backroads to do a few HARD 60-0 stops in a safe desolate place. 3 in a row, with a minute of cooling in between. That will ensure the pads can really "wear-in" to the rotors again and clean them up, since they were crusty beforehand.

I like to heat up my brakes a few times a week just to make sure they're being used. My mobile tech said he has never seen rotors so clean on a car with almost 40K, and I've never had the brake maintenance done. If you use them, they will remain in great shape. Exercising the calipers often is really helpful for the brakes.

 

[steilkurve]

If you can, turn regen down to low, then go hit some backroads to do a few HARD 60-0 stops in a safe desolate place. 3 in a row, with a minute of cooling in between. That will ensure the pads can really "wear-in" to the rotors again and clean them up, since they were crusty beforehand.

Thanks for this. So, not a problem but simply the result of cleaned brakes not being worn on? And normal that the car rolls a little on hold as brakes settle in?

 

[jjrandorin]

Google "bedding in brakes" and you should see information about what it is, and how to do it (which was described by @fiehlsport