And I have had the pad springs lock up on a vehicle before and destroy the brake pad and rotor. The vehicle had regular maintenance. So now at least every 50k miles for me.
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Off topic galore
- Thread starter Mengy
- Start date
Never. I have heard that if you live where they use a lot of road salt you need to do a lot more lubricating. I'd guess that lubricating brake calipers is not something that only Tesla Service can do.
Car And Driver Not Happy With Cost Of Tesla Model 3 Maintenance
The publication has been running a Model 3 for nearly 40,000 miles, but it hasn’t found the vehicle as cheap to maintain as expected.insideevs.com
“In fact, they say the savings they observed were only slightly better than two other ICE vehicles that they were running in parallel. They mention that you don’t have to change oil in an EV, but the Model 3 still needs its brake calipers lubricated (because in theory they see less use than in an ICE vehicle because an EV relies a lot more on regen), an operation which has now been done on their tester a total of three times and is one of the things that has brought the cost to $432.”
Is this a thing with the brake calipers? Owned Teslas since 2013 this is the first time I have heard of it. Anyone lubricate their brake calipers every 12k miles?
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Is this the same kind of brake lubing that fix squeaks when braking/reversing? If that's the case then every car needs this. Out volkswagen with 25k miles already squeaks. Tesla model 3 at 48k miles doesn't squeak yet.
Krugerrand
Meow
That’s a negatory, good buddy. Over 65,000 miles - not lubricated those brake calipers once AND as I recall the one time I took it in for a ‘regular check up’ per instructions back in the day (which are no longer instructions), Tesla didn’t lubricate them either. Those cream puffs!Car And Driver Not Happy With Cost Of Tesla Model 3 Maintenance
The publication has been running a Model 3 for nearly 40,000 miles, but it hasn’t found the vehicle as cheap to maintain as expected.
“In fact, they say the savings they observed were only slightly better than two other ICE vehicles that they were running in parallel. They mention that you don’t have to change oil in an EV, but the Model 3 still needs its brake calipers lubricated (because in theory they see less use than in an ICE vehicle because an EV relies a lot more on regen), an operation which has now been done on their tester a total of three times and is one of the things that has brought the cost to $432.”
Is this a thing with the brake calipers? Owned Teslas since 2013 this is the first time I have heard of it. Anyone lubricate their brake calipers every 12k miles?
Caliper service used to be part of annual maintenance and is still recommend in winter areas:
Car Maintenance
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
People in areas with high road salt use could indeed see this problem. More frequent heavy braking might be all that is needed, and/or more attention to washing off the brakes in the winter.
Stainless steel caliper pins.
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Stone_Watcher
Member
There, from the horses mouth.
Can we move past discussion of lubricating our calipers now? Y’all get bent out of shape over these FUD articles.
Krugerrand
Meow
Or, you could just use your brakes a little bit during the winter and prevent it in the first place.
A little bit of use will not cause sufficient pad wear to move the slide/locating bolts enough to negate the impacts of corrosion.
It will knock the rust off the rotors though.
TheTalkingMule
Distributed Energy Enthusiast
My 2001 Wrangler has been squeaking for months at the driver's front wheel, may have to give this a shot. Thanks Car & Driver!
Given that regen sucks in the winter, I find there is a lot of natural brake use
Krugerrand
Meow
Right. But I’m not currently in that climate. When I did live in that climate, that kind of stuff was simply part of a regular go around of said vehicle. After a few go arounds, one would get an idea of what that vehicle maintenance would look like going forward. It often wasn’t in line with ‘mfgers suggestions’. Sometimes more often, sometimes less often. Not all vehicles are created equally and certainly all drivers are not created equally. But we digress.
Krugerrand
Meow
You’re right, we do. Probably because at the next family corn hole contest we’re about to hear from that one uncle about how Car & Driver says this or that about Teslas. This means we’re going to have to spike his beer with valium to get him to shut up and he’s actually really good at corn hole and is on our team. That’s a serious dilemma.
No. This does not adress the issue. It’s not the pads that are lubricated. It is the springs and cylinder area. Touching the friction brakes here and there does not prevent this. If not lubricated, the pad can stick in a slightly pressed position and obviously gets worn out.
Squeaking brakes is actually often a vibration of the pad within the caliper, often against the piston pushing against it.
There is treatment you can apply on the back of the pad to dampen this.
Krugerrand
Meow
Brake system lubrication is on the pins and/or pads depending on the type of calipers... I don't know all about the S/X and old Roadster systems, but on the 3/Y the rear is a floating caliper and the front are opposed pistons. So the rear would need two pins lubricated and the backs of both pads (especially the pad that contacts the piston). The front there are no pins or moving parts beyond the pistons, so only the backs of the pads would need lubricated. This is recommended on any car when you work on the pads or rotors. The little plastic tube filled with grease in the brake pad box is for that. Teslas not using brakes as much will probably need them at some point, but I can't see it, even in harsh conditions, in the first 75-100k miles.
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