Tech with a twist of lime! & FLHybrid Club.

My ears! Make it stop!

OK, the subtitle is dramatic but, have you ever wondered why some of first stops of the day in car sound so bad?  Look at this picture of one of my Prius' front wheels.

If all of your stops sound bad not just the first few you may be hearing your brake wear indicators and its now time to start thinking about your next braking system servicing.

The disks in the disk brake assembly oxidize, and what you hear is brake-pads on rust.  After the first few stops the oxidized coating is worn off and all you get is pads on disks as the engineers intended.  This is the same reason many new cars (cough Acura cough) come with plastic covering the whole wheel during shipping, the covering helps prevent unsightly rusty spots on the brakes of brand new cars.  This problem is common on many models disk brake equipped vehicles in moist climates like we have here in Gainesville not just Prius.   I wish the plural of Prius was different than the singular.

What can you do about this?

• Park in areas with lower humidity levels.  (a garage or shed)
• Use your brakes like normal and the problem will take care of itself
• Or put the vehicle in neutral and give the brakes a good pump.  Operating a motor vehicle out of gear on public roads is illegal in many areas.
• Turn the sound system up

All kidding aside this is usually a cosmetic issue and will correct itself through normal use, if the layer of oxidation remains after a couple of good stops that use your friction braking system (as opposed to your regenerative braking system).

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