Front right:
Front left:
Rear right:
Rear left:
Front left:
Rear right:
Rear left:
Original Brakes at 70K
- Thread starter mwalsh
- Start date
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Front right is the worst for wear and I'm not sure about letting it go another 5k, so I'll probably change them out sooner than later.
Reason I pulled the wheels off to double check - this weird score line on the left front rotor. I would have said nowadays that was due to the friction material being completely worn down, which obviously isn't the case. Back in the olden days (when such a thing was common) I would have said it was the friction material worn to the rivets. But of course friction material is no longer riveted in place, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to explain it. It has no depth to it, so not an issue when it comes to turning the rotor, but it bothers me that it's there in the first place.
Reason I pulled the wheels off to double check - this weird score line on the left front rotor. I would have said nowadays that was due to the friction material being completely worn down, which obviously isn't the case. Back in the olden days (when such a thing was common) I would have said it was the friction material worn to the rivets. But of course friction material is no longer riveted in place, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to explain it. It has no depth to it, so not an issue when it comes to turning the rotor, but it bothers me that it's there in the first place.
Did you measure rotor thickness? The LEAF has ceramic pads so I suspect the rotors will be close to minimum thickness by the time the pads are worn out. My experience on two SUVs with OEM ceramic pads was that pads and rotors on all four wheels were worn out at about 75k miles so I expected the LEAF brakes to last a lot longer. The light scoring is no concern (some debris probably got caught between pad and rotor).
GerryAZ said:
I figured debris or maybe a spot on the pad where there was a substantially harder piece of pad material.
I have not measured rotor thickness yet.
estomax said:
I think the recommendation calls for 5mm of material left and I'm at about 5mm on all three wheels except the front where I'm down to 3mm. I've bought the replacements already and will keep an eye on them for the time being.
do the leaf brake pads have a low pad sensor in them? is there a little wire coming out of the pad going into a harness connector? that is how to know when it is time to do brakes usually 
i didn't see it in your pics but you weren't trying to take a picture of them.
like below for example:
i didn't see it in your pics but you weren't trying to take a picture of them.
like below for example:
LEAF does not have pad wear sensors.
ENIAC
Well-known member
GerryAZ said:
Do you happen to know if they have a tale tell tab?
i guess i can see from an engineering point of view why they'd skip the wear sensors. the brakes last almost the life of the car :lol:
but yeah, the tell tale tab is there in the one picture i see, so that is the other thing to look at for when it starts to touch the rotor, do the pads (and probably rotors at the same time)
Marko
but yeah, the tell tale tab is there in the one picture i see, so that is the other thing to look at for when it starts to touch the rotor, do the pads (and probably rotors at the same time)
Marko
ENIAC said:
I don't think so, but am not sure--will try to check the next time I look at the service manual. LEAF has ceramic pads so I don't worry about checking pad thickness. My experience with ceramic pads on other vehicles is that rotors wear to minimum thickness by the time the pads wear out so I use them down almost to metal and replace rotors, pads, and hardware. I get 70k to 75k miles on my SUV with automatic transmission so I expect to get well over 100k on LEAF with regeneration saving the brakes.
Only because the life of the battery is so bad. With 5 bars gone the friction brakes are used a good amount all the time now due to an overly conservative regenerative braking profile, especially at higher speeds. The overly conservative regen braking profile also hurts efficiency a lot.estomax said:
With strong regenerative braking, the pads really should last 150k miles or more unless you do a lot of very aggressive braking, not just a measly 70k. My Prius has 100k miles on the original brakes. My last Subaru went 70k miles on the original brakes. An EV should at least match a hybrid, no?
drees said:
Double whammy for me - pack degradation for 2+ years combined with "sporty" driving. I'm sure I'd have done much better out of mine under different circumstances.
TomT
Well-known member
When I turned in my Leaf at just under 72,000 the pads and rotors were still in excellent shape with a lot of life left... I estimate they would have easily gone over 100,000...
