I Don’t Miss the Brake Dust

[VTbuckeye]

The blended brakes on my xc90 phev and bolt EV both have had rust issues. The bolt, after less than 2.5 years almost failed inspection because the inside surface of the front rotors was badly rusted. I've replaced rotors and pads on the front of the xc90 because they were rusted and not sweeping the whole rotor evenly (failed inspection). The rears are looking pretty bad too with grooves and the edges not getting swept clear of rust, though the pads are less than half warn at 33k miles). They still work great (it helps that the rotors are quite large. Even with the rust, I still have more swept area than the Highlander or pilot parked next to me at work). If there were stainless polished surfaces on the caliper brackets for the pads to slide on that would be great. Volvo has some issues with their xc40 EV and polestar 2 cars with sticking pads after washing where the pads would have chunks ripped out necessitating rotor and pad replacement (under warranty). These are brake issues peculiar to EVs and infrequently driven cars.

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[FlasherZ]

Since my pads don't get much use day-to-day, I do a couple emergency brakes once every 2 months or so. Folks in the north should do that more, and have their brakes serviced every year.

I've found my style of driving typically uses the friction brakes a few times per drive, cleaning surface rust off.

I've observed that if it rains while you're driving, and you park overnight, you may need a bit of extra "go pedal" to "snap" the brakes loose when backing out of the garage.

Also, from experience with other manufacturers, less movement of the calipers has resulted in a slightly higher occurrence of calipers not moving on their slides properly and wearing rotors unevenly (when they do get used). That's probably a ~50,000 mile problem.

 

[SmoothJ]

Since my pads don't get much use day-to-day, I do a couple emergency brakes once every 2 months or so. Folks in the north should do that more, and have their brakes serviced every year.

I live in NJ, and I agree if you are using 1-pedal. To avoid that, I just use the good old fashioned pedal.

 

[GDN]

While I love one pedal driving, I still use my brakes. In my past EVs I had issues in which my calipers would stick and be rusty, and my pads and rotors will just be there doing nothing. However if Ford did their due diligence, stepping on the brake should technically be regenerating braking anyway. More pressure, would then be the actual brakes.

Nothing that a little WOT and good hard braking won't fix every couple of weeks. Who needs a theme park when you drive a Lightning.

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