Rav4 Brakes - Premature Wear due to Winter Conditions

[Sequoiasoon]

If I am just looking to pad slap a new set of pads as the rotors are still ok. What is recommended since Raybestos doesn't seem to be favoured? Like I said, due to environmental conditions, I am not expecting really long life as the rotors will rust out prior to that. I can get Raybestos Element 3 for about $50 CDN out the door. I found a dealer that will sell OE Toyota pads, (not AZ line) for about $130 CDN out the door. Other brands are in between.

I have some Power Stop versions on 2 vehicles, 1 still has the Raybestos until they wear out.

Advics and Pagid get referenced often as do the Akebono.

All that said, 2 of my vehicles have Duralast Gold and Duralast Elite from Autozone. Why? When my Raybestos E3 wore weird due to whichever reasons, they were available local on short notice and have a lifetime warranty so if I have issues I can just go back and swap them.

Local availability for issues is a nice option. Yup I paid more than ordering online but my kids were back on the road within a couple hours.

 

[meep]

E3 pads have really come apart in quality since raybestos outsourced their production. It’s been mentioned here a couple of times. They used to be my goto pads, but I had problems with 2 vehicles I put them on this spring, at the same time. I eventually had to redo one entirely with something else. All the data lined up, I would not recommend the E3s now, but they were my favorite pad for several years and I’ve put them on a number of vehicles.

 

[Oldswagon]

So to update, I the Toyota dealer was pretty good. I talked to the service manager and he agreed to give me a new set of Toyota pads at the employee discount rate. I was happy with that.

I never liked Permatex brake lubes, they would become hard after just one winter.

Where in Ontario do you live? If in the GTA area there are two Wurth stores, one in Mississauga and one in Vaughan. Do yourself a big favor and buy their Silicone Lubricating Compound. It’s probably one of the better options you can buy in Canada.

I bought a tube something like 15 years ago and I still have some left. And I’ve used it on lots of motorcycle and car rubber parts, not just brake caliper pins. It has never let me down. I got rid of my 06 Mazda 3 with original calipers and pins and that car has seen 11 Canadian winters before I moved to US.

I am well north of the GTA, but I do travel that way fairly regularly, so I will pick some up. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

They could have done verything right and it might have been something else that is the issue.
They may have used that soap based lithium grease from niglube and it had silicone in there before and vice versa.
Those don't mix well together at all.
Also they are flat rate mechanics, they aren't going to take out your boots stretch them and inspect them to check for a tiny tear.

 

[D1dad]

I started using sil glide hi temp (blue) silicone on everything, pins, ears and shims and so far so good. I fell for the expensive purple permatex and had a pin seize in less than a year. I’m going to swap some pads this weekend that have around 15k on them so I’ll know more on how the sil glyde has worked.

 

[KrisZ]

Chances are it was the Toyota OEM pin lubricant which apparently is known to seize up. When I read about it, I checked my 2021 CH-R and sure enough all pins but one were seized or perhaps stuck is a better term. Once I worked them a bit they became loose and started moving fine again.
And this is a vehicle that lives in a mild climate and has similar miles as OPs Toyota. Not sure why Toyota uses this lube, but it’s junk.

 

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

Chances are it was the Toyota OEM pin lubricant which apparently is known to seize up. When I read about it, I checked my 2021 CH-R and sure enough all pins but one were seized or perhaps stuck is a better term. Once I worked them a bit they became loose and started moving fine again.
And this is a vehicle that lives in a mild climate and has similar miles as OPs Toyota. Not sure why Toyota uses this lube, but it’s junk.

I think that toyota uses niglube RX or the RM which i think has been fortifed with solids. If its the RX it doesnt stand up to the heat well and melts fast. Also its soap based lithium grease so if someone else uses silicone grease on those pins the two wont mix and you will have suboptimal results.

 

[KrisZ]

I think that toyota uses niglube RX or the RM which i think has been fortifed with solids. If its the RX it doesnt stand up to the heat well and melts fast. Also its soap based lithium grease so if someone else uses silicone grease on those pins the two wont mix and you will have suboptimal results.

The grease on my Toyota pins looked very similar. Didn’t look contaminated with something else, was soft and had a normal grease like consistency. Yet the pins were stuck as if they were rusted in or the greases hardened up. Very weird behavior that I have not seen before.

 

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

Was it all the pins ? Any of them have rubber bushings ? How did the surface of the pins look?

 

[KrisZ]

Was it all the pins ? Any of them have rubber bushings ? How did the surface of the pins look?

7 out of 8 were stuck. The bushings were normal and not swallen and the pins looked brand new when I cleaned everything up. Nothing looked out of ordinary.

 

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

Honestly switch to silicon pin lube, does better in heat it seems. Probably makes a difference in Texas heat.
edit: was the left over grease pliable? hard?

 

[KrisZ]

Honestly switch to silicon pin lube, does better in heat it seems. Probably makes a difference in Texas heat.
edit: was the left over grease pliable? hard?

Oh yeah I cleaned the Toyota grease up and put on silicone grease on it already.
The old grease looked and felt pretty much brand new. That’s what makes it so odd.

 

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

Clean out the old grease completely. One is lithium soap and the other is silicone they dont play well together.

 

[road_rascal]

I'm not happy with my Element 3 rotors and pads. After about 20,000 miles the rotors needed to be machined since there was some vibration while braking. Now 20,000 miles later it's happening again. The last set of brakes (Duralast Gold) lasted almost 100,000 before they needed to be replaced.