Brake pad wear?

[pasdechevre]

Morning - I have 27K miles on my R1T since mid May of last year. Brought it in for service last week and was told that my brake pads were at 4 and 5mm respectively and needed replacement. Has anyone else had issues like this? I have towed a 16 x 10' trailer for about 3K of the 27K miles but to be honest my main concern with brake pads was that they would rust from lack of use.

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[Zoidz]

General rule of thumb is 3mm is minimum, I don't know if Rivian has a spec? So 4mm and 5mm have some life left in them, you would have to judge when they need replacing. Seems to me you could get another 3k-5k miles?

What is your regen setting? It seems early for brake pads if you are using full regen?

 

[thebwk]

I’ll be watching this thread. I go days and days without touching the brake pedal. I was hoping brakes would be a maintenance item I wouldn’t have to worry about for the first 100k miles.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I second the regen settings question. I rarely use my brakes while driving so I would imagine I have little to no wear on them. When my wheels were off for rotation my brakes looked new at 9k or so miles.

 

[R1Tom]

I looked at mine at about 19k and all looked near new. But I didn't measure them.

 

[NY_Rob]

Let me guess.. dealer only part and they won't sell you the pads?

Bonus guess: Reason for #1 above.... "computer needed to retract pistons".

 

[mikehmb]

Brake pads on EVs are very hard to wear out, unless you’re trying, or are in one of several corner use cases. Track days, heavy and frequent towing, or frequent hill descents when regen isn’t available are the only 3 I can come up with.

If you don’t fit into one of those three categories - or if you’re constantly testing your neck muscles from hard deceleration - then I’d ask the SC what’s going on. Doesn’t seem normal.

 

[ironpig]

Yeah I'm interested in what you find out. The only time I'm putting any real wear on my brake pads is on downhills when the stupid truck gives up on regen. With previous EV cars I've never replaced the pads in 8 years.

 

[pasdechevre]

@Zoidz I use high regen and basically never hit the breaks. That is what is so surprising to me, had not expected to have this issue at all.

 

[R1Tom]

How much did they propose for the replacements?

 

[mikehmb]

@Zoidz I use high regen and basically never hit the breaks. That is what is so surprising to me, had not expected to have this issue at all.

Ask them to tell you what’s happening. If your regen is working as normal, and you’re not actively pressing the brake pedal often (remember that the truck doesn’t apply heavier regen when hitting the brake pedal, like in some other EVs), then something is amiss.

Ask them for details. From what you’ve described, this isn’t normal.

 

[Zoidz]

@Zoidz I use high regen and basically never hit the breaks. That is what is so surprising to me, had not expected to have this issue at all.

Just to confirm, you said you brought it in for service, but didn't specify. I think we are assuming it was a Rivian SC you took it to?

 

[pasdechevre]

@Zoidz yes it's at the Rivian Service Center in Chelsea, MA. They are quoting $900 for pads and rotors and I think there is a realization something is wrong because they took the labor off before I started asking questions. I'll update after I hopefully get the truck back this afternoon.

 

[WSea]

Something is wrong if you need rotors too

 

[Zoidz]

Let me guess.. dealer only part and they won't sell you the pads?

Bonus guess: Reason for #1 above.... "computer needed to retract pistons".

Hopefully they open up the OBD to 3rd parties at least enough to retract pads. I have two scanners that can do this on the later model BMWs, I'd like to see Rivian added to the list. But it should be years before I need that.

I decided to check online for Rivian brake pads. Rock Auto and Autozone allow a Rivian search but don't have anything, NAPA does not even allow searching on Rivian, and Advance Auto Parts came up with this.

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