Seized rear calipers - Rivian stuck me with the bill

[IGR]

lol brakes are new tech

I was refereeing to parking break, but go on

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[JoulesVerne]

You're right, I misunderstood.

At the end of the day there is either a design defect or a poor choice not to apply grease to the caliper in my case. Neither of those is my fault as the customer.

No sane company is going to make all customers throw away a good brake pad every time they need pads. This will not be the new normal (factory reference intended!) from Rivian.

 

[Killer95Stang]

Yes, I'm paying for labor and pads on a vehicle that mostly stops without the aid of brakes after 35k miles.

After an update a few months back, Rivian started using braking assist to slow your Rivian at times when regen braking was reduced. In my case, it seemed like it was using the brakes all the time to slow down, which was evident by the amount of brake dust it was creating. Before the update, I had almost zero brake dust. When I asked my Rivian engineer neighbor about it, he said, Turn it off in the setting menu. I haven't really noticed much difference, except for almost no brake dust.

 

[IGR]

I agree its silly and it shouldn't happen. But the fact that it did happen, doesn't surprise me

 

[Killer95Stang]

The high end brakes on an R1 aren't made by Rivian... most likely they are made by brembo, at least in the front. They are doing nothing different or inovative on how they mount or operate the brake. The difference is the amount of electric assist and the HOLD feature when you stop. Do we know if the rear have an inner drum type parking brake like everyone else uses?

 

[Killer95Stang]

Do the rear brake calipers have boots to keep the pins greased? Wife took the R1 to work, so I can't go and check. I know that the Wilwood 6 piston calipers I had on my Mustang had no boots over the pins, so I had to grease them every time I changed pads. Since then they started offering them both ways...

 

[IGR]

The high end brakes on an R1 aren't made by Rivian... most likely they are made by brembo, at least in the front. They are doing nothing different or inovative on how they mount or operate the brake. The difference is the amount of electric assist and the HOLD feature when you stop. Do we know if the rear have an inner drum type parking brake like everyone else uses?

Parking break is engaged by electric actuator on the caliper itself, you could see wires coming off.
There might be an issue with how it disengages, that's the part I don't know about.

 

[Killer95Stang]

Parking break is engaged by electric actuator on the caliper itself, you could see wires coming off.
There might be an issue with how it disengages, that's the part I don't know about.

Also, because I don't know. Does the HOLD feature even use the brakes when engaged at a stop light, or is it using the motor to hold the vehicle in place? When you put the vehicle in Park, you can definitely feel the brakes clamping down.

 

[IGR]

Also, because I don't know. Does the HOLD feature even use the brakes when engaged at a stop light, or is it using the motor to hold the vehicle in place? When you put the vehicle in Park, you can definitely feel the brakes clamping down.

I'm pretty sure it is using ABS pump to apply regular breaks when "on hold".
Just like "line hold" feature on Dodge cars when you do a burnout.

here is a pic of rear caliper btw

 

[Wing]

Rivian Tech told me the official statement from Rivian is that there is no maintenance required on the brakes.

But said between us... Try need to be serviced yearly at minimum.

 

[TheIglu]

My rear rotors are somewhat corroded. Brought this up to the tech, said it's because they don't get used much.

As someone who does all work on my vehicles myself, I know this to be mostly true.

My wife's brand new CRV needed to rear pads/rotors at 38k (JUST out of warranty) due to stuck calipers. That's what living in New England gets you. Plus the brake proportioning valve doesn't give as much pressure to the rears (by design) under heavy braking, so they just don't get used much.

When it's time, I'll just replace the pads/rotors myself. It's a 15 minute job per side. Just hope there is a way to release the parking brake in the software so I can manually retract the piston.

 

[Killer95Stang]

Rivian Tech told me the official statement from Rivian is that there is no maintenance required on the brakes.

But said between us... Try need to be serviced yearly at minimum.

After looking at the rear caliper, I realized it was very similar to the stock brakes on Mustang. I did a search on uneven pad wear and hundreds of posts about one inner pad wearing out prematurely came up. Most of them had to do with a caliper pin seizing up, due to lack of lubrication. Some call it a bad design, while others just said you are supposed to inspect your brakes more often, like at every tire rotation. The part of about this problem being soley a Rivian issue is just not true. Almost all rear passenger car rear discs share the single piston rear caliper design.

 

[Wing]

Yup I do my brakes every tire change. Remove pins clear and grease them.

Antisieze on the front pins too

 

[Killer95Stang]

My rear rotors are somewhat corroded. Brought this up to the tech, said it's because they don't get used much.

As someone who does all work on my vehicles myself, I know this to be mostly true.

My wife's brand new CRV needed to rear pads/rotors at 38k (JUST out of warranty) due to stuck calipers. That's what living in New England gets you. Plus the brake proportioning valve doesn't give as much pressure to the rears (by design) under heavy braking, so they just don't get used much.

When it's time, I'll just replace the pads/rotors myself. It's a 15 minute job per side. Just hope there is a way to release the parking brake in the software so I can manually retract the piston.

Might need this tool... If you do it with the settings software, it only releases the parking brake for something like 2 minutes. Not sure if it will push the piston all the way out when it try to re-engage with the caliper not attached to the rotor.

https://rivianservicetools.com/Catalog/Product/TSN00547-300-A?groupId=6

 

[Kidentist]

Interesting thread!!
I agree (for the most part) that wear items are an expense with any vehicle you own. I am more curious though as to what the costs of "maintenance" would be for some of these vehicles after 4, 5 or more years or once the factory warranty has expired. As an owner of several German vehicles, I know the "pain" that this carries ($$$).
Another question is: Will the service centers be prepared to deal with the increased "demand" when this happens??? Just one of many reasons why I chose to lease, rather than "buy".
Oh yeah....and NO, no news on my car yet........waiting to hear from the Portland SC......

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