Seized rear calipers - Rivian stuck me with the bill

[White Shadow]

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

That's something that I wondered about----since EVs generally don't use their brakes very often, how that might contribute to issues over time. Seized caliper pistons, those sort of things...

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[Nix]

I had to pay for labor, pads, and rotors for mine as they were so bad they had damaged the rotors. Very common issue in the northeast. Unfortunately they are not covering this (or variably so from some peoples experience) and the only preventative action they offered was for me to pressure wash the wheel wells once a month. Agree this should not be happening on a vehicle where the breaks are rarely used.

It sounds like they are trying to clean salt and dirt out of the brakes to slow corrosion.

Ironically, the is would actually be less of an issue on vehicles where the brakes are used MORE often. Consistent daily multiple braking events will wipe salt and dirt from the areas that slide to reduce future corrosion. It will also polish the corrosion off the area that is sliding before it can get sticky.

Braking will also heat up the brakes and drive out moisture and give the brakes a chance to dry if the vehicle is parked somewhere dry (or at least relatively dryer).

 

[doit82]

It sounds like they are trying to clean salt and dirt out of the brakes to slow corrosion.

Ironically, the is would actually be less of an issue on vehicles where the brakes are used MORE often. Consistent daily multiple braking events will wipe salt and dirt from the areas that slide to reduce future corrosion. It will also polish the corrosion off the area that is sliding before it can get sticky.

Braking will also heat up the brakes and drive out moisture and give the brakes a chance to dry if the vehicle is parked somewhere dry (or at least relatively dryer).

very true. And this issue also affects the rotors which tend to accumulate rust from the salted roads and little brake use. I think I will be turning off brake assist and using snow mode a lot more in the winter to reduce constant minor braking and increase instances of hard braking to knock off the salt and rust. Guess I will see how it goes on my new Mac pack compared to the quad.

 

[Treebeard]

I have a early VIN 2022 R1T Launch Edition with about 35,000 miles on it.

After noticing some squeaking that sounded like the brake pad wear indicator, I had a mobile service technician pay me a visit. He removed the rear wheel and confirmed that the inner brake pad had less than 2mm left on both rear wheels. The outer pads had 8mm each. They should wear at the same rate.

The service center determined that the rear calipers were not floating as they should and said they would grease the caliper (not sure where). They cited the fact that the emergency brake uses the inner pad as the source of the uneven wear.

They recommended four sets of brake pads and four new rotors. After a lengthy discussion, I had them remove the rotors from the work order since the only reason they gave for trashing four good rotors was "they might squeak with new pads". I never asked about the front pads because the rep kept misquoting the work order, saying I needed four new calipers, which confused things quite a bit.

So I'm not too happy about buying four sets of pads because of a design or assembly flaw (either the e-brake eats inner pads or they should've greased the rear calipers when they assembled the truck.) They also gave no guarantee that greasing the calipers would prevent this in the future.

I thought I'd share with the forum in case this information helps anyone else. This is the first time that Rivian has left me with the bill for one of their design or assembly flaws and I hope it's not the start of a trend.

They told me to start using my breaks. I was like what is high regen for then? So I use low regen and still barely use my breaks.

 

[jwardell]

I have a early VIN 2022 R1T Launch Edition with about 35,000 miles on it.

After noticing some squeaking that sounded like the brake pad wear indicator, I had a mobile service technician pay me a visit. He removed the rear wheel and confirmed that the inner brake pad had less than 2mm left on both rear wheels. The outer pads had 8mm each. They should wear at the same rate.

The service center determined that the rear calipers were not floating as they should and said they would grease the caliper (not sure where). They cited the fact that the emergency brake uses the inner pad as the source of the uneven wear.

They recommended four sets of brake pads and four new rotors. After a lengthy discussion, I had them remove the rotors from the work order since the only reason they gave for trashing four good rotors was "they might squeak with new pads". I never asked about the front pads because the rep kept misquoting the work order, saying I needed four new calipers, which confused things quite a bit.

So I'm not too happy about buying four sets of pads because of a design or assembly flaw (either the e-brake eats inner pads or they should've greased the rear calipers when they assembled the truck.) They also gave no guarantee that greasing the calipers would prevent this in the future.

I thought I'd share with the forum in case this information helps anyone else. This is the first time that Rivian has left me with the bill for one of their design or assembly flaws and I hope it's not the start of a trend.

For the record, I had pretty much the same thing. Rear wheels screeching on and off like a junker driving around. Checked outer pads with wheels removed and they looked nearly a CM, so told service to see what was up. They said my inner pads measured 1mm, and I had to pay to replace all four discs and pads. I make it a point to use brakes as little as possible. This is at 41k mi.

We need published brake replacement procedures and aftermarket options, I would not complain as much if this is a few hundred dollars I can do in my own garage, as opposed to driving 3 states away to rivian, who sit on it for 3 weeks, and charged over a grand.

 

[jwardell]

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

Antisieze on the front pins too

Can you provide a little instruction and photos for that? I'll start doing the same

 

[HyperionMark]

If this is standard on these things that is ridiculous. EVs should go hundreds of thousands of miles without brake issues if used normally (not trailering or driving over aggressively). Little has wanted to make me want to get rid of my R1T, but this might.

 

[Wing]

Can you provide a little instruction and photos for that? I'll start doing the same

The front is easy there are 2 pins you just bang them out with a punch and add some anti seize to them and put them back in.

For the rears you can check YouTube for any video where they explain a floating caliper which is like 90% or more of cars.

Essentially you unbolt the two bolts remove pins, clean the old gunked up grease off and then add fresh brake lube. Do not put anti seize on these.

Sometimes you also need to remove the pads and clean the brake gunk from the clips if the pads are stuck.

 

[Riviaenz]

So, that is not entirely true anymore. I noticed squeaking on my R1S when on a long gradual downhill stretch. I called to ask why since so far as I knew it was exclusively using regen. Not so much. Apparently when you regen for long enough or hard enough, the breaks engage in their own. I suspect this was a change made to reduce how often regen gets dialed back which used to happen all the time for me and basically never happens anymore. I confirmed with service that brakes are engaging on regen without the brake pedal being used and even if gradual speed reduction situations. This was never disclosed to my knowledge, regen just got better after an update and no one questioned it. This might be why emergency braking is seeing excessive wear.

It’s a feature that was added 2 versions ago. It’s also got a toggle in the Settings app to disable it if you don’t like it. I keep mine disabled. It’s “Regen Brake Assist“ I believe.

 

[iansriv]

One of the reason for getting an electric vs ICE vehicle is low maintenance costs. Don’t know every one’s situation, but I have owned multiple teslas with over 100k and never replaced the brakes. I just use high regen on all, including my R1t. Part of learning curves is to anticipate your stop and have the vehicle do the stopping for you. I don’t use brake assistance, and my brake pads are like new. Almost 30k on the vehicle. (I don’t drag race between stop lights, and slam the brakes )

Good advice. Do you think weight has to do anything with it. Just to clarify-weight of vehicle and not driver.

 

[Fencer]

You can use neutral but that is a 15 min timer. But honestly should be enough time...

How do you engage neutral and not being in the vehicle? It goes to park in less than a minute.

 

[Wing]

Under service tow mode. Although I think if you have someone sit inside you could do it the normal way. Haven't tried yet.

 

[Fencer]

I missed that thanks. You are right if someone in the car the neutral stays as long as you want. Well, tested for 35 minutes for sure

PS; any recommendation on pads brand/vendor? I ordered some from eBay now having a second thought.

 

[Wing]

Rockauto has some listings but mine is too new to need anything yet.

 

[eskudo12791]

Rockauto has some listings but mine is too new to need anything yet.

I have 22,655 miles and get some squeaking sometimes when letting off the accelerator, now that I turned off the braking option in driver+ it seems to have stopped so I suspect I may have a caliper acting up and has killed a pad early.

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