babalegba
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
During my recent tire rotation at a local tire shop, the technician informed me that there was some abnormal brake pad wear on one of my front wheels. I normally replace pads on rotors on previous vehicles myself, but there wasnt much info on Rivian vehicles, so i thought to let Rivian take care of this one.
I had an appointment already scheduled, so i was able to add this work items to that upcoming service. The estimate however seemed high to me at ~$800. To be fair - Rivian was going to replace both pads and rotors on the two front wheels, and since these were Brembos, perhaps the cost aint so bad. But with ~56k miles in about 2 years, i figured warranty is about wrapping up, and i should start gearing up to do such maintenance myself (as i have done with previous vehicles).
If you have done Brembo brake pad replacements before, this is pretty standard. Needed a few items:
Here's the inner pad from the front-right wheel. Not terrible, but there was a lot of gunk build-up, right into the grooves (which is why it might look worn down badly). Weird.
Old pad set (left) vs new pad set (right). Inner pad had definitely worn down quite a bit (vs outer pad). No gunk on the outers, their grooves were clear, and lots of material left.
Cleaned up the pins with a wire wheel. Cleaned-one on left, yet-to-clean on right.
This is the first time the wheel's coming off in my garage, so might as well clean up the calipers.
Wheel back on. Shoutout to AW. Love the wheels...they could do with some cleaning though...whatever...ok...i digressed...
I figured someone might want to know the OEM Brembo Pad Part Number:
Overall, took me a little over an hour, but i do these things very leisurely.
FINAL NOTES
Hope this helps someone.
I had an appointment already scheduled, so i was able to add this work items to that upcoming service. The estimate however seemed high to me at ~$800. To be fair - Rivian was going to replace both pads and rotors on the two front wheels, and since these were Brembos, perhaps the cost aint so bad. But with ~56k miles in about 2 years, i figured warranty is about wrapping up, and i should start gearing up to do such maintenance myself (as i have done with previous vehicles).
If you have done Brembo brake pad replacements before, this is pretty standard. Needed a few items:
- Jack pucks. Already had these lying around for about a year, so i didnt have to purchase for this maintenance.
- Jack Stands. Already had some in the garage, so didnt buy new ones.
- Jack. My old jack in the garage definitely wont handle the Rivian height. Wasnt about to do some trial and error, so i bought this one from Harbor Freight. Its a 3-ton offroad jack with a max height of about 29 inches. Definitely got the job done. ~$320 but i got it about $60 off with my membership.
- Brake Pads. I believe R1 has some pads, but eventually just picked these from my local O'reilly's. ~$65.
Here's the inner pad from the front-right wheel. Not terrible, but there was a lot of gunk build-up, right into the grooves (which is why it might look worn down badly). Weird.
Old pad set (left) vs new pad set (right). Inner pad had definitely worn down quite a bit (vs outer pad). No gunk on the outers, their grooves were clear, and lots of material left.
Cleaned up the pins with a wire wheel. Cleaned-one on left, yet-to-clean on right.
This is the first time the wheel's coming off in my garage, so might as well clean up the calipers.
Wheel back on. Shoutout to AW. Love the wheels...they could do with some cleaning though...whatever...ok...i digressed...
I figured someone might want to know the OEM Brembo Pad Part Number:
Overall, took me a little over an hour, but i do these things very leisurely.
FINAL NOTES
- Rotors were in very good shape, so i went ahead and completed the job myself
- Inner pad gunk buildup was on both wheels. Not sure whats going on there. Perhaps they had been lubed too much from factory?
- I'd always felt my actual brakes could be grippier. Perhaps this is why they didnt feel as grippy?
- This one is important - Inner pads didnt have the wear indicators, but outer ones did. Thought this was weird. All replacement pads had wear indicators, but i quickly figured out why the original inners didnt have them - the pads dont fit with the wear indicators on. You face an issue while trying to slide the pins back on. So i had to snip the wear indicators off the new ones as well. Lesson here is - keep an eye on your pads, otherwise you'll destroy the rotors, and will therefore need to replace those as well
- Based on the point above, i might just replace the rear pads over the next few weeks as well (even though the tire shop said they're still decent). Who knows - there might also be some gunk buildup on the inners as well.
- I drive with High Regen, and i believe that uses the friction brakes a bit more
Hope this helps someone.
Sponsored