Did I really need front brakes that Toyota recommended?

Toyota lies about everything,damn shame the Dealerships rip people off every chance they get.Do your own checking next time,and like you are doing,do your own oil/brake changes.

 

always a good idea to pull off a tire once in while to see the condition of the pads and calipers before relying on other to check them

 

What do the rest of the pads look like?

 

I just had my calipers replaced under my extended warranty. Pedal felt really soft so I thought I just need a brake fluid flush/bleed, but they said I needed new calipers. Which was fine by me since it was covered under the extended warranty.

 

I thought the same thing that maybe they were wearing uneven from divers side to passenger but the other side had about the same amount of padding left on it

 

Best thing to do if you can't do the work yourself is to find a local shop you can trust. Although this is getting harder and harder to find. Word of mouth is best way to find one.
They want your business and are less likely to rip you off, they want you to come back. Dealers generally and for the most part don't care about you.

 

Just have to find one in the Sarasota area and I’m all for it.

 

It’s not just Toyota. They all do it. Honda got me for $1700 this past February for a VSA module. Said I couldn’t do it myself as it requires something to be calibrated with the computer. Found out recently, that was 100% BS, and I could’ve done it myself for about $250 total.

Jeep dealer wanted $1100 to replace the rear main seal in my kids ‘02 Liberty...which is pretty labor intensive, so probably wasn’t too far out of line for the actual work. However, changed the oil in it with Castrol Synthetic High-Mileage...and the leak stopped. Same dealer has nailed my wife and kid for $350 several times to ‘diagnose’ and replace a spark plug coil pack, that costs $27 and takes 5 mins to replace. I was actually home the last time it happened, so I was able to replace the #4 coil pack myself.

 

If all the pads pads look like that, you should name the dealer. That's more like 80% life left.

 

Fyi, to be on the side of caution due to liability reasons, we (as a dealer) start recommending wear and safety items at/near the 50% mark.

 

The dealer that I went to was Gettle Toyota of Lakewood in Bradenton Florida. ‍SMH

 

States with inspections will fail anything less than 3mm. May even be 04 or 5mm in some states. I know Texas is 3mm.

 

thanks for the heads up

 

Definitely seems like I was on the higher spectrum of that.

For what it is I sent an email to the service manager and left a google review.

 

Just eyeballing it, I would say youre real close to 5mm. If I were the tech/advisor I would have suggested new brakes but let you know they werent currently required. Usually using it for a primer for the next service when you actually need them so youre not blindsided by needing brakes. Its a fine line to dance between upsetting a customer by trying to sell them something they dont "need" or knocking them in the head on the next visit when you dont want to let the car go without the repair. Id say the issue was probably with the delivery of the issue to you by the advisor.

 

Curious if they will reply and what their 'justification' is

 

Understood. I would’ve been completely fine with all that if they said it that way, but the way it sounded was the brakes were a lot lower than what they actually were. The advisor told me they were around 4mm pushing closer to 3 mm.

 

What do they measure out at?

 

I want to say 5-5.5mm

 

Sorry but anyone who would suggest those are even remotely close to needing replacements is a thief. That groove is there for a reason, as a visual reference so you can take off wheel and SEE if they're getting close to worn out. Once its down to that groove, you should look into getting brakes. Not before. Performance is not degraded at all until it makes sparks. No matter what any tech tells you.