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Brake Weight Compensator - Gs300 Sport (series 2)


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:duh:

I am experiencing exceptional brake pad wear on the rears of my GS300 Sport (Series 2). Checks have confirmed that the calipers are not seized or sticking nor is there any fault with them (either rears or fronts). My local (and very helpful) Toyota dealer has suggested the possibility of a fault with the "brake weight compensator", but they don't have the capability to fix it.

I am trying to avoid going to Lexus Wolverhampton without some advance knowledge of what needs to be done.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Fast Lemon

:duh:

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:duh:

I am experiencing exceptional brake pad wear on the rears of my GS300 Sport (Series 2). Checks have confirmed that the calipers are not seized or sticking nor is there any fault with them (either rears or fronts). My local (and very helpful) Toyota dealer has suggested the possibility of a fault with the "brake weight compensator", but they don't have the capability to fix it.

I am trying to avoid going to Lexus Wolverhampton without some advance knowledge of what needs to be done.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Fast Lemon

:duh:

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can you please explain what exceptional means? how many miles before they wear out?

Hi Maneesh

Thanks for your reply. By exceptional I mean that the rear pads were totally worn out before the fronts were even over 50% used !!!

In terms of mileage, I can only guess but it would probably be around 15,000 to 18,000 miles. I am still using the same front pads (they are still ok) and my mileage since they were new (at the same point as the original rears) is now circa 25,000 miles.

I just had a chat with a helpful chap at the Lexus Contact Centre. He tells me, on advice from Lexus Technical, that there is no brake weight compensator fitted on the GS300 Sport - so it's down to the traction control. His recommendation - take it to the Lexus service people. I.e., just what I'm trying to avoid !!!

:tomato:

Regards,

FastLemon

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can you please explain what exceptional means? how many miles before they wear out?

Hi Maneesh

Thanks for your reply. By exceptional I mean that the rear pads were totally worn out before the fronts were even over 50% used !!!

In terms of mileage, I can only guess but it would probably be around 15,000 to 18,000 miles. I am still using the same front pads (they are still ok) and my mileage since they were new (at the same point as the original rears) is now circa 25,000 miles.

I just had a chat with a helpful chap at the Lexus Contact Centre. He tells me, on advice from Lexus Technical, that there is no brake weight compensator fitted on the GS300 Sport - so it's down to the traction control. His recommendation - take it to the Lexus service people. I.e., just what I'm trying to avoid !!!

:tomato:

Regards,

FastLemon

The old Ford Scorpio's wouls always wear out the rear pads before the fronts, and always the outer pad without the wear indicator first :tsktsk:

Can you turn off the traction control ? If you don't drive the car too hard do you need it ?

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can you please explain what exceptional means? how many miles before they wear out?

Hi Maneesh

Thanks for your reply. By exceptional I mean that the rear pads were totally worn out before the fronts were even over 50% used !!!

In terms of mileage, I can only guess but it would probably be around 15,000 to 18,000 miles. I am still using the same front pads (they are still ok) and my mileage since they were new (at the same point as the original rears) is now circa 25,000 miles.

I just had a chat with a helpful chap at the Lexus Contact Centre. He tells me, on advice from Lexus Technical, that there is no brake weight compensator fitted on the GS300 Sport - so it's down to the traction control. His recommendation - take it to the Lexus service people. I.e., just what I'm trying to avoid !!!

:tomato:

Regards,

FastLemon

The old Ford Scorpio's wouls always wear out the rear pads before the fronts, and always the outer pad without the wear indicator first :tsktsk:

Can you turn off the traction control ? If you don't drive the car too hard do you need it ?

Although I do drive quite hard, I can turn off the VSC (traction control) but would prefer not to as, during the recent extreme snow / ice conditions of 9th Feb, it worked fantastically well when all others around me were falling by the wayside and parking their cars. Can you tell me what you think switching it off might achieve?

Thanks again.

Regards

FastLemon

:blink:

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I'm not sure turning off VSC would achieve anything really. The Lexus GS is a large, heavy car with wide tyres, so there is lots of grip available at the rear that the braking system can use. Combined that with the ABS to allow as much braking effort as possible before skidding, and you have a recipe for worn brake pads.

With compensator systems the rear of the car does very little braking, as only a certain amount of hydraulic pressure is allowed through to the rear calipers to avoid skidding in poor conditions. So this newer method provides more even braking on all four wheels, but still without the risk of skids.

At least rear pads are quite cheap (look for Mintex ones on ebay) and you can fit them yourself fairly easily.

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  • 1 month later...
I'm not sure turning off VSC would achieve anything really. The Lexus GS is a large, heavy car with wide tyres, so there is lots of grip available at the rear that the braking system can use. Combined that with the ABS to allow as much braking effort as possible before skidding, and you have a recipe for worn brake pads.

With compensator systems the rear of the car does very little braking, as only a certain amount of hydraulic pressure is allowed through to the rear calipers to avoid skidding in poor conditions. So this newer method provides more even braking on all four wheels, but still without the risk of skids.

At least rear pads are quite cheap (look for Mintex ones on ebay) and you can fit them yourself fairly easily.

Hi Mike

Thanks for your reply and apologies for the delay in responding. I've been out of the country with only sporadic access to the internet, etc.

I reckon you're right and it's simply using the weight of the car and consequently more bias to the rear brakes. I'll just have to make sure that I check the pad state more often.

As you say, the rear pads are relatively cheap. :huh:

Thanks for the advice.

Cheers... Fast Lemon

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