Sienna brake job?

In their mind, you will hear the scraping before the next oil change, so get them changed now.

Also the chirping sometimes is not heard as a chirp. You may not recognize the noise when it is happening.

You have to trust your dealer on the need for brakes.

I had one lousy experience with a Toyota dealership's service department and no longer use them. All the others have been fine and seem excellent. If you suspect it's baloney ask them for the mm pad thickness and how many miles that approximates on average or % of wear. If your next scheduled service is beyond that mileage maybe you can bring it in early for the change.

My guess is the dealer was needing some extra shop work. Same thing happened to me Thursday when I brought my '04 Highlander in for oil and filter. Rep says, "Front pads are down to 3 millimeters!" (Lemmie see: 1mm= about .040", 3mm= about .120", that's almost 1/8", lots of pad left.) Me, "I'll wait 'till I hear the squeal springs, okay?" Rep, "(silence...)"

I'm posting more on this visit in a few minutes under another subject.

Ed Maier Arlington, TX

I AM NOT HERE TO BRAND YOUR DEALERSHIP AS LOUSY OR LIARS, But my daughter had a Tacoma PreRunner that she took for some manner of service not long after she bought it as a Used Car. In any event, they told her that she needed front brakes, she declined and bought new pads on the way home because she knows how to put them on. They told told her there was small percentage of material remaining, and since I do this sort of stuff for myself, and my kid knows how to do it she needs to, then it was no big deal.

I took the pads off, and the material remaining was somewhere above half -- if the new pads have 11mm of material, the "worn" pads had 7mm remaining. So, considering that some dealer techs work on commission, selling a brake job early is not an unheard-of practice.

The ONLY way to tell is to take the tires off and look for yourself. Without regard to your driving habits, it seems to me that 35k miles is a bit early to be needing brakes.

Hi, At age 83, I am not a jackrabbit driver,and try to gently brake when I see a red light or traffic problem ahead of me. I am not hard on brakes.Remember that the Sienna is a heavy vehicle with much of the weight in the front. Some years ago I had a Dodge Caravan which needed new front rotors every 25 K. One should not take chances with brakes.

Again, the point of my response is that 35K miles are not too soon for brakes to need fixing.

Drive carefully.

Mort