PSA: You Probably Don’t Need to Pay for Tesla’s Brake Burnishing Service

Regenerative braking is one of our favorite aspects of EV driving. With brake regen, you simply lift off the accelerator and the vehicle begins to slow, in some cars to a complete stop.

That’s because of how electric motors work, where magnetic resistance within causes a drag effect. Thanks to regen, kinetic energy an EV carries after acceleration becomes deceleration that creates an electric charge sent back into the battery as the motor essentially works in reverse. It’s convenient, efficient, and enjoyable once you get used to it.

Of course, your EV still has physical brakes containing pads and rotors—and that’s where some complications arise.

EV Regen Is Great, Until …

After 26,000 miles, our 2023 Tesla Model Y long-term review vehicle needed new tires and alignment, so we booked a service appointment through the Tesla app. While waiting at the service center, we overheard other customers telling Tesla’s advisers about their cars’ squeaky, noisy brakes.

The advisers’ suggested remedy? A brake burnishing service to the tune of about $250. We’re here to tell you that’s something you almost certainly don’t need, at least not without trying a few super-simple steps yourself first. Literally, just use the brakes.

Tesla’s brake regen is strong enough to provide complete deceleration in normal driving. With that, the physical brakes can go unused for long periods, allowing a layer of rust and other contaminants to build up on the friction surfaces. This reduces their efficacy and might cause noises like squeaking or squealing.

This doesn’t often occur on gas-powered cars, because those rely on their friction brakes for deceleration. Accordingly, through normal use frequent contact between pads and rotors scrapes away contaminants and corrosion.

Maybe you’re starting to sense a correlation from this to your EV’s brakes. If not, we’ll make it clear again: Use your brakes.

In all EVs, regen has a capacity that can be exceeded by some deceleration requirements. When that happens, you press the brake pedal and the physical brakes take over to slow the car; friction brakes have the capacity to provide much more stopping power than regen.

With this knowledge, you can attempt to remedy brake noises before you pay Tesla for burnishing. You burnish them yourself by braking beyond the regen capacity and activating the physical brakes.

Note that these considerations apply to all EVs that provide deceleration through regen, not only Tesla vehicles.

How to Burnish Your Tesla’s Brakes

Simply put, getting the physical brakes working on a semi-regular basis should keep them clean and squeak-free, so find safe, polite ways to integrate that into your driving routine. However, if you’re (rightfully) so reliant on regen for deceleration that your brakes have gone unused, there’s a better procedure to follow.

Tesla even spells it out as a “DIY” procedure on its website, adding confusion to why our local service center’s advisers were quick to tell customers a billable service was needed.

According to Tesla, the steps to burnish the brakes are to find a safe, spacious area with minimal traffic, then:

1. Drive the vehicle at approximately 50–55 mph on a straight road.
2. Apply moderate, consistent pressure to the brake pedal to slowly decelerate the vehicle, releasing at 10 mph.
3. Repeat this procedure six times, waiting at least 30 seconds between applications.

Drivers with a little technical aptitude can enter their Tesla’s semi-secret service mode to find an app built to aid proper brake burnishing. Through that, regen can be temporarily disabled so that only the physical brakes are used to decelerate, getting the pads pushed against the rotors sooner. To do this:

1. Park the car.
2. Go to “Software” on the touchscreen.
3. Activate service mode by pressing and holding on “Model” under the image of your car.
4. Enter “service” as the password.
5. Find the chassis settings, then the brake burnishing option.

From there, follow the on-screen instructions, using the helpful bar graphs for speed and brake pressure to ensure you’re burnishing optimally.

If you attempt these methods and your brakes still make noise, book an appointment for service. There are scenarios where these won’t help, such as deep contamination or wear from frequent brake use (some brake pad wear indicators are designed to squeak), and hardware might need replacement.

Braking the Cycle

Tesla’s dealership-free direct sales approach is predicated on improving the customer experience. After all, in a 2012 blog post Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote, “We must be able to create and execute a business model that allows us to advance the knowledge of EVs in a convenient, accessible, no pressure environment.”

Quite odd it is, then, that the company’s service advisers evidently use tactics that obfuscate the unique attributes of EVs. Rather than educate customers on why their brakes might be noisy, we observed these advisers go directly to a disingenuous sales approach you’d expect from an old-school smarmy stealership.

Our Tesla service experience has been positive, with easy scheduling and payment through the Tesla app and friendly, communicative assistance from staff at the location. But our reasons for visiting (a cracked windshield and wheel vibration at highway speeds) were obvious problems that any driver would know need resolution. It seems that for issues requiring a more detailed understanding of how EVs work, Tesla drivers should do independent research before forking over any money.

That’s why we felt this topic was worthy of a story—don’t pay Tesla to burnish your brakes before you try the advice above yourself. Hopefully we save you a few bucks.

For More on Our Long-Term 2023 Tesla Model Y Long Range: