Tacoma brakes

[asteffes]

Excellent point.

Regarding brake performance, I am looking to the calipers to get me shorter stopping distances, and brake pad quality to help reduce fading...

I am going to start researching this in earnest in January.

Scott,

Pad choice will have the largest impact on your stopping distance and fade resistence. You could put Axxis Ultimates inside a set of Stoptech calipers and experience extreme fade problems. Install Carbotechs or Pagid pads and those problems will disappear. I think it's great that our trucks come with four piston calipers, and would look for better pads before changing the calipers out.

 

[asteffes]

I've also heard of many cracking problems with cross-drilled rotors, but none with slotted. You'll note you don't see cross-drilled rotors on Porsches or Ferraris--certainly not because they can't afford them.

Actually, you do see cross-drilled rotors on both of those makes, but it's more for marketing reasons than to improve the brake performance. People just seem to associate drilled rotors with racing or performance, and the car companies capitalize on that. Stoptech reccommends *against* drilled rotors for real performance applications, opting for slotted rotors as standard faire for their big brake kits. AP Racing does the same.

 

[Scott Brady]

Excellent feedback Adam, thank you!

I will start to investigate the companies you mentioned. :beer:

 

[asteffes]

Not the Tacoma. When you apply your parking brake it adjusts your rear brakes. I tried using the parking brake when travelling in reverse to adjust your rear brakes and it only cause me to have the rear brakes lock up before the front ones. Not good. I had to manually re-adjust the rear brakes.



I wish that had the same luck! I also have a manual tranny but have not had too good a luck with the Taco brakes. Here is the breakdown:

119K - New passenger side caliper, front rotors (cheap ones, mistake) and brake pads
127K - New driver side caliper
132K - Replaced passenger side caliper again and front brake pads because one piston was seized.
150K - New Brembo OEM solid rotors since the cheap one installed at 119K were badly warped also installed ceramic brake pads. Much much better performance over all.

Everyone had their opinion, but I like the performance of the Brembo solid rotors combined with the ceramic pads. Their dowside is that the pads sometimes squeal and make lots of brake dust but I can live with it.

Interesting that you've gone through so many calipers. I assume these calipers saw frequent off-road use. If so, they'll require more frequent and careful cleaning and possibly servicing with new seals now and then.

 

[Suty]

Adam is the Brake King, I only wished I had seen this before buying my Drilled / Slotted Rotors.....Damn ,I bought into the hype, Drilled = Performance. Silly Suty Slots are for Keeps......Tu Compa, Suty PS. Adam keep up the good work.

 

[asteffes]

Adam is the Brake King, I only wished I had seen this before buying my Drilled / Slotted Rotors.....Damn ,I bought into the hype, Drilled = Performance. Silly Suty Slots are for Keeps......Tu Compa, Suty PS. Adam keep up the good work.

I don't know about King, but I do have some experience with brake systems on track-driven vehicles, which is a pretty good testing ground. I'm new to Toyotas, but I think a lot of brake-related knowledge transfers over.

 

[p1michaud]

Lots of mud, water and salt

Interesting that you've gone through so many calipers. I assume these calipers saw frequent off-road use. If so, they'll require more frequent and careful cleaning and possibly servicing with new seals now and then.

asteffes,
You are correct, in this part of Canada your brakes and whole truck for that matter gets exposed to lots of mud and water if you use it off road as well as nasty road salt and sea salt if you live near the ocean (I do).

My plan is to have two complete sets of calipers, that way I can just rebuild them and swap them out as required. It's expensive but otherwise I'd have to take the front brakes apart to clean everything up and make sure the piston seals are in good shape each time I come back from off roading. Not real interesting option. I do try and hose off most of the mud without removing the wheels after an outing though.

I have found that the rear brakes are not as prone to these problems. Even with lots of mud and water, they remain relatively clean.

Thanks for the info!

Cheers :beer:,
P

 

[riverguide]

Think you've got bad brakes....ride in my 4runner. :smileeek: It always seems to stop when I really need to, otherwise forget about it. I'm still paying off a brake job gone wrong from 2 yrs ago. Unreal.

 

[asteffes]

Think you've got bad brakes....ride in my 4runner. :smileeek: It always seems to stop when I really need to, otherwise forget about it. I'm still paying off a brake job gone wrong from 2 yrs ago. Unreal.

Can you share some details of what went wrong? Perhaps we'll have some advice, or we'll learn a lesson from your experience.

 

[dmc]

un-safe fix?

http://www.stoptech.com/ Has some excellent information on the correct method for bedding in new brake pads to ensure long life and optimal performance.

This may not be the best solution but it worked for me so I think I'll share it. I put over 110k hard miles on my Taco before I sold it and never had any braking issues. However, when I exchanged the Taco for my 80 the front brakes has a serious shimmy to them. I was aware of the glazing issue and thought I'd experiment, at the suggestion of a friend, with burning the glaze off. The reason I say it might not be the best solution is that it isn't the safest way to do it. But it worked.

I purchased the 100 series front pads for my 80 and put them on the shelf in the garage. I then drove up the canyon to a quiet desolate road just east of Salt Lake City. I then used the bedding method stoptech recommends using my existing worn pads. I did it up and down the canyon until I had completed almost 25 0-50/50-0 cycles. As i'm sure you an imagine I had NO brakes at this time. I'm sure my fluid was boiling, my pads were gone BUT after I drove down the canyon in 4low to prevent using the brakes, my glaze and therefore shimmy were gone. I went home, threw the new pads on the truck and I've had no problems with a shimmy since. I'm only into the new pads about 7k miles but so far so good.
dmc

 

[Jonathan Hanson]

Wow! Drastic but interesting solution.

 

[dmc]

it worked. :clapsmile cleaned the glaze right off the rotors. my pads were shot anyway so I figured it was worth the try. i don't recommend everyone do it but if you are due for new pads it might be worth trying. I should add that I also properly bedded the new pads after install as well.
dmc

 

[riverguide]

Can you share some details of what went wrong? Perhaps we'll have some advice, or we'll learn a lesson from your experience.

well this was back in 03 and I had just got back from a river trip. I hadnt driven my truck in a week so it felt weird. Anyways, I just thought it was me that though it. Ended up my brakes were completely gone. I was driving my truck all over town and I kept smelling that burning hot metal smell...ya know the kind of smell that comes from new engines...or burning brakes. Well I finally took the truck in and they completely ripped me off. Labor at 75 an hour and then plus all the mess up they did. New rotors front, drums in the rear, new pads..then they didnt adjust the brakes right and they said I needed a new master cylinder, well there is 400 bucks, plus labor(keep in mind this is when I didnt do any work on the truck). So that is like 1500 bucks right there...Then they said I needed a new Brake proportioning valve...another 300 or so. It spent probably 2 weeks off and on in the shop. By the time I got all that fixed, the next day the battery was dead. That was 70 bucks or whatever. So I say I am still paying it off meaning it really screwed me at the time because of how much it cost compared to how much I was worth(only being 21 at the time). Had to write an enormous check for something that was just obsurd...needless to say they don't do brake work anymore, at least on my truck.

 

[calamaridog]

Just wanted to add my .02, for what it is worth.

I had a 2001 Tacoma. The brakes were never good, but they improved quite a bit with a good aftermarket pad.

I used the Performance Friction pads, which were the same make as the TuRD without the price.

I couldn't be happier with the brakes in the UZJ100. They front and rear discs are huge and the calipers are very good. I switched over to SP slotted rotors and Hawk pads for the front brakes. I'm always amazed how quickly this big beast comes to a stop.

I would say the brakes on the Land Cruiser stop better than the Taco ever did, but this is a subjective statement.

http://www.raceshopper.com/index.shtml

These guys have a nice selection of products. The SP brand rotors are very good and Hawk pads are amonst the best. Not positive if they are offered for the Tacoma or not.

My friend's father recommended these products to me. He runs them on all 3 of his road racing cars with great results. He also runs them on his tow vehicle.

Slotted rotors are an acceptable improvement on a heavy vehicle but crossed drilled is not recommended on heavy vehicles by most reputable rotor mfg.

 

[Brian McVickers]

I have a Land Rover Discovery II, so not completely relevant to the Taco topic at hand but earlier this year I needed new pads and rotors.

I went with EBC slotted and dimpled rotors with Ferodo pads.

I mention this because the rotors are dimpled instead of cross-drilled so there are no holes but rather indentations.