OK gang, the maintenance window is closing for the cross-continent jaunt in the 2002 4Runner SR5, affectionately known as Maggy.

Today was supposed to be front brakes and maybe, just maybe some new rotors day. I was supposed to be done by early afternoon.

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! !

While I did get a late start, I've done brakes on multiple vehicles before and having watched all the requisite videos on YT (Timmy, Roy's Garage and some other dude...) I was like, "OK, never dealt with four-piston calipers before, but whatever..." thus the Goddess of Brake Systems said, "OK chunky, let's see what you have in your emotional fortitude bag today!"

Never jacked up the rig before, so I had my son working with me to line up the jack and pre-positioning the stands where it looked best to do so, following Timmy's locations. Went up without a hitch and settled nicely on my new 6-ton jacks. Never used them before, since 3-ton ones were always good enough for the vans and sedans we've owned.

After patting myself on the back, I broke out ye olde Porter Cable, corded impact wrench and shared the task of removing lugnuts on both tires with my son, since he had never used an impact wrench before. Well, tires did not come off...that's OK, started tapping with the rubber mallet, but was not working. Blaster into the lugnut areas, went inside and had some Clif-bar like thing my wife bought. Waited. Went back out, tapped inside of tire at the 6 o'clock position and they came off. "Whoo hoo!" I thought.

The caliper bolts were on tight. I mean tighter than two coats of paint. But damn the torpedos, got the 1/2" wrench on them using my new 17mm deep socket, slipped a steel pipe over the handle and BAM! Broke 'em loose. Seemed sticky and took a while to loosen them up all the way. But they both came out eventually.

Unfortunately, I don't appear to have a rubber brake line at the very end, where it attaches to the caliper, meaning I needed to be more careful jiggling the caliper out of the way. Since I did not want to have to remove the brake line from the caliper, I removed the clip that holds it in place on the big knuckle arm thing and that gave me enough wiggle room to place the caliper on top of a five gallon bucket. I secured with one of those metal "s" caliper hangers, and failsafe'd it with a bungee cord. At this point, I'm feeling like the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51..."Ain't no stoppin' us now!"

Now, being a Midwestern guy, I've had to tap off rotors with a mallet before, but Yayzus Kohana as my dad used to say! These bad boys were on there like the guy whose helmet was Super Glue'd to the i-beam in the 70s!



Not sure I've ever used more Blaster on anything in my life. Their parent company stock price must have risen 30% today based on my usage.

After much waiting and tapping, I finally got pizzed off and struck a grand blow, releasing it from the hub. At this point, I really hadn't eaten much all day and the sun was setting, so I decided I'd go inside, find my rotors at AutoZone.com and after a sammich, either run over there tonight or first thing Sunday morning.

I'll say I've always used the Duralast Gold pads and rotors and they've worked well across multiple vehicles for me. I'm not doing the Pikes Peak Hill Climb or Indy 500, so I'm content with the results and pricing of the product.

That said, in my hour of auto repair glory, I find that AZ doesn't not sell rotors for 16" wheels (318mm I think?) in the "Gold" brand, only the regular Duralast edition. &#$@#%!!!!

Happily, even though Maggy is up on the jack stands still, I have mobility and access to multiple other vehicles, so I can take my time to a degree to find the right rotors. Since I've always used Duralast Golds, I don't want to "miss" on this purchase since she's going to California in a couple of weeks and I won't have access to personally replace a bad rotor choice before May. And I don't want my just-graduated-from-HS son to have that repair and cost hanging over his head 2,000+ miles away from home, in a town where we don't know any of the shops' reputations or integrity.

I can easily hit up an O'Reilly, Advance Auto Parts or AutoZone -- if I settled on the non-Gold edition of the product -- Sunday and finish up the job. OR...I can hit the dealer up for Toyota rotors or maybe order from Amazon using Prime for quick delivery on Monday or Tuesday.

Anyone have strong feelings about their rotor brand and performance or should I follow the old axiom, "Parts is parts..." ???

Many thanks in advance, Toyota friends!