I think I've got the 'gist' of what it does and it's importance. Is bedding the same for most vehicles? I know some use slotted rotors, ceramic pads, etc.....

In my case as I posted before. I have new OEM rotors and pads, aftermarket calipers, which are not new but in good shape.
Does anyone have a bedding routine they've used on 3rd gens in particular? A quick google search shows the below for 'most' vehicles....

Speed up to 35 mph.
Use moderate brake pressure to slow down to 5 mph. ...
Repeat 2-3 times.
Speed up to 55 mph.
Use strong brake pressure to slow down to 5 mph. ...
Repeat 4-5 times.
Drive for 5-10 minutes to allow the brakes to slowly cool down. ...
Park the vehicle and let the brakes cool for an hour.

Does outdoor temperatures help or hurt during the bedding process?

Any and all input would greatly be appreciated.

I go by what the pad manufacturer recommends, usually it’s either printed on the box or a piece of paper with your pads. Powerstop recommended a bed in procedure similar to what you posted, while akebono said don’t do that and just be easy on the brakes for the first 500 miles

A few recommendations I have tried with success.

While bedding if I need to stop completely I put it in neutral and pull the parking brake ie. at stoplights

I always try to do the 55mph braking where I can continue driving for the 5-10 min cooldown. cools down faster.

Park with parking brake on in neutral when done.

Maybe I'm too cautious

Quite backwards there - the parking brake holds the rear shoes on the drums - using park and letting it 'sit' on the pawl is a better plan if the brakes are hot. Just don't do that on a steep incline. Obviously, the rest of the time Park and Parking Brake together is better.

If you need to 'stop' while in the middle of bedding, creep slowly to keep 'smearing' pad material on the rotors. Just leave a car length ahead of you to do this.

-Charlie

Thanks fellas, Ideally I'll need to find a stretch of road local to where I'll have the brakes done with minimal to no traffic.

I'm of the opinion that bedding in brakes pads isn't necessary. People drive off dealership parking lots with new vehicles everyday without bedding in the brakes, and guess what, their braking is fine. I've never bedded in brakes on any vehicle I've owned and worked on and I haven't managed yet to drive off a cliff because my brakes failed me on a curve.

What I will say is people need to learn how to engine brake. I see way too many people riding their brakes down mountain grades because they're ignorant of the ability to use engine braking to slow their vehicle down. People with manual transmissions understand the benefits of downshifting to slow their vehicle down but people with automatics don't seem to understand they can do the same thing. My 1st downshift is turning Overdrive off, next is 2nd Gear and last is Low. Pick the gear that allows you to negotiate the grade without having to ride the brakes. If you're constantly on the brakes, you need to downshift to a lower gear.

I learned this lesson the hard way in my last vehicle, a Nissan Rogue. I've always lived in fairly flat places and when I moved out here didn't know about this and ended up with warped rotors in the rear because of I70. Once I replaced those I always used the "manual" feature of my CVT to engine brake in the mountains. Interestingly my 5 speed 4runner is so good at engine braking that I can just leave it in 5th coming down 70 and it just holds 65 most of the way.

I've bedded the brakes with great results on my 4Runner. Really increases the overall brake pedal response as I'm not too happy about the long travel and squishiness of the 4Runners brakes compared to more modern cars.

Can't stress enough about the 'no-stopping' bit. I ended up having to stop at a stop sign during the bedding process that was normally empty for a good bit and guess what happened? Left a nice big pad print on the rotor and it wobbled and shook during braking after that. Bedded it a second time and fixed the problem. Temperature doesn't matter at all as those brake rotors will get plenty hot even in freezing temps. They cool off faster when it is cold so that's a plus, try doing it in 100+ summer heat and you'll find they remain hot to the touch for a very long time.

I done it both ways. Bedding and not bedding the brakes. I agree at least for my area. Bedding the brakes in and burning in the rotors does seem to work. :-)

[QUOTE=mtbtim;3788305
What I will say is people need to learn how to engine brake.[/QUOTE]
I once heard an "old trucker's rule": Don't go down a hill in a higher gear than you used to go up the hill.

Its highly dependent on pad material, driving style and brake performance expectations.

The goal is just to quickly get a transfer layer of pad material on the rotor, which gives the most consistent braking performance.

-Charlie

The pads are OEM, the material toyota uses I'm not sure of.

Driving style is 99% local, stop and go roads. Occasion fishing trips in the woods.

My braking expectations, honestly is just to have no death wobble, have a safe driving vehicle and hopefully get at least a few good years out of them.

You CAN bed them if you want - but the OEM pads are designed for 'normal' people who wouldn't do that.

As long as you don't overheat them then 'hold' them on the rotors at a stop, they should be ok whatever you do.

-Charlie

Just finished the Tundra Brake Upgrade this weekend. Took the truck out on some country roads last night to run through the bedding process. I did see some marking on the rotors after cycles of gentlish braking from 45-15 mph to get things hot followed by hard braking from 60-5 mph to try and get some pad material transfer. Did this process twice with a cooling off period in between.

Overall the amount of pad material transfered was pretty underwhelming so took the truck back out to run through it again this morning. Again, the result was some noticable wearing on the rotors, but nothing like the deep, dark reddish blueing I've seen on other forums.

Overall, I've happy with the amount of break-in I got. It's not a ton, but better than just rolling out with shiny new rotors. I don't think I'm going to do it again unless some stretches of open road happen to open up while I'm out and about. Just not worth the extra effort. Overall the brakes feel about the same as the old pads I pulled off, but they were pretty much down to nothing. I'm assuming the new pads will feel significantly better as everything wears in more.

I don't think I have ever done anything more than a bunch of hard 30-0 stops to bed my brakes. I just don't think it's needed unless you have high performance brakes.

I put OEM pads, and Brembo rotors on over a year ago. I did nothing but drive easy and avoid ultra hard braking for a few hundred miles. Seems to stop much better than the NTB junk that was put on by the PO for double the cost of OEM....