Parking brake not engaged. Turn the star adjusters to allow the rotors to come off. Pretty straight forward.

You should loosen the brake shoes, in the drum style parking brake, if you are replacing the rear rotors. That's the 'star' referred to above.
Loosen them before taking the rotor off and then tighten them back down, the same amount of turns, after installing the new rotors.

First of all the whole rear setup was just changed even the parking brake and hardware. So it's all freshly lubed up as of 2 days ago. So after my final rebleed of the whole system I went for a test drive and engaged the PB for like 0.1-.2 miles off and on to true the pad to the rotor as the centric rotors have that black coating on the inside where the PB pads touch. So when I got back I had to literally put my PB foot pedal to the floor for it to mostly hold my truck on my driveways slight incline.

But when I adjusted the PB via the star gear, I couldn't hardly rotate the disk my hand so I put my tire on and compared both sides for how easy it was to turn the tire. Clicks 7-8 is where I couldn't turn each tire by hand anymore when I finally decided to stop. However this is with the star adjuster at about 2-3 teeth from fully tight. I'm going to adjust the center console adjustment point to see if that will get me my final setting that I need, maybe taking things apart puts that out of whack.

For my brakes and the bleed, it seems better and is grabbing better than initial impression. The Akebono brakes that I'm using don't seem to have a bed in procedure but to say drive normally for 300-400 miles for them to be broken in. So I did a few 60-35 or 40 slow downs on an open road and gave it like 3 minutes between each slow down to cool things back off and that seems to have started to get the pads to grip better. The pedal isn't the firmest, but it wasn't before the new setup either. It sure isn't like my wifes 2015 Infiniti Q50's brakes, with the slightest touch those things are responsive!! The 4Runner it's like you have to push the pedal half way to the floor to brake.

For the master cylinder, I don't think I ran it dry, but it did go down to the "min" line when I was changing out my brakes and SS lines. I'm going to try driving it a bit to break in the brakes and then if things are still "odd" to me then I'll go to Toyota to have them try to get any air out of the MC. Wish there was a way we could bleed the MC without having to go down to Yota, I hate my dealer's shop, they jacked up my alignment tabs and blamed me. I ended up replacing them with some Total Chaos ones to fix the problem.

at work, but I don't think you need to bring your car to toyota, especially if they are shady. I can post back tonight.

I had my first situation to really have to test these brakes. I was following the car in front of me at probably 5 lengths at 45mph. They decided they wanted to take a left-hand turn in traffic abruptly on a 2 lane road. Had to really slam the brakes and I swear the 4runner was about to do a stoppie. The brakes were incredibly strong. I was worried the ABS wasn't going to kick in but it did and braked straight and true. Worked like a charm. Pretty sure if I still had the original brakes I would have been in the ditch from pulsations and poor performance.

PSA: If your brakes are worn get them replaced regardless if you do this upgrade.

I have installed the 5th Gen upgrade on all 4 corners of my 2003 4R Ltd (calipers and rotors), since both front calipers were seized (again/ 4th time in 150,000 miles). I chose to buy new Gen 5 dust guards for a clean fit. I also went with the "StopTech Sport; Slotted; Heavy Duty/Towing & Track" rotors as I tow a very heavy trailer often. Changed hoses all around while I was at it. Since this is a 'work truck', I didn't bother painting the calipers. I did not need to mess with the parking brake at all. Old rotors slipped right off, new slipped on. P-Brake still works fine.

I have driven about 750 miles in the last 3 weeks since the upgrade. At first I wasn't super impressed with the stopping power, but following the manufacturer recommended 'go easy' first 400-500 miles duration the Akebonos are now providing much better stopping performance than the stock system.

Smooth and silent. I'm happy with the results. Will likely do this on my '04 GX470 if they seize again.

Parts list:
Front Brake Caliper Upgrade Left CENTRIC 14144288
Front Brake Caliper Upgrade Right CENTRIC 14144287
Front Brake Dust Guard Upgrade Left 47782-60120
Front Brake Dust Guard Upgrade Right 47781-60120
Front Brake Rotors Upgrade Left CENTRIC 12644174SL
Front Brake Rotors Upgrade Right CENTRIC 12644174SR
Rear Brake Calipers Upgrade Left CENTRIC 14144588
Rear Brake Calipers Upgrade Right CENTRIC 14144587
Rear Brake Rotors Upgrade Left CENTRIC 12644175SL
Rear Brake Rotors Upgrade Right CENTRIC 12644175SR
Front Brake Hose Left CENTRIC 95044007 StopTech Stainless Steel
Front Brake Hose Right CENTRIC 95044007 StopTech Stainless Steel
Rear Brake Hoses to calipers Left ACDelco 18J4472 (Centrics kept shipping without the copper washers 3x)
Rear Brake Hoses to calipers Right ACDelco 18J4473
Rear Brake Hoses to frame Left CENTRIC 15044397
Rear Brake Hoses to frame Right CENTRIC 15044397
Front Brake Pads Upgrade AKEBONO ACT976
Rear Brake Pads Upgrade AKEBONO ASP606

looks great you just sold me on doing the dust covers also when i do this upgrade on my 2007 FJ via its not that hard pulling the hubs off

Just wanted to give a huge thanks to all the contributors to this thread. I recently got a 2008 4Runner V8 Premium and just finished installing the 5th Gen brake setup in the fronts. Huge improvement! Have a bunch of parts on order from Rock Auto for the rears but am going to rebuild the calipers versus replace.

I sanded the black e-coat layer off of my brake rotor/drums on the PB surface. Those shoes are meant to touch cast iron, not some e-coating it has to burn through. Worked like a charm, went from horrible PB to perfect with the coating removed.

New member of the seized piston club here. After reading all this and more what I need to know is this:
1. Are the 5th gen calipers really less likely to have this problem over time or are we just hoping ?

2 .Is there a problem with pedal feel, travel etc? Or is it just getting the system bleed properly for those who mentioned this?

Please let me know. I have to replace at least the fronts SOON. Thx

Not sure as the the true ability for it not to seize.... however I also live in the desert so I never had the problem in the first place.

For the pedal feel mine have always felt softer but it returned to normal after I did about 50-100 miles with gentle braking and then I did an ABS stop from 60 and pedal feel was back to normal.

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

You'll be fine.

Search for my post buried in this thread. Do a bunch of long slow pedal pumps, etc. to get the micro bubbles out of the system.

I love my 5th gen calipers. Feel stronger.

Good luck!!

Pm me any questions if you'd like.

I didn't do the rears but I had a pretty similar situation to you. I bought Speedbleeders and could still never get a good pedal feel. Read every post on here about bleeding, tried every trick, but it wasn't great. Took it to Toyota, had them flush the brake fluid and bleed everything and it's been fine ever since. I say "fine" because it's not like touch the brakes and truck slows down, you still have to get into the pedal pretty good before it stops but it's a more positive feel than when I bleed them myself. Going on a year since I did the caliper swap and they haven't seized up yet.

Looks good! Did you paint the calipers?

Does anyone know if the Dust Guards for a 5th gen would fit on a 4th gen? I've got an 08 SR5 with 17" wheels but it appears to have the smaller rotors. I know the 4th gen Sport has the larger rotor and the dust guard fit with the 5th gen upgrade is very close. What I don't know is if the Sport dust guard is larger than mine with it's smaller rotor. What I'm trying to do is determine which dust guard will fit the closet and require the least amount of cutting and bending. Does anyone have any idea on this? Thx

I saw post 537 above and the P/N is for 4th gen 17" wheel but doesn't specify SE, Limited or SR5.