Anyone here have experience re-building a rear caliper on their 5th gen? I've looked around online a lot, but can't find any info on how to properly do this.

Long story short, got home from a long trip and the inside pad on my rear passenger brake had worn down to the backing plate, which caused the clips to fail and dropped the pad inside the heat shield. Outer pad still has 1-2mm of pad left. The piston was riding directly on the rotor and was somewhat ground down. I've got new pads and rotor on the way, but need advise on rebuilding the caliper.

It looks like if I order a new piston and caliper seal kit, that should be all I need to complete the rebuild. Then I'm going to bleed the system after install. The seals appear to be ok, but since the truck is a '14 with 140k, I figure I'll just go ahead and replace those while I'm in there.

Has anyone successfully rebuilt their own caliper and have any tips or info on proper procedure?

Or should I order a reman caliper and just install that instead? Price is about the same either way, but I like the idea of sticking with oem parts.

Why not just buy new OEM calipers?

I would check all the other wheels to see how much they are worn. What you describe is a seriously worn out caliper that should have been tended to long ago. If the others are close to that one, then a complete brake job is in order. If that wheel is worn much more than the others, then I'd want to find out why.

AuSeeker - Mainly because they are 3-4x the price and the truck is 10 yrs old. But that's probably the best option.

flyrv9 - Front rotors and pads were replaced last year. Rear rotors and pads about 2 years ago. Pads on drivers rear are about 3-4mm, so pretty much replacement time. I'm not sure what you mean by "worn out caliper" though. The piston was ground down by the rotor bc the pad got worn/failed and the pad clips then failed. Which caused the piston to push out past it's seal. Seals are all in good shape on both rear calipers.

This happened after a weekend of wheeling in Moab and going through some icy puddles near our campsite in the mornings. Maybe the cold water on hot brakes caused the pad failure or a warped rotor? Or maybe the piston got stuck due to mud? It snowed the first of our four days we were there, so it was pretty muddy in some spots and that Moab mud is no joke.

In any case, news rear pads for both sides, new rear rotor are here. Just was trying to decide on the best option for the caliper replacement/rebuild.

I put more miles and pads on my honda pilot, crv & accord than on my 4 runner.
Their rear inside rear pads wore out faster than outside of same caliper on all models. On my 5th gen 4runner I am watching for same wear pattern. I am on my second set of pads and no signs of uneven wear yet.

Yeah, I'm going to keep a closer eye on the pads this time and not rely as much on the squealer tabs to notify me of their wear