Always do both sides on brakes?

[drallan]

2004 v8 SR5

About 4-5 months ago I replaced pads/rotors all the way around on my wife's 4runner. While doing it I noticed that the rear driver side pads were worn really unevenly, it looked like the inside piston wasn't pushing much but the outside pads were almost down to the metal. I feared it was a frozen caliper, but I noticed a ton of corrosion on the HW and didn't really have any difficulties compressing the pistons back in.

I decided to clean and lube everything up really well and put it back together. She slowly started to notices a vibration / uneven braking that has gotten pretty bad now. I drove it the other day and it feels like it is coming from the rear, no steering wheel shimmy or anything. Definitely feels like the rear is lurching when braking hardish.

I haven't taken the wheel off to look, but am suspecting that it is the same caliper that is applying uneven pressure and i've got either warped rotors or uneven pad material built up. If my assumption is correct I was going to go ahead and swap out the rear caliper and rotor.

Question is, do I need to do both sides? Not really sure I need to do both calipers, but I've always learned to do brakes and suspension parts in pairs (both sides). But as the passenger side brakes are working fine and fairly new I didn't really want have to replace the 5 month old rotors and pads if not neccessary.

Think I will be ok if I just do the 1 side as long as I get the same parts I used before?

Thanks,

 

[firebirdguy]

ideally should be done both sides at the same time... but since the other side is newer there shouldnt be any issues replacing just one side, people do it all the time & ive done it myself on vehicles that had good operating brakes on the other side but had something fail like a stuck caliper or collapsed brake line with no issues or problems after 10's of thousands of miles.

 

[Drcoffee]

Well you cant just buy two pads. Might as well pop the new pads into both calipers. Might want to think of getting the bad side rotor trued up too, or the new pads will be ruined too.

 

[Bumbo]

I got that type of OCD that won’t let me do just one side so it’s never really been up for an internal debate lol

Also, with what you described. I would have suspected frozen calipers and would be on track the replace the calipers at this point as well.

I did mine not too long ago and was experiencing pretty much what you described.

 

[drallan]

Thanks for the responses.

Plan is to replace the caliper, rotor, and pads on the bad side. Kinda kicking myself for not doing it back when I saw the problem, but was short on time and didn't notice the problem until everything was taken apart. I was really hoping it was just rusted HW as it was pretty junked up and they seemed to compress fine.

As far as doing the other side, I will have a set of new pads as they come in pairs, just not sure it is worth the effort in replacing them. Granted its not that much more work but they have only a few thousand miles on them and I would hope are still good, especially being rears.

Any suggestions on 1-man brake bleeder kits? I've tried the cheapo vacuum bleeders from Amazon without much luck. I can always recruit my wife to be a pedal pusher, but was wondering if anyone had used a kit that actually worked.

 

[firebirdguy]

Thanks for the responses.

Any suggestions on 1-man brake bleeder kits? I've tried the cheapo vacuum bleeders from Amazon without much luck. I can always recruit my wife to be a pedal pusher, but was wondering if anyone had used a kit that actually worked.

a real mighty-vac works great for bleeding brakes & has many other uses. they also sell speed bleeder valves that let 1 person bleed brakes.

best way is with a helper though as you can see when the air bubbles are gone & not do any more than needed or if more is needed.