Brake Calipers

JayceeP

JayceeP

New member
So at my 80,000km maintenance service today the dealer advised me my front calipers need to be replaced at a cost of $1000 + $200 labour. Dealer says they are starting to seize up. Holy hell. It seems the brakes on these things require a lot of attention. I've had pads and rotors done on both front and back already (back was covered under warranty because they were scored). They also told me that my rear inner pads were seized in the brackets so I had them fix that on the spot today. Anyway, I can get the calipers for $700+ delivery online and the dealer will install them so I will go that route to save $300. They won't price match... I'll hopefully have them swapped in the next week.

Any tips on what to do to not chew through brakes (yes, a bit of a rhetorical question)? I know yeah it's probably just me but my 2010 4dr Jeep had just over 60,000km when I traded it and the only thing I did to the brakes was a $100 brake service. I probably drive more conservatively now too.

After today's trip I'll have spent close to $2,000 on brakes on the 4Runner and that doesn't include the warranty work I got done on the rears pads and rotors. I've read through a few threads and it seems the 4th Gen had a lot of "issues" with calipers but not much reported in the 5th Gens except that they are better.

Part of me assumes it's because the 4Runner sat on the lot over the winter the year I bought it... just seems this thing needs brakes/attention quite often. Anyway, vent over.
 
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1200 is ridiculous for a front brake job. If it were me, I'd order the parts from rockauto and find a local shop who could do the work. Dealers charge premium prices and will often try to up-sell you for things you don't need. Good Luck.
 
Do you get a lot of salt treatment to roads? If so you have to get that stuff off ASAP or it can screw up brakes.

I drive a lot on "salty" beaches and if I don't get that stuff off ASAP, it can be a problem.

After a beach trip, which is about 40% of my mileage, I go thru a car wash twice that has a chassis wash. In a 2004, in 12 yrs, I still had to replace calipers twice, even doing the car wash routine.
 
Salvo Jimmy said:
Do you get a lot of salt treatment to roads? If so you have to get that stuff off ASAP or it can screw up brakes.

I drive a lot on "salty" beaches and if I don't get that stuff off ASAP, it can be a problem.

After a beach trip, which is about 40% of my mileage, I go thru a car wash twice that has a chassis wash. In a 2004, in 12 yrs, I still had to replace calipers twice, even doing the car wash routine.
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We have pretty hellish weather between Christmas and April 1st. I stumbled across lots of thread son here though that claim much better results hanni am getting. Mind you, most are from the states and their definition of "salty roads" is probably a lot different than mine, lol. That's the only thing I can think of because I get nowhere near the mileage out of my brakes that anyone else in here does (like double what I get).


Anyway, I just ordered 2 front calipers online and saved $273 after taxes and including delivery of the order. I saw after market cardone calipers but I'm not gonna go outside OEM on anything... especially one of the only components keeping my family safe. At least I feel a little less ripped off now.
 
it's not hard to believe at all. The 4 piston Toyota calipers have been known for this. Ours seem to be better than those of the past, but they are still susceptible to the same thing when corrosive grime gets in there. Considering your rears were seizing too, I'd blame it on the salt and such. How does your frame and undercarriage look?
 
My 2003 had this problem, but the previous owner let it sit for excessive amounts of time in Northern Colorado after using it for winter driving. I ended up replacing the front calipers myself and rebuilding the rear with new pistons and seals.

My 2015 isn't having the problem, but it is a daily driver and winter driver in Colorado. Also, I do wash salt/grime off my brakes and undercarriage as soon as possible. I inspected the brakes 2 weeks ago and everything looked good for 75,000 miles and tons of snow/salt winter road driving.
 
Simpleman74 said:
its all about preventative maintenance
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Could you elaborate? I follow the maintenance schedule which, in Canada, is 8,000km/5,000mi intervals and do exactly what it calls for.

(none) said:
it's not hard to believe at all. The 4 piston Toyota calipers have been known for this. Ours seem to be better than those of the past, but they are still susceptible to the same thing when corrosive grime gets in there. Considering your rears were seizing too, I'd blame it on the salt and such. How does your frame and undercarriage look?
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Not bad- but it was undercoated before I drove it off the lot. There is some rust but very minor. I do weekly rinses but it gets so wet here during snowstorms that it's almost impossible to keep this winter crap off the car until the weather passes. It often means days of wet salty roads. I guess I could Rinse off in my driveway but that means doing it every single night.
 
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JayceeP said:
Could you elaborate? I follow the maintenance schedule which, in Canada, is 8,000km/5,000mi intervals and do exactly what it calls for..
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if you know you are driving through adverse conditions especially seasonal you would want to bump up preventative maintenance. Getting an oul change every 5k wont help your brakes. What specifically are doing fornyour brakes every 5k?
 
Simpleman74 said:
if you know you are driving through adverse conditions especially seasonal you would want to bump up preventative maintenance. Getting an oul change every 5k wont help your brakes. What specifically are doing fornyour brakes every 5k?
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The maintenance schedule has specific intervals for all maintenance not just oil changes. So far there has been brake fluid change and brake service/cleaning. I don't think paying to have brake service done every oil change is worthwhile nor does Toyota recommend it. Keep in mind the Canadian maintenance schedule is twice as frequent as the US so I'm already doing more... safe to assume our general climate is the reason why.
 
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Calipers are really easy to rebuild if they actually are seizing, done it a few times on my FJ80 land cruiser.

On a side note, not sure if the land cruiser is just built with superior materials or if manufacturing has really just gone down hill so much over the years... But my 25 year old land cruiser doesn't have nearly as much rust/corrosion on parts as my 2011 4 runner does already. REALLY disappointing.
 
JayceeP said:
The maintenance schedule has specific intervals for all maintenance not just oil changes. So far there has been brake fluid change and brake service/cleaning. I don't think paying to have brake service done every oil change is worthwhile nor does Toyota recommend it. Keep in mind the Canadian maintenance schedule is twice as frequent as the US so I'm already doing more... safe to assume our general climate is the reason why.
Click to expand...
I am not implying you pay for it I am implying that in the harshest of seasons you might want to consider popping the wheels off and performing it yourself.... or pay to replace prematurely if that floats your boat
 
JayceeP said:
So at my 80,000km maintenance service today the dealer advised me my front calipers need to be replaced at a cost of $1000 + $200 labour. Dealer says they are starting to seize up. Holy hell. It seems the brakes on these things require a lot of attention. I've had pads and rotors done on both front and back already (back was covered under warranty because they were scored). They also told me that my rear inner pads were seized in the brackets so I had them fix that on the spot today. Anyway, I can get the calipers for $700+ delivery online and the dealer will install them so I will go that route to save $300. They won't price match... I'll hopefully have them swapped in the next week.

Any tips on what to do to not chew through brakes (yes, a bit of a rhetorical question)? I know yeah it's probably just me but my 2010 4dr Jeep had just over 60,000km when I traded it and the only thing I did to the brakes was a $100 brake service. I probably drive more conservatively now too.

After today's trip I'll have spent close to $2,000 on brakes on the 4Runner and that doesn't include the warranty work I got done on the rears pads and rotors. I've read through a few threads and it seems the 4th Gen had a lot of "issues" with calipers but not much reported in the 5th Gens except that they are better.

Part of me assumes it's because the 4Runner sat on the lot over the winter the year I bought it... just seems this thing needs brakes/attention quite often. Anyway, vent over.
Click to expand...

From what I can tell, the brakes are the main concern with these trucks. I owned a Tacoma for 9 years and had one caliper seize after 3 years. The dealership paid for 80%.

All I can say is service them regularly, and find a local shop to do the work with quality parts.
 
Simpleman74 said:
I am not implying you pay for it I am implying that in the harshest of seasons you might want to consider popping the wheels off and performing it yourself.... or pay to replace prematurely if that floats your boat
Click to expand...
My problem is I don't know what that means. I do swap my winters and summers each season at home so I could do it if it's easy. However I don't know if cleaning the brakes means scraping, just wiping a solution etc. If it's an easy thing to search, fire some key words at me and I'll look it up.
 
JayceeP said:
My problem is I don't know what that means. I do swap my winters and summers each season at home so I could do it if it's easy. However I don't know if cleaning the brakes means scraping, just wiping a solution etc. If it's an easy thing to search, fire some key words at me and I'll look it up.
Click to expand...

I'll bet Utube is your source for tutorials.
 
JayceeP said:
My problem is I don't know what that means. I do swap my winters and summers each season at home so I could do it if it's easy. However I don't know if cleaning the brakes means scraping, just wiping a solution etc. If it's an easy thing to search, fire some key words at me and I'll look it up.
Click to expand...
Clean/lube calipers, peridically wash the salt grime off

https://youtu.be/PXAuNlEgaCc
 
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