My 4th Gen Front Brakes walkthrough

[pmdata]

Ok, so I got the RF wheel off the ground, truck on a stand and the wheel off in preparation for the new pads and rotors that should be in later in the week. A couple of questions:

I got the hawk ceramic pads; will the come with new pins and cotter pins? Or do I have to get the part numbers and head to the dealership?

Is there anything holding on the rotors besides the lugs and then friction? Nothing else to unbolt?

If I remember right, the 17mm caliper bolts are on the engine side of the hub. How did you get in there with the breaker bar?

I'm sure there are more questions to come.

TIA.

 

[pmdata]

Part numbers for the pins, clips and M springs for future reference.

 

[Medvedko]

Thank you for the sweet walk through on the brakes!

I wanted to hit the dealer this weekend but had little time so went to Napa today and got everything I needed including the pads. I always buy OEM but have heard great things about NAPA and the guys near me are great to deal with unlike my Toyota dealer.
Anyway, I have an 06 V8 SE and got the rotors and pads for like $260 + tax and they have a $50 dollar mail-in rebate until the end of September if you by over $250 in rotors, pads, calipers and other selected brake parts. The Pads are basically free if you go this route. I got the Adaptive 1 pads so we'll see after hearing good things about them. BTW, they do sell the pins and anti rattle clips as well at NAPA.

I have 48k on the clock, hopefully the calipers are cool when I do this job next week.....

Great group of people on this forum!!

 

[TBoliv]

Ok, so I got the RF wheel off the ground, truck on a stand and the wheel off in preparation for the new pads and rotors that should be in later in the week. A couple of questions:

I got the hawk ceramic pads; will the come with new pins and cotter pins? Or do I have to get the part numbers and head to the dealership?

Is there anything holding on the rotors besides the lugs and then friction? Nothing else to unbolt?

If I remember right, the 17mm caliper bolts are on the engine side of the hub. How did you get in there with the breaker bar?

I'm sure there are more questions to come.

TIA.

I was able to get an 18" breaker bar in there to get the caliper bolts off. Course mine weren't stuck on super tight, so I didn't need a ton of room to crank on them. If you needed extra space, turn the wheel.

 

[pmdata]

Ok. Front rotors and pads done today. First side: 1.5 hrs. Second side: 20 min.

Two questions:

1) I may have put the pad with the metal tab on the wrong side on one of the wheels. Big issue?

2) I got new pins, M springs, cotter pins and shims from the dealer. I didn't notice before install, but four of the shims are flat, and four are slotted. Well, one side got four flat shims and one side got four slotted. Is this a big issue?

Other than that, no problems. Road test and bedding later tonight.

 

[Medvedko]

Ok. Front rotors and pads done today. First side: 1.5 hrs. Second side: 20 min.

Two questions:

1) I may have put the pad with the metal tab on the wrong side on one of the wheels. Big issue?

2) I got new pins, M springs, cotter pins and shims from the dealer. I didn't notice before install, but four of the shims are flat, and four are slotted. Well, one side got four flat shims and one side got four slotted. Is this a big issue?

Other than that, no problems. Road test and bedding later tonight.

When I took my brakes off, the the orientation of the pads had the wear indicatior on the inside pad or inner part of the brake set up and the regular pad on the outer part or facing the wheel. The shims had the slotted first and the solid flat shim on the outside that touches the pistons on the calipers.

I would change it out, all but 20 or 30 minutes just to be on the safe side.

 

[BurghRunner]

Parts Clarification

Regarding the pins, clips, and M springs, how many do you need of each? I'm just looking to get these parts before the wheel/brakes are apart.

Thanks.

 

[direwolf]

4pins, 4clips, 2 m-springs

Regarding the pins, clips, and M springs, how many do you need of each? I'm just looking to get these parts before the wheel/brakes are apart.

Thanks.

 

[BurghRunner]

Thanks. I recently helped my brother change front brake pads on his '06 Tacoma. Seems like his Tacoma and the 4Runner are just about the same on brakes. A very easy job.

 

[rando]

I'm at 45k miles on my 04 SR5 and getting ready to do the front brakes soon.

Should I assume the rotors will need to be turned or replaced or do they typically last through a few brake changes (90k or more)?

 

[007Tacoma]

Thanks!

Thank you for the write up. I will be attempting to do the front brakes sometime this week. My wife and I replaced everything on the rear over a month ago. That was an all day adventure. Hopefully we can do the front after work without needing to soak all this stuff in PB blaster.

 

[towbag]

need to add steps

Attemped to follow brake walkthrough and feel a couple of steps need to be added. I was unable to complete steps without adding trips to bathroom to remove excess beer!!

I have a 4WD 05 SR5 with factory 17 inch wheels, however it uses the smaller rotors (12") as indicated by another poster. I ordered the larger ones from a brake parts warehouse based on factory 17inch wheels and they sent the larger ones...

 

[aso432]

Front Rotors

I changed my front rotors today. It was an easy job, However my right caliper was frozen. One of the 4 cylinders was frozen. I took it off and my neighbor who has a hydrolic press was able to free up the cylinder and it is working like a charm. I bled all 4 calipers and the brakes are fantastic. Easy job if you know what you are doing.
This would have cost a bundle at a dealer ship.

One bad thing, I didnt have any beers.
4runners rock!!!!!
I have 17 in wheels. I order the rotors and they were too big. I had to reorder rotors for 16in rims easy fix, just added time to the job.

 

[007Tacoma]

Thank you for the write up. I will be attempting to do the front brakes sometime this week. My wife and I replaced everything on the rear over a month ago. That was an all day adventure. Hopefully we can do the front after work without needing to soak all this stuff in PB blaster.

Changing out the front brakes went really well... Now I just need to figure out how to adjust the parking brake.

 

[eliask08]

Changing out the front brakes went really well... Now I just need to figure out how to adjust the parking brake.

There was a small opening on my EBC rear rotors that allowed me to tighten the parking brake, as I only noticed it was extremely loose well after my pads were bedded. I did not want to remove the rotor and throw off the bedding. I am assuming that the rotors you've installed on the rear should have the same opening, and all it takes is some time to make the small increments to tighten/loosen the brake.

 

[TechWrench]

Changing out the front brakes went really well... Now I just need to figure out how to adjust the parking brake.

Do a search on this. The process is fairly simple. You will need to remove the rear wheels, because there are two holes in the face of the rear disc face that need to be lined up with a hole in the hub to allow access to the star wheel adjusters. The adjustment is made with the disc in place, you don't remove the disc. I usually use two of the lug nuts, with some spacers to hand tighten the disc in place while making the adjustments.

 

[007Tacoma]

There was a small opening on my EBC rear rotors that allowed me to tighten the parking brake, as I only noticed it was extremely loose well after my pads were bedded. I did not want to remove the rotor and throw off the bedding. I am assuming that the rotors you've installed on the rear should have the same opening, and all it takes is some time to make the small increments to tighten/loosen the brake.

Do a search on this. The process is fairly simple. You will need to remove the rear wheels, because there are two holes in the face of the rear disc face that need to be lined up with a hole in the hub to allow access to the star wheel adjusters. The adjustment is made with the disc in place, you don't remove the disc. I usually use two of the lug nuts, with some spacers to hand tighten the disc in place while making the adjustments.

Awesome! Thank you. I was looking on the back plate to see if there was a grommet or something that needed to be removed to access the star wheel.

We did the rear brakes really late at night (including new shoes for the parking brake). My wife and I were both so tired that we forgot to adjust the parking brake until the next day when I tried to use it and it barely grabbed at all. I am going to take a look at this tonight.

 

[epyon1225]

brake nightmare!!! HELP!!

I had completed my brake job prior to these findings on this site and have one caliper leaking pretty bad. (driver side). I realized after reading mac777's post about leaking fluid, that i may have lost or destroyed the rings in the inside of the caliper. is there a scientific name for these rings? I dont feel like playing ring around the rosey with the parts guy at napa. I will go home tonight and try to open the caliper and hope that i find them but i dont know what condition they will be in. salvagable or not... any pointers???

 

[TechWrench]

I had completed my brake job prior to these findings on this site and have one caliper leaking pretty bad. (driver side). I realized after reading mac777's post about leaking fluid, that i may have lost or destroyed the rings in the inside of the caliper. is there a scientific name for these rings? I dont feel like playing ring around the rosey with the parts guy at napa. I will go home tonight and try to open the caliper and hope that i find them but i dont know what condition they will be in. salvagable or not... any pointers???

I don't know what they are specifically called, but the parts dept should be able to find them on their parts breakdown for the calipers. As for the caliper that is leaking, if the 'O' ring seals are missing, and you can find them, you might (and that is a very slim might) be able to re-use them. If they were damaged when you bolted the two parts of the caliper back together, then they are most likely not going to be able to be used again. In either case, I would get new ones before taking the calipers apart again.

 

[bdubbin]

Thank!

This thread definitely helped me out. Thanks.

I also liked this youtube video:

2007 4Runner SR5 V6 Front Brake Job