Rotor/Brake Pad Replacement

Hey guys,

I have buddy that I work with that has a 01' taco, 200k+ miles.

He is grinding his way to work and needs rotors/brake pads replaced asap! I told him that there might be some kind souls on here that would help him out for some beer/ a little bit of cash. He can afford the parts and order them to arrive on Friday but doesn't know if he can swing all the labor.

I personally don't know jack about this - if it's an easy replacement, what type of tools you would need etc..

Does anyone have any suggestions - or would be able to help - or at least suggest a shop that could help him out???

Thanks

 

damn to bad i was closer i just did this last weekend.

 

Ive done mine.. as well as most of the other Az members Andrew. this weekend im a bit busy.. so i may not be able to help.. but im sure someone will.. or if he can wait.. i can try afterwards.

and autozone is where i got all my stuff. duralast.

 

It's basically two bolts on each side after you remove the tire/wheel if I remember correctly. You want to be sure the caliper is not seized too which it can be. O/W, it's 10 minutes per side maybe?

 

Yea, it really couldn't be easier. Take off wheel - 6 lugs. Take off caliper - 2 bolts.
Rubber mallet those old rotor off, put new one on while buddy holds caliper up.

Then take a mental or physical picture as to how the pads are in there. Press on pad to get the caliper piston to go back in. Once you do that, take out old pads and put new ones like the old ones.

Thats really about it.

Order from Rock Auto, they're super cheap and customer service is AWESOME! Plus taco world discount.
Prep the rotors by using brake cleaner on them as sometimes they come with a weird coating.

 

This is a basic repair...just make sure caliper is free and slides back in without TOO much trouble, most calipers need a tool for this.

Howard

 

Haha oh noo - he told me about this last week I just didn't think to check in with you guys. I'm usually on here just for mods and what note - truck hasn't had any issues yetttt - thanks for the offer though

Thanks for the advice dude I've relayed this. I'll let you know if he doesn't get this done this weekend - I'm out of town too so I can't even help him out.

If the caliper was siezed how would we know? would it not slide back and forth like Howard said? Or do you think we're going to need to replace the caliper like speedo said?

Thanks for the details man this actually does sound pretty straight forward.

 

When you take the caliper off, you'll be able to see the pistons in the caliper pressed out against the pads. The reason I say to leave the old pads in there is b/c you can just grab a clamp and squeeze against the old pad and the piston will retract back into the caliper. Or, see what rock auto, Amazon, or the local autopart store has for that.

You can look at them and be able to tell if the pistons are messed up usually. Had a truck that the pistons where messed up on, as soon as I removed the pads, the pistons had cracks.


When you take the caliper off, don't let it dangle from the brake line, either have someone hold it up, or loop an old coat hanger through a bolt hole and around a suspension part up high.

 

Great thanks again for all the help.

 

If the fluid reservoir is currently full, take a turkey baster or something similar and remove a good bit of fluid to give room for the fluid from retracting the caliper pistons.

 

too bad i live in Cali. i could have done it for him for free, front and back
change out and replace won't take longer than 2 hrs. i've done all my buddies' for free of charge. best brakes and rotors second to none i got them from, brakeperformance.com. replaced mine with dimple drill slot rotor, semimetallic brake pads and new calipers. brakes are what save you and stopping you from getting into accidents don't get cheap shits.

 

Yea it's pretty easy. I doubt I'll have time this weekend either. On my truck I'm using duralast rotors and Toyota pads, works perfectly with my heavy ass pig

 

After reading your comments post rotor change it makes a hell of a lot more sense haha.

Finished - took just over 2 hours...

Learned how to use the hi lift, even with the strang wheel mounts. Took everything off (after starting to unscrew the wrong bolt and letting brake fluid out) and my buddy realized he bought the wrong rotors and pads. Visited autozone.

Got going again and realized one of the pistons was stuck after bolting back up. (Truck had 230k miles). Huge wrench did the trick.

Handful more of little screw ups, that I won't have to worry about when I work on my truck got one shot before we changed them out.

 

While the hi-lift jacks are wonderful on the farm, field and trail, they are terrible service jacks...

I carry a hi-lift bolted to the inside of my bed, but use a floor jack to pull wheels and such.

The right tool for the right job.

Howard

 

I know you're done but one thing you need to do when replacing the rotors is to clean both sides of the new rotor with brake cleaner. This takes any mfg oil/grease off that might load up the new pads. Also, make sure the caliper mounting surface is clean and flat. Mount the rotor using a couple of wheel bolts then use a dial caliper to check the runout before mounting the rotor.

Lastly, be sure to check the torque on the caliper bolts.

 

Ya haha noted. It was backup that I brought because the jack he had turned out to be useless. I went as a second set of hands but ended up working on it the most time.

Thanks for the rest of the tips. We watched a good youtube video that filled in the blanks. Ill definitely be referencing this post when my brakes need replacing. We cleaned everything but didnt do the rest of the steps. He didnt care too much about longevity just needed to get his truck out of the front of his old house.