Front brakes, how hard to service them?

Funny... first few times doing disc (back in the 70s) I'd pull the pads and then run the c-clamp all the way into the bottom of the (single) piston.
Got tired of wearing out my finger spinning the clamp and cut a block of wood into the shape of a pad.
Used it once, then the fog cleared in my head and I just left the pads in.

And I think my '03 Tundra was a 4-piston caliper. I only changed those pads once in the 130k I had that truck, but I remember compressing the pistons being more of a pain than normal. Pretty sure I compressed them still on the rotor, and slipped shims between the pads and rotor until the pistons were seated.

 

Had my 2012 Tacoma in the dealer today when the Door Remote stopped and they reprogrammed it and told me my front pads were almost gone.
42K miles and gone? True we live in the mountains but my last 2 Chevys
had a lot more life for pads on the same roads. Had 189K miles on Colorado
with one set of pads. HHR had 89K miles with 1 set of pads. Do I drive my Taco harder-NO! the Colorado had been on a road race course 3 times in 3 years so I don't think that is the problem. What should the life of Ceramic Pads be on a 4wd-4dr Taco? BTW: Replaced them with ceramic pads. Any
help with this question.

 

There's no set brake pad life. Pull the wheel off and have a look, it takes about 15 minutes for both sides while drinking a beer!

 

Just did this, thanks for the vid Chris, made it super easy.

 

Anyone have a good recommendation of what to use for greasing the slide pins? They seized up on my last Taco before I could even get through a set of pads. I want to include brake servicing in my routine and do it every year or so. I was thinking of just spraying everything down with brake cleaner then greasing the pins, but not sure what is best to use. I was thinking just some anti-seize but maybe a white lithium grease is better. Thoughts?

Aside from brake fluid change (which I'm in no panic to do) anything else I should do with brake servicing/maintenance?

 

I used copper anti-seeze on mine. Should be alright I would hope.

 

OK so let me understand this . We don't need to turn / resurface the roters ? I remember the olden days it needed to be done or you would get a vibration after about 2000 or 3000 miles.

 

On my 06, I got almost 60k on the first set and about 90k on the second set. They were the same oem pads too.