How to Change Front Brakes (Pads and Rotors)

Nice catch. World famous Junior's Cheesecake.
I was getting hypoglycemic doing all this front end work. LOL.

Also note the weight bench... works great for setting down all these expensive Tacoma parts on a nice cushy bench.

 

I've been using Akebono ceramic pads since june and I"m really not impressed, not great and definitely no better than the oem's. I'm going to replace just the pads and I"m considering either Hawk LTS, Hawk 5.0, or the TRD pads. Any thoughts on any of these choices? I've used greenstuff pads and while they worked better than the akebono's, they cause a LOT of dust, WAY more than the ceramics.

 

Just did my brakes and rotors again for the 2nd time thanks to this thread.

OEM Pads and Rotors # 104,xxx miles. Took me less than 2 hours from start to finish!!! Thanks OP!!!

 

I went with the hawk 5.0 pads and I'm very happy with them. No noise at all and they stop much better than my akebono proact ceramics did.

 

Thanks LT. This was just the thing I needed to walk me through.

 

Good looking out man-
This is going to be super helpful when I try replacing my own, thanks !

 

Great pics! Love the kit! Slightly off topic, what did you use to reqorque the axle nut? Did you have a heavy duty torque wrench? I have a 24" HF 1/2" drive breaker bar like you do do, but I don't feel comfortable using that alone to retorque the nut. I also have an impact gun that can do 300 ft.lbs. My fear is that I'll overdo it.

 

I wasn't worried about overtightening as much as undertightening. Going to 170 ft-lbs needs a lot of leverage and oomph.
I have a torque wrench that goes to 150 ft-lbs, but not to 175 for the axle nut. Couldn't see myself buying another torque wrench so I borrowed one from our facilities guy at work. It was a nice Precision Instruments Split Beam 50-250 ft-lb:

$248 Torq Wr 1/2 Dr Split-Beam Click Style 250Ft Lbs

http://www.amazon.com/Precision-Ins...&keywords=precision+instruments+torque+wrench
Damn torque wrench was work of art actually. I was afraid to scratch it or even leave fingerprints on it when I returned it.

 

That thing looks nice! That's a great idea. Borrow one from someone! Appreciate it!

 

Yeah. I think the pair of axle bolts is one of the rare fasteners that need to be torqued over 150 ft-lbs. Cost Benefit Analysis in my head told me to borrow.

 

This is why it's recommended to have the rotors turned or replaced with each pad change. It's pretty cheap and many auto parts shop can do it. They also mic the width to make sure it's still in tolerance and can tell you if it's time to replace.

I always tell my family to buy a second set of rotors when they ask me to change their pads. It means that I can get their pads and rotors changed without waiting on a shop to have the rotors turned and they can have their old set turned on their own time. So you just swap back and forth between rotors for each pad change until they're out of spec.

 

Nice idea. I'm going to do it this way.
Unless... you adopt me. Then you can change my pads I'll make sure I have freshly turned rotors for you

 

Hello everyone, I'm thinking of changing my brakes for the first time. My current 2008 tacoma has 73k miles. I have no problems with stopping and no noise issue. Here are some pictures of my passenger brake and rotor. Do you guys think it is time to change or I can last another few thousand miles? Driver side brakes and rotor looks the same as passenger Thanks for the advice. If you have any advice for brake and rotor kit recommendation. Considering the EBC Stage 4 Signature Brake Kit.

 

^looks like quite a bit of pad left. I'd let it go another 10-15k miles and check again.

 

Yep still some good pad left. I use that slit down the middle of the pads as a wear indicator. Mine was just a little more worn than these and changed them and the rotors just because of the mileage I had on them (105k I think) and was getting a little rotor wiggle. I never actually got to the actual metal tab screeching indicator....

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep using my current brakes. Do you mind tell me your current brake & rotor setup? I want to have an idea what I'll will change to when the times come. What are your opinion on :
-EBC Stage 4 Signature Brake Kit
-PowerSlot slotted rotors and Hawk LTS pads

 

Those would be nice, quite fancy compared to what I'm running

I ended up with Centric Premium blanks and Hawk LTS pads. The pads I got for a great price from a member getting rid of them here; otherwise I probably would have gotten OEM pads.

 

Hey guys, I received my new calipers for the front (old ones are quite literally sticking to the rotor) and new brake lines.

The banjo bolt on the new Stainless Steel flexible brake lines doesn't just screw into the caliper like i'd expect. when the bolt is 3/4 of the way down there is some resistance. I can see a rubber seal inside the caliper where the banjo bolt goes in. I don't want to over torque the banjo bolt and ruin the caliper.

Does anyone know if the banjo bolt seats around the rubber gasket/seal inside the brake caliper? is the length of the banjo bolt a standardized item?

Bought both of the parts from Rock Auto. CENTRIC 14144246 caliper and CENTRIC 95044007 SS brake line.

 

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