Tacoma Rear Disc Brakes

This guy knows how brakes work....

 

They're "lower maintenance" because they go out of adjustment and you end up relying on the fronts for the vast majority of braking.

That's why there are late 90s tacomas with 200k+ that have never touched the rear brakes. That's because they don't work.

"Low maintenance". . . .

 

All our trucks have modern self adjustment levers that adjust the toothed wheel bolt. We're not in the 50's anymore, those drums required adjustment back then.

 

Toyota can cite all the reasons they want us to think they didnt put disks in the rear but the only one thats actually true is:

They were lazy and cheap.

They had a disk/drum setup from the older tacoma. They have a disk/disk setup from the 4runner/FJ which share the same general platform as the tacoma. They had 10 years to develop the new tacoma and could have picked either setup to go with...
they took the path of least resistance and for the so-called all new truck, they cheaped out and did not spend one iota of brain power to use the disk/disk setup that is literally staring them in the face and superior in every way over the disk/drum. Even if only 20% of the brake power is in the rear, I would still hope that they would put in 100% effort into that 20% than not. Its nearly a 40K truck fully optioned, it can be used for towing more so than a corolla, yet the latter gets disk brakes (option, but at least its available).

 

No. 5 minutes of research would have told you most of your comment is made-up.

 

Totally agree. If your going to do anything to your tacoma, it will be the front. I am plenty happy with the drums and power booster (i believe thats what they called it) on the rear.

 

When I went from a disc front/rear drum Tundra to a "new and improved" front/rear all disc brakes Tundra, the all wheel disc brakes felt mushy and less firm than on the old disc/drum Tundra, and there was no improvement on stopping either.

When I drive my LTD T4R all wheel disc brakes, I miss the solid brake feel of my '16 taco...Just thought I'd mention it

Cheers!

 

*you're

And yes. I have a '15 4Runner TE. The shorter wheelbase and better weight distribution make it much better to me on the trails. I'm sure.

 

Apparently every other truck manufacture except Toyota sees the benefit.

 

You all are asking the wrong questions.

Yep, Toyota screwed you with the archaic and ancient drum brakes. Even the Corolla has rear disks now! There is a reason semi trucks are slowly moving away from drums as well. In fact, I'm genuinely surprised it is cheaper to build and install drum brakes when most everything else around has disk brakes.

That being said, why aren't you asking why Tacomas have smaller FRONT brakes than the comparable 4Runner? And not just a 1/4" smaller, over 2.5" smaller. 4runner front brakes are 25% larger diameter than Tacoma rotors. Sure, you get to run 16" wheels, but that doesn't get you much when 17s already have a much larger tire selection... A Tacoma (properly equipped) is rated to tow more than a 4runner, yet has smaller front brakes and drums in the rear. Well done.

Data from Toyota:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...jcD0_gRH5aCbbDf3g&sig2=m3D23wK5gVDDxtj6ThpdXQ

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...-9RqRE1bVRFMjJn0Q&sig2=fjGcPXLxIFvuARx1KO_S8g

 

Aww Fuc.... I should've bought a 4Runner....
Gonna call my salesman about a T4R...

 

Toyota fucked up their data sheets. Your front rotors are not 10.75"... that's laughable, that's SMALLER than Miata sized, anyone with functioning eyes can look at them and see that they are not 10 inches.

Someone @ corporate stuffed it and made a huge typo.

They are actually 319 mm, which works out to 12.5" - so about 3/4" smaller vs the 4runner's 338 mm rotors.

I can't seem to find any confirmation whether or not 4runners have 13WL's up front, in which case it's just a matter of a bracket and you've got your bigger front rotors.

 

Just confirmed via T4R.org that 5th gen 4runners have a 14WA as opposed to our 13WLs. They have slightly larger pistons to match the slightly larger rotors.

Also keep in mind that T4R's are much fatter than Tacos:

Taco curb weight range:
3,980 to 4,480 lbs

T4R curb weight range:
4,400 to 4,805 lbs

 

There's more than one side of the cost/benefit equation I didn't feel I needed to detail because I didn't want to appear as a hater...even tho it's just facts. (We kinda have a small UC Berkeley contingent on here it seems).

First, (and maybe most obvious) are that disc brake dissipate heat more efficiently than drum and are more affective especially during heavy use. That's the user part of the benefit.

Second, is that Toyotas build cost is lower while still being able to sell the truck, a manufacturer benefit. As another (bright) user has already noted, there's more to disc brakes than just changing from a drum to a disc....reservoir size/pressure etc.

In the EU disc brakes on heavy trucks are already required. In the US while FMVSS has strengthened the standard and required shorter stopping distance of heavy trucks (in the past ~ 5 years) manufactures have increased the drum size to help with fade resistance and thus somewhat avoided the cost impact. As the requirement tightens, I believe we will see more air operated disc on heavy trucks.

 

Effective

 

I want rear disc brakes on my truck with better fronts too.