Tundra Brakes on '03 Tacoma

What’s the difference between a Tundra brake upgrade and a brake upgrade like below?

https://www.tacomaworld.com/media/20180203_114501.595397/

 

I couldn't remember what it was called. Haha

 

I'm just seeing some rotors.

 

So the rotor below is like a stock, cheap one from Pep Boys. The one above is larger in diameter and requires the dust shield being partially cut to compensate for the additional room. Would the performance of the larger rotors be equal to that of a tundra brake swap?

 

No you won't be able to utilize that rotor without Tundra calipers.

 

The tundra brakes help in several areas. For me an important part of the upgrade was a larger/thicker rotor that would dissipate heat better than the stock size. This helped a ton with brake fade and prevented warping rotors when I was coming down a mountain fully loaded with gear. The tundra calipers have 4 pistons vs the 2 piston ones tacos have stock, this allows for more pressure to be applied to the rotor in a larger surface area. The calipers themselves are much larger, helping dissipate heat better here too. If you need the big brake upgrade you'll know bc your stock brakes wont keep up with your driving. If your stock brakes do what you need then just go with good pads and rotors, maybe some fresh fluid.

 

the brake upgrade I linked have bigger rotors, is this different than the tundra upgrade? Seems like the only difference is the tundra upgrade has more pistons

 

All calipers on Tacomas, 4runners, Tundras, GX460's etc. are 4 piston, they're just different size pistons and rotors:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tacoma-brakes-swaps-and-tech.468271/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/brake-upgrade-stoptech-rotors-trd-performance-pads.523829/

 

Just a heads up that I understand this feedback and am using thinner clips now in the kits. Thanks guys, and sorry you had a tough time getting them in.

The link you included was to a photo, not a post about a brake upgrade, which is why folks are saying "there's more to it than that." I'd say a couple things:

• There are a couple of different "big brake" upgrades - the bolt-on ones are are all "tundra" and you'll see that they have:
  • bigger rotors (as your picture shows)
  • bigger calipers
  • new pads (for the calipers)
  • new brake lines (SS to get the best performance)
• The difference is in the rotor/caliper size. 13WE are a little smaller, 13WL are a little larger. You want the 13WL - here's why: Hard to find Specs, Info & Measurements on 231mm 13WL Tundra Calipers & Rotors
  
• As far as the upgrade itself, here's a step-by-step guide to doing it, along with all the parts you need in order to get it done with the bigger (and better) 13WL calipers (all bolt-on): Step by Step Tundra Brake Upgrade on a Tacoma

By all means, shout if you have questions!

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No worries. I just won't be able to remove them
Glad you're taking care of it so people won't struggle in the future. Kit is still 100% worth it.

 

Just hit it with a dremel if you can’t get it with some channel locks - I’ve found Knipex pliers to work excellent for these.

 

I'm looking to do this upgrade in the very near future and am in the process of gathering parts. Doesn't look like the calipers are available through Napa at the moment. Has anyone had success using rebuilt calipers from some of the other auto parts suppliers?

 

I'm currently running an O'Reilly caliper on my driver side.

Even though I like the Napa Eclipse, as long as you use the hard line kit, you can run a 13WL from anywhere - they're all mostly rebuilt the same way, and they all come with lifetime warranty (at least, the ones I got from Napa and the ones I got from O'Reilly did). With that warranty, even if one is bad, you can always get a new one. I actually like knowing that I can go to either parts store now if I'm on the trail someone and one barfs.

 

all the major parts store ones are remanufactured by a1 cardone. napa just happens to have them painted before putting them in a box.

 

I went with 14WA’s (5th gen 4runner calipers). They were $10 a piece cheaper than Tundra calipers and I got them for ~$300 from my local dealership that sells online and charges $3 to let me pick them up at their parts department. I bought a remanned one from O’Reillys to test fit and the $100-$120 difference for the the pair of oem calipers made sense.

 

did you have them machined

 

Hey man, so I bought your conversion kit and everything was high quality and worked out great for me. One issue I had was with clearance with Total Chaos spindle gussets. I had to notch my gussets to make the hard lines work:



Totally understand that this is a kinda niche case and redesigning all the brackets and hard lines to work with the gussets is not a small task. Just wanted to bring it up if it hasn't been brought up before.

 

No - @Bandido used 4th gen 4runner / GX470 rotors which are thinner and measured the piston depth and decided they wouldn’t over extend themselves when the inner pads wore down. I copied this setup and made shims to go on the inside since my spindle mounts aren’t stock and sit a little further outboard than stock. I might approach it by modifying my mounts in the future since I could just gusset the mounts and add some material outboard to tap while planing off some from the inside and then be able to use BBk upgrades for 2nd/3rd gens.

 

I’ve considered the RR racing bbk and just machining the mount 3mm to use fancy 6 piston calipers

 

Thanks for the feedback.

The coating was also something that made the Napa calipers more desirable from a rust prevention standpoint. Do the O'reilly's seem to be holding up well for people that have used them?