Tundra Brakes on '03 Tacoma

The O'Reilly definitely has some surface rust on it compared to the Napa caliper but that doesn't bother me since it's only a visual thing and I'm over on the west coast and don't have to worry all that much about rusty stuff. If it did, I could just hit it with a bit of caliper paint.

 

Good to know, thanks. And, certainly no difference as far as your hard line kit is concerned, right?

 

None at all.

 

If anyone is considering doing this upgrade in the near future, it's a good time to pick up parts at Napa. They're giving 20% off if you buy three or more items and a promotional tool bag.

Calipers, brake fluid and the tool bag:

 

When upgrading to the Tundra calipers, do I need to switch to Dot 4? Truck calls Dot Dot 3 on the reservoir lid.

 

They’ll both work.

 

I’m going to revive this old thread to ask a question. 2001 truck with 13WL non-ABS.

Of course I’ve had these brakes in my truck for many years…I don’t drive my Tacoma very often anymore but my friend just bought a 2004 Tacoma so I took mine out of the garage to drive it over to check out his new truck. Holy crap. His brakes are way firmer and all stock. I’m starting to think maybe I should change the booster out? I have a 2001 and from my re-reading of this thread it seems like the pre-01 boosters have a single diaphragm and result in a firmer pedal feel? My pedal seems to behave like others have mentioned. First press is very spongy and second press firms up. Of course, I will re-bleed the entire system before throwing parts at it. Is there a consensus as to which master cylinder/brake booster provides the optimal pedal feel?

 

I have a 2001 (non-ABS) with the 13WL calipers and stock master and brake booster, and the pedal is a firmer at first press, and begins to grab at the very top of the pedal. I've had the spongy pedal after initial install, and even considered removing the 13WL calipers altogether, but that changed after using a pressure bleeder and tapping the calipers with a rubber mallet while bleeding to dislodge any trapped air bubbles in the caliper. I probably bled the brakes 10 times using the 2-man method, before I decided to get a pressure bleeder.

 

Bleed your brakes and make sure the rears are properly adjusted. Nearly everyone who thinks they need a different MC just don’t have the rears grabbing soon enough. (Thus requiring extra pedal travel.)

 

You've got to bleed it some more. You already have the better BMC/booster on there.

 

Thanks for the report.

My rears should be properly adjusted. I remember going down a drum brake rabbit hole a while ago.

Bleeding more is my current plan. Was just curious if any decision was made as to which is the optimum combination of booster and MC. By your report, I have it.

 

What process did you use to bleed last time?

 

Looks like by a post I made in this thread years ago, I went rear pass, rear driver, BPB, front pass, front driver. Lots of opinions on when to throw the BPV in the mix

 

I'll tell you how I did it and it works for me. I always bleed my brakes this exact way on all my vehicles and I've never had a single issue.

Looks like I told you 4 years ago LOL
Do it that way. Start with the LSPV.

 

Right on. It may not have been touched in the past 4 years so that may be my fix. I kind of parked the truck and forgot about my projects I was doing on it.

 

Use this opportunity to empty out the reservoir and use fresh DOT3 or DOT4 fluid. Open the valve on the LPSV and keep pumping til you start seeing fresh fluid. Keep an eye on the reservoir so you don't accidentally pump the brake pedal with it empty.

 

Is your booster a double or single diaphragm? Been developing a list of what comes with what over the years and options.

 

Single.

 

i've been researching the bleed sequence with my setup, and every time i think i've found the a convincing answer i trip across some new recommendation. i have a 98 with ABS, and did the 13wl upgrade with adventure taco's hardline kit, and installed a LPSV (somebody had removed it) when i replaced the rear suspension. stock MC and booster. in one of the other threads a few folks were very convincing about going PR, DR, LSPV, DF, PF for my setup. then i saw a timmy the toolman video about bleeding a 3rd gen 4R, and he stated the LPSV should be done last per the FSM. seems like he's as reliable a source as i could hope for, but i looked in my FSM, and it only mentions bleeding based on distance. now i also see to bleed the LPSV first above. not really sure why i'm posting this, but i haven't had great brakes since purchase and don't have a great sense of what to expect from all this work. i just want to get the best results possible, and seems like bleed sequence should be a straightforward thing. i know i'm not necessarily helping this convo, but it's a more frustrating topic than i expected.

 

I had a low pedal after installing the tundra brakes, all bled correctly, then I properly adjusted the rear brakes and installed a lspv relocate bracket, also cleaned and lubed all the lspv hardware, now I have a high pedal and great braking.