Brake Upgrade with Tundra or 4Runner Calipers & Rotors?

But all that requires a 17 in wheel correct?

 

I think it depends on the wheel. People have tried 3rd gen Sport wheels and they definitely didn’t work because the spoke hit the calipers. But they *probably* would have worked on the 13WH brakes due to the narrower rotor. Sort of a hit or miss thing I think.

 

Yes, you are not getting bigger brakes without a 16” wheel. If you’re sticking with 16’s there is no reason to look any further at any of this.

 

OK but isnt there also a frankenstein master brake setup you can use from a Tundra. Take a Tundra brake master cylinder and weld a nut on the rod in order to bring the rod back into the specs of the Tacoma but you have a bigger master cylinder bore ?
What year Tundra would this be off of ?

 

Don’t mess with the master/booster to achieve brake upgrades. All you can really do with that is get yourself a hard pedal that you might think feels good but actually downgrades braking performance.

larger bore MC reduces pressure into the caliper given the same amount of pedal travel as a smaller bore. Or put another way, it will take much more effort to get the same braking as you had before.

 

Why are owners taking the TUndra master cylinder and extending the rod then when they add bigger calipers ?

It appears the Tundra brake booster is larger than Taco can you use a Tundra Brake booster on Taco Master cylinder that way get bigger vacuum booster without all the issues you just mentioned about lower pressure from Tundra MC ?

 

Well when you add larger calipers, you have a reason to do so…larger calipers, if large enough, need more fluid flow which the larger bore MC accomplishes. Larger bore MC paired to the same old calipers results in a decrease in pressure and requires much more pedal effort to stop.

What is the end goal here? Are you trying to solve a stopping problem or change the feel more to your preference? Are you willing to ditch the 16’s? If you’re staying on the 16’s you should pretty much drop the whole subject other than brake pad compound, because you won’t fit larger wheel brakes and you don’t want to touch the MC if you’re not messing with those.

I don’t know about a tundra booster but I highly doubt you can just install one and attach it to the Tacoma MC. tundras do have larger bore MCs and a larger booster to help drive it, but that is flowing into much larger calipers. So you still wouldn’t want the booster/master combo on your stock calipers.

 

Like to have bigger calipers, rotors, and pads have a 4 door Prerunner and it be good for it to stop better. This DG92071 user claims they did this "2010+ 4Runner front rotors, calipers, and ceramic pads on my 2006 Tacoma." plus the master cylinder. They claim they have 17 in wheels but say that with the spacer ( not sure if this is a wheel offset or what exactly) that their setup could be used with 16 in wheels as long as you use a certain spacer. So why is this user claiming this can be done with a spacer?
Not sure which spacer this is exactly. Thread link is below

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/my-2006-tacoma-brake-upgrade-edited.652471/

 

He needed spacers because of the construction of his wheel, in order to clear the exterior side of the caliper with his wheel spokes. He then said that he has more than 1/2” clearance between the wheel and caliper, and so for his specific wheel, if he had a 16” version he thinks it would work.

there are several problems with that. Not all wheels are the same. Stock wheels are usually beefier and have less clearance. Depending on where wheel weights need to go, he may have less clearance than he thinks. So it’s hard to say with confidence with a 16” wheel would clear.

He chose to change the MC to match the larger piston calipers. You can do that, but you don’t need to...it’s a matter of preference and how you want it to feel. You can firm up the pedal some but will lose pressure. The flip side is that you shouldn’t install only the master cylinder on your stock calipers.

I’d say either go get a set of 4R wheels and do the 2010+ calipers, or just leave it alone. Don’t do anything with the MC or booster until you do the calipers and decide you want to further tweak the results.

 

Well it does look like he has aftermarket wheels or something. Below is my wheel it came on the truck not sure what kind these are.

But I dont know the spacer he's talking about. If i had the spacer I would just get a caliper and try if it fits. If caliper fits probably the rotor and everything else will too.

 

For fitment testing you need the caliper and rotor. The rotor will help make sure the wheel is in the real world spot. The spacer is for clearing the caliper with the spokes. Some wheels won’t clear those calipers, the spokes will hit. That is part of why 4Runner wheels are shallower than Tacoma.

Wherher or not the 16” portion fits will totally be up to the wheel. A sterile like you have is more likely to work than an alloy. Especially because you normally clip wheel weights to the outside of a steelie instead of sticking them on the inside in the caliper area. Buy the parts and try it out to see how it goes.

 

Are the spacers called anything or just some machined piece of steel with 6 holes drilled for studs?

Do they sell these spacers anywhere?

 

How are you measuring 4Runner rotor as 338 ?

Just checked and Tacoma stock rotors are 140 mm. how you meausuring exactly because Rockauto specs make no sense.

 

140mm does not make sense 338mm is the diameter of the rotor. 140mm wouldn't be the rotor that would be tiny. (5.5" rotor). 338 are 13.3" rotors.

 

4runner rotors are not fitting these wheels. 100%. You need to run a 17" wheel to run that setup. You can often find take offs on marketlpace/craigslist etc.

 

That brand had a weird specs i checked another and it says Tacoma 6 lug front rotors are 12.551 in or about 319 mm. So before i even try to fit a 4runner caliper on there needs to be about 10-11 mm of free space between the top of stock rotor and the wheel for 4runner 338 mm rotors to have a chance at fitting on.

 

So the 2010 plus 4runner rotors are thicker and slightly larger diameter than the 05-08 Tacos ?

How do 6 lug Prerunner Taco caliper compare to 2010 plus 4Runner calipers?

Do 2018 Tacos NOT have larger diameter rotors and larger calipers? I assume not since seems the swap from 4Runnner is what is common. Surprising if 2018 Tacos do not have bigger brakes than 05-08 Prerunner 6 lug trucks.

 

All 2005+ 6-lug Tacomas have the same brakes.

like I said. 10+ 4R have larger calipers with 48mm pistons and larger rotors that are 338mm instead of 319mm. They are also thicker at 32mm instead of 28mm.

03-09 4R and GX470 come standard with the same brakes as Tacomas, but they had an optional upgrade to 338mm rotors, which were still only 28mm wide. Those rotors used calipers that also had 45mm pistons like the Tacoma. So that upgrade was simply leverage and nothing else.

Both the 03-09 upgrade and the 10+ stuff require 17” wheels. 10+ require spacers or special wheels sometimes to clear the wider caliper that is wider because of the wider rotor.


Like I’ve said a few times, you can either give up by keeping the 16’s or you can buy the parts and try to fit them and see how it goes. It may work, or it may not. You may need a wheel spacer to clear the 10+ calipers and even then, you may still hit the caliper anyways due to the rim being too small (16”). Try and see.

 

You have all the info in front of you including a shopping list and step by step directions.

I don’t believe he claimed anything. He did it. Others have done it. I’ve done it on each of my 2nd gens.

Google is your friend. Read up on Tacoma brake upgrades and find out what’s in your budget and you feel comfortable doing.

Would have been best to ask your questions in that thread. I’d want answers from the peeps that have done it. My.02

 

So someone said going to 4Runner calipers was not worth the trouble and they are right. I found a 4Runner caliper and test fitted it and it would not work with my 16 in wheels, at least not without alot of grinding and it still might not have fit. Maybe in the future might go with a Tundra dual diaphagm master cylinder combo.

Finally, I just decided on some semi-metallic brake pads and upgraded to stainless steel brake lines.