2016 has rear drum brakes...

Must not have had the Max Trailering package or 6.2:

http://www.silveradosierra.com/brakes/rear-drum-brakes-wtf-t13068.html

"Not all 1500 have rear drums. You can get rear disc brakes in certain option pkg's.

JD9 Brakes, 4-wheel antilock, 4-wheel disc
1 - Included and only available with (NHT) Max Trailering Package
or (L9H) Vortec 6.2L V8 SFI engine."

Those 2010 1500s had discs all around.

 

And I'm not sure about GM's logic on this but who is ever sure of GM's logic? They had discs for years on 1500s, years. Then all of a sudden a rock guard issue made them switch out the entire rear assembly to drums instead of redesigning the rock guard and issuing a recall? They couldn't even pull the rock guard from the 1500 with the better towing package or the 2500 and up? Makes me think they had other reasons but the Google is all over the place on this one.

And I believe your sound judgement in your service managers. I'm not trying to call out your personal judgement. My personal experience with service managers are they are pieces of shit. Especially the one that told me that my truck is a midsize pickup and I shouldn't expect to load anything onto the tailgate without assuming it will bend. That would definitely be lack of judgement on my part, not a weak tailgate design on Toyota's. Even better when the service manager tells me that my transfer case is supposed to leak a little gear oil, it is designed that way. Then type it out and put it in writing so I can keep it in my glovebox because Toyota thinks the same thing.

 

You're right, you can't get the 6.2 L on a 2010 SLE . The 6.2 L was a rare option, and only available on the SLT if I remember correctly, because it's not a great motor for the amount of gasoline it consumes. Most people ordered, and still want, the 5.3 L motor with it's blend of V8 power and fuel efficiency. That's the truck I bought my ex-wife. One of my customers bought it off me during the divorce and it's still running on his farm.

Most service managers are as good as the higher management levels of the dealership. If the dealership is shoddy, so is the service department in my experence. I deal with fleet. I've found the managers I stick around with and I witnessed the GM's in our fleet with destroyed rear discs. I can see why GM chose to stick them on road trucks with the 6.2 L rather than farm/work trucks, which almost always had the 5.3 L.

Sorry to hear you had a bad run with you're Toyota. Never totally turn off of something though. I hate Dodge and I own one now. Honestly it's been a good truck. I don't think brand means what it used too. That being said my Tacoma has been the best vehicle I have ever owned. It's the first truck where I feel like I never want to let go of it.

I do find it typical how basically everyone who is knocking the 3rd gen happens to be someone who had an issue with the 2nd generation. I'm not saying there aren't issues with the 2nd gen. I'm not blinded by my own luck with Tacoma. That being said just because your 2nd gen didn't live up to your expectations doesn't mean the 2.75 or 3rd generation won't fix the exact same issues you currently have, with or without disc brakes .

 

x2, just because they aren't modern doesn't mean drums are bad. They are still a good brake system to use. Their only real downfall is when they get wet, but other than that they are easy to work on, cheap to replace worn components. I think it's nice of Toyota to keep them. The average backyard mechanic can still service the brake system himself without much effort.

 

The age of that stuff has come and gone. I'd bet a good chunk of change it now costs more to offer both manual and electronic 4WD than to just manufacture a single electronic 4WD system.

 

First, thanks for keeping the post calm.

I'm okay with the Tacoma. Just disappointed that it did not live up to some overhyped expectations. Despite its downfalls, I feel it is a safe truck and being paid for, have seriously considered hanging on to it for my son when he is old enough to drive. The sad thing is that is all I think about my truck anymore, worthwhile as a first vehicle for my kid 12 years from now. The worthwhile factor for me is that all the issues I have a 16 year old would never care about...tailgates, vibrations, leaking transfer case, etc. He might care that the CD player is sketchy but he will rip that out like every other teenager and replace it with whatever we are using in 12 years.

It must cost an obscene amount, at least to the bean counters that are watching a quarter of a cent, to offer both a manual and electronic 4wd system. I think, someone correct me, they are still doing so on the 4Runner? Last I looked the Trail came with the mechanical and the Limited had AWD variant. Somehow that option package works for the 4Runner but not for the Tacoma.

That being said, why did the FJ manual have AWD all the time? Was it simpler that way? I feel like it was a cheapness factor which makes the 4Runner make less sense.

And many of us are from an age where we could buffet style order our vehicles. Want leather but manual windows, no problem. This is where the Big Three got it right and wrong. Now that we are more locked into package only type buying/ordering, we're cranky. Maybe they could mass produce Tacomas with drums and those of us that want discs and mechanical 4wd they would let us pay some obscene amount and special order only.

 

Seriously... almost 13,000 views over drum brakes...

Time to move on peeps...

 

As far as I know the 4Runner comes with Electronic 4WD or AWD. I'm pretty sure the 4WD system is almost exactly the same one as the Tacoma and the AWD system is the same as the one on the Highlander. I personally would never want AWD on a truck, a locking center differential is a bare minimum requirement for me on my truck. As for the FJ I believe it had a unique lockable/unlockable center differential. That's something I would enjoy seeing on a truck IF it could handle the stress of loading and unloading all the time.

As for options, I can't see anything but packages for the future. I kind of like it that way. I hated it in the 90's when trucks had a list of about 100 options to take on or off, it got really confusing to understand what options you could or could not have on vehicles.

 

Just checked online, the 4runner still has a mechanical 4wd option. At least I think it is mechanical, there is a stick in the center column next to the shifter. Maybe at the end of some Rube Goldberg contraption the stick just activates some switches. That would be a damn shame but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

new 4runner has mechanical lever for 4wd operation

 

Hmmm, up here in Canada when we took an 2014 SR5 4Runner for a cruise there was a dial for the 4WD. Must be an American option.

 

4R and FJ had/have a Torsen center diff, works very well on and off road. On road - you can leave it in 4 all the time, which is nice to preserve binding going in and out of snow and such on the road. Odd road - again avoids binding on high traction surfaces like slickrock.

 

The auto trans FJ cruiser had a very similar transfer case as the 2nd gen tacomas except it was manually activated. The manual transmission FJ cruisers had the AWD t-case with the center lockable diff.

 

Good to know, but as far as I know Torsen is a limited slip term. I'm not into a LSD center differential. Maybe I'm old school . I'll take a good old locking center differential over that.

Again, good to know.

 

It is, and you can lock it.

 

Yeah in Canada we can't get the "base" model 4Runner. We can get a SR5, Limited, or Trail Teams trim. I've only ever been in the SR5 and read about the AWD in the Limited just from the broucher so that's where my impressions were coming from. No wonder they're talking about discontinuing the 4Runner at some point. They don't sell that well and they have at least 3 different powertrain configurations each requiring it's own set of parts .

Anyways, this was a drum brake hate thread at one point lol.

 

Only if you buy the TRD pro, rest of the models have a dial switch for 4wd.

 

Ehhh...I don't see any advantages to rear drums except $. Whatever...as long as the damn thing is available with heated mirrors and seats without having to get the Limited, I'll be content. Heated wheel will obviously have to wait for 5th gen.

 

I've had a lot more issues with rear break lines and calipers seizing with the two vehicles I've owned that had rear discs than any vehicle I've had with drums, I'm not too gung ho about them.

 

I like the drums on my Tacoma's. They are a little harder to service them, but the service life is way better than disks in every one of my experiences. The truck stops and tows fine. I have probably replaced 10 or more rotor's from warping and more than that from wear. I have had a metric shit ton of front calipers (not on my Tacoma's) but on my older trucks and cars front and rear fail. I have had a few wheel cylinders fail in drums, and its a cheap fix compared to caliper. Offroad the drums are more susceptible to mud and water, but they almost always clean back up and continue to work. The rotors and calipers suffer more wear and tear, function a little better when wet and warp more often.

I may be one of the few but I have no reservations about saving a few dollars by keeping drums on the back of a truck. The front needs disk brakes but the back certainly does not.

Our mud drag truck runs rear disk for better performance after being submerged, weight savings and easier to clean large amounts of mud out of wheels after a run.

And to do disk brakes in the rear, the normal approach for parking brake is a mini drum in the disk. which makes parts more expensive. The disks in the back are usually not vented rotors and vented rotors would cost more. All for a small increase in performance vs a large increase in maintenance and cost on the rear of a pickup truck that is usually a small portion of the overall stopping power.