New to Toyota World!!! Howdy y'all!!

Hello,
I just joined this awesome site tonight. I already have a question....
I am about to embark on replacing my front brake pads for th first time ever, as a smarter than usual female who is no stranger to light maintenance to any vehicle I have ever owned. This is my first Toyota. I have had other trucks, Jeeps in the past. But, never replaced pads. I want to do it myself.
My question is this (having the new pads including all replacement hardware and large container of brake fluid, dot 3).
What tools will I need for this project, I have a Haynes maintenance guide but it does not tell me the tools I will be needing. Just says place a piece of wood 1/2 " thick between the caliper pistons.
Please tell me anything that will help me. Thank you
4u2desire

 

Good morning from the east coast and welcome to the site.
I'm sure some west coasters will chime in on the proper tools you will need for a brake change. If not, bump the thread up in the afternoon.
There is no shortage of folks who have great info on this site.

 

As far as I know, most 4x4 Toyotas had calipers that look like this. I had a '91 for years and it had the same (or similar) calipers to my 2014. Actually the only difference I noticed was that the calipers on my '91 were cast iron and on my 2014 they are cast aluminum. Both year trucks have calipers like the picture below, except I never painted mine.

The Toyota design is great because you do not need to remove the caliper to change pads. All you really need is a pair of pliers and a flat screw driver.



First you would remove that long straight piece of wire on the left of the picture. See how it goes through both pins to lock them from sliding out.

After the "locking wire" is removed both slide pins can be removed. They are the gold colored pins with heads on them. They may be stuck tight so you may have to tap them with a hammer from the side opposite the head to get them started moving. After they move a small amount from the tapping you should be able to grab the head with pliers and pull them out.

Next remove the "W" shaped wire. It's just an anti-rattle device. It keeps pressure on the pads to keep them from rattling when they are slack.

At this point the pads should pull straight out of the caliper. But before you pull them out use a flat screw driver to pry on the old pads and force the pistons back into the caliper body. Hopefully the pistons move freely. You can also use the pliers to squeeze the very top of the pad backing plate to the caliper body just to give you a tiny bit of slack to wiggle a screwdriver in there. The pads should then be well loose and pull straight out easily.

Installation is the reverse. Slip in the pads then the slide pins. Be sure to have the anti rattle wire in place as you insert the one slide pin into place (see pic for reference). It shouldn't matter whether the anti rattle wire is on the upper or lower pin. A good practice is to coat the pins with some anti seize so they come out easily next time. Then you insert the "locking wire" into the ends both slide pins and make sure the tang in the center of the locking wire fits into the hole in the caliper, thus locking everything together.

That's pretty much it! If everything is in good shape you can change the pads in a short amount of time and with minimal tools. In fact it may take longer to jack up the vehicle and remove the wheel! You may also consider using Vise-Grip pliers, perhaps the needle nose type. They give better grip than regular pliers. Hope it goes well!

 

Cand i install that caliper in my 2007 tacoma xrunner?

 

I have a bracket that adapt the 4 piston caliper to the xrunner or base model.

 

Toyota brakes are a genius design. Lots of power and easy to work on

 

Welcome
I think there is a sticky thread in the beginning of the 2nd gen section on how to do this
usually pretty easy have done it many times on my gen 1s and 2
good luck