Crashnburn80's 1st Gen TRD Double Cab Build

Thanks for the tip, I may give that a try. It doesn't look as bad at a glance as the photos show, but in direct sunlight it is noticeable.

 

Yup gentle, yet abrasive enough to get it out it looks good under direct sunlight too. Not too shabby for $7

$9 PolyWatch 6417084129062 SS013059000 Plastic Watch Crystal Scratch Remover Polish Tool

https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Crys...qid=1689796853&sprefix=poly+wa,aps,154&sr=8-2

 

Coming back from a bike ride today with my kid, I had a car on the right side of the road at a neighborhood entrance make a left across my lane toward me. Except they did not make the left into their lane, they made it into mine setting up a head on collision and maintained that course. Full on panic stop laying on the horn. But the Tacoma did not stop that fast at all. Fortunately the other vehicle swerved into their own lane at the last minute narrowly avoiding a head on collision. Brakes definitely need to be improved.

 

Did you already do your brake upgrade to the 1st gen? Or is it still stock?

 

glad you’re all ok. The 1st gen brakes definitely need improving. I had a similar emergency stop with mine when I thought they were ok and I stopped about 1” from impact with the other car. That next day I ordered reman 13wl tundra calipers from Napa and all other parts for the upgrade.

if you want to “do it right” and not have to come back to it, check out https://adventuretaco.com/guide/step-by-step-tundra-brake-upgrade-on-a-tacoma-or-4runner/ and feel free to substitute in the StopTech cryo rotors and non-OEM pads.

 

If you're upgrading to the Tundra brakes, since you have an 01-04 with ABS and thus the single diaphragm booster and don't like the pedal feel after the brake upgrade, you could check out the SOS Sequoia master cylinder conversion which though made for a 1st gen Tundra, has the same booster bolt pattern as a Taco single booster bolt pattern. The feeback on pedal feel after the Tundra brake install is pretty variable, for instance 3rd gen t4r owners complain of a soft pedal, however after installing them on my wife's t4r and replacing front and rear hoses with ss and thoroughly bleeding the brakes, the pedal feels just as good as my 2nd gen Taco (which uses the same calipers with the brake line port in a slightly different position due to having front steer).

 

My 2003 with ABS with the tundra 13wl swap felt good on the pedal. I didn’t touch the master cylinder or rear drums.

 

That’s what the majority of 01-04 owners with ABS and the the single diaphragm booster and the 13/16” MC seem to experience. The non-ABS 01-04 and all 95.5-2000 trucks with the dual diaphragm booster and the 1” MC are apparently the group of people that tend to have a squishy pedal according to what I’ve seen here.

 

Still stock brakes with whatever was on there when I bought it. I’ve had the fluid flushed and rears adjusted, but that’s it.

I’ve seen the Tundra swap many times, I'm personally not a huge fan of the inter-vehicle-model brake swaps. Results seem all over the board whether the MC can actually handle the increased caliper capacity. On 2nd Gen this is the 4runner caliper swap, and some seem ok, others have never ending problems of soft pedal, excessive throw, lack of engagement. I looked at that on my 2nd Gen before going with a stoptech BBK instead as it was 100% proven without issue. On the 1st Gens the Tundra swap does seem far more adopted, countless companies offer a "BBK" using the Tundra components. I originally had planned to do just a pad and rotor upgrade, but with the heavy E-load 33s, the Tundra swap may be in order.

 

Or.... Lighter tires.

 

… and …

 

I have 265/75/16 “c rated” and the fairly light 96-02 T4R 5-spoke alloy wheels.

I don’t think I’m going to do the Tundra upgrade but have your StopTech brake upgrade thread saved. That’s probably the route I’m going to go.

 

What have you done in terms of replacing front and rear hoses?

 

Replacing the stock rubber lines may improve performance somewhat, but not fix the sub par performance overall. And that’s with an unloaded, relatively stock truck other than heavy tires. For those 1st gens (over)loaded, stock brakes are unsafe.

 

When I replaced the rear hose with a ss one on my 3rd gen t4r which already had the Tundra front calipers and ss front hoses, I noticed a significant increase in performance. On my first gen Taco I have 5th gen t4r calipers and El Dorado rear calipers on a 9" axle with a GM 1 5/16" MC on 35" tires. I wanted to go with a Wilwood, however their bracket for the 2nd / 3rd gen doesn't have the correct inboard/outboard location (although by like 1/8-3/16" IRRC). If they made a correct bracket for a 1st gen you would be able to bolt up their 2nd / 3rd gen option. When going to 5th gen t4r calipers I went off of this table:

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

and Erik's 4x4 brake MC bore to caliper surface area graph (unfortunately his site is no longer online) to come up with a MC bore to match the piston surface area in the front.

 

I've run several iterations and combos of Caliper and MC, Pads make more difference in a 1 off emergency stop than any of the easily available upgrades.

Now if you are looking for peace of mind when doing (potentially) multiple hard stops with your over weight and larger tire rig, then larger rotor and corresponding caliper would be in order, but pads are still under appreciated in this community imo.

I'm running 14WA Calipers with 2010 GX470 Rotors and now run Carbotech 1521 pads, now I have not run them with stock rotors/calipers, but the initial bite and ramp up is beyond the stock experience, and massively beyond any of the available Rock auto pads or Stoptech (Z23?) pads also available on rock auto.

 

if it makes you feel any better about the swap, the 1st gen tundras with the 13WE or WL calipers use the same master cylinder as the 01-04 tacos. and the exact same rear brakes

 

Was there ever any more information on the topic of 3 vs 2 relays on the ground switched harness from Headlight Services?

 

My setup continues to work fine. Didn’t really dig into it much

 

That actually alleviates my main concerns about mixing and matching parts of the brake system yes.

I honestly don't recall. I'll ping HS and see.