Brake line recall

Yeah, but that's a dry cold.

 

Do we know what the fix is? Replace with SS braided line, kevlar sleeve over original line, spring sleeve over original line?

 

Is there a reason it couldn’t be a tightly-routed l hard line? Are they floating calipers? I haven’t taken the wheels off and looked at them

 

Not sure about that, all it's doing is adding stress to the brake line while limiting (slightly) some of the brake fluid flow.
--- reply to RX1cobra ---

 

Unknown at this time.

 

Owners can call 1-800-331-4331 and ask about recall 25TB04 and 25TA04.

 

No but it must not be as simple as a new line that is say 1" shorter (tighter bend radius, resulting in more clearance to wheel body), or they'd be done already. Current line/material must be at its max bend radius already. But once they get a solution, the next problem is finding manufacturers who can churn out 106,000 (x2) versions of the fix (new line, brackets, or maybe even a new caliper with a relocated fluid port) in short order. And of course they'll also have to exhaustively test whatever fix they come up with. But it's hard not to come back to the fact that they've known about this since last July. Aftermarket suspension/brake companies could probably come up with a solution in 1/10th the time of the Toyota bureaucracy, but they'd still need the exhaustive testing, which they aren't equipped to do.

 

I've never seen a caliper with a hard line run to it. Would make changing pads and rotors a pain.

 

I’d hope not. SS braided lines are not designed to resist abrasion. They’re supposedly designed with the intent to resist expansion from hydraulic pressure.

The correct way to solve this problem is for Toyota to put some thought into designing a proper routing that ensures nothing will rub, snag, or impact the hose.

Some really good points about snow and mud were brought up. It’s also worth noting that mud and ice aren’t guaranteed to be evenly deposited on the inside of the wheel. Mud will carry with it clumps and twigs and rocks. If it takes a few rotations for the brake line to knock a twig/rock loose, you’ve just subjected the line to a few impacts/abrasions it was never designed to take. How many times will it take to degrade the line from getting thumped
and abraded like that? Who knows? Ice/snow can be worse in some ways. At winter temps in a lot of places, ice is harder than many types of rock. Those temps will also make materials more brittle or subject to damage.

 

It's common to have a hard line to a caliper. My 4Runner is hardline to caliper. If you look at one of the pictures posted you can see a short hard line running from the hose to the caliper.

 

And it looks like they clamped a small bolt in that first one, for whatever reason:

 

Because it was leaking and they needed to stop the flow. Creative solution to a problem.

 

I think he means a floating caliper, not the the fixed ones we have on our 6-lug trucks

 

My wilwoods on my race car are hard, but pads just slide out the back.

 

I meant a full hard line like you'd see for a wheel cylinder. There may be a short hard line at the caliper that connects a rubber hose. If there wasn't youd have to disconnect the brake line to pull the caliper to do brakes.

 

Should say I've never seen factory. So you have to disconnect the line to change a rotor? I'd say that's weird but I trust wilwood enough to say they had a good reason and don't need to be as service friendly as factory stuff.

 

Nah, there’s a lot of flex in a hard line. Pull the pads and the rotors come off easily

but also bleeding brakes the once a decade you need rear rotors ain’t a big deal

 

Here is a pic from the EPC for my 1985 4Runner. This same set up was used at least through 1995 on mini-trucks. 47313A is the hose. 47344 is the hard line to caliper. I would not be surprised if this same general idea was used on the rear calipers on the Gen4 Tacoma.

I've also seen hose connected direct to calipers using a banjo bolt. In fact, that is the way my
GM calipers are set up on my rear disk brake conversion on my FJ40 (pic).

 

They are floating calipers in the rear, so the "last foot" has to be a hose. 20 years of 4Runners built this way, but routing is changed now to make room for the parking brake actuator. Toyota will probably put a hard elbow on the replacement hose end to route it tighter.

 

I guess when they carried over the Tundra/TNGA-F design it wasn't a problem since even the lowly SRs have 18" wheels. Likewise the LC/GX550 will be okay because they have 18" minimum wheels. Base SR5 6G 4Runners come with 17 inchers so they will need a fix. All other models have 18+" wheels.

I can see how this slipped through the engineering crack. It was an established and well tested solution - with 18" wheels. Maybe Toyota's fix will be to supply everyone with new 18" wheels and tires.