Brake Pad/Rotor Suggestions For Offroad

Just looking for recommendations and input for brake pads and rotors for my taco. With only 15k miles on the truck, the pads are already worn pretty well. I don't drive too crazy, but I do my fair share of off-roading in the mountains and my truck does carry around a lot of extra weight (skids, sliders, bumper, etc).

For the pads, I was thinking of getting Akebono performance pads.

For rotors, I'm a bit more torn. The stoptech slotted cryo rotors looked great until I saw their price of $250 a disc. I'm confident that I want to get a slotted rotor vs non-slotted or slotted+drilled, but don't know who else makes a quality slotted rotor for the tacoma.

 

Damn!
Have you taken the wheel off, pulled the caliper, and measured them?

 

I didn't measure them, but you can look at them yourself. They still have life, but I'm trying to get ready for a 3-week/6000-mile trip this summer and don't want to have to be worrying about brakes.

 

Normal life on OEM pads is 70K miles. Over a 100K miles for drums. Heavy and off-road guys have posted around the same mileage.
You must just want new brakes.

 

Not really. I'm pretty happy with the stock braking performance.

The only complaint I have is that things get stuck in them when off-roading, causing my truck to screech for the next several hours -thus the reason I was eyeing slotted rotors.

The motivation for looking at new brakes is that my pads (which you can see in my previous post) are already starting to wear out at 15k, meaning that I'll need to get new ones in the near future regardless.

 

Does your wife drive the truck most of the time? I've never heard of anyone blowing through pads on these that quick. I've had the screeching only once after I was stuck on a beach. Maybe drilled and slotted would allow debris to dissipate easier, but I think you may have something else going on here. I'd be closely looking for something seized or sticking.

 

I'm the only person, so no worries on that point.

As for the screeching, like I said, only happens very rarely when I go offroading and go through a large mud/water obstacle.

Both passenger and driver side pads look equally worn, so I'm fairly confident it's just wear and not something more serious.

 

Everything you ever wanted to know to help you make your decision.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/brake-upgrade-stoptech-rotors-trd-performance-pads.523829/

 

I gave this thread a good read before posting. Seems as though the TRD pads have been discontinued and what's still for sale is of questionable quality. Thus the reason I was thinking of getting the Akebono pads.

I didn't however see any suggestions for a quality slotted rotor choice besides the stoptech.

 

Z36 kit, SS lines, better fluid, call it.

 

This is a great set up that I have used in many different vehicles in my shop. No complaints so far.

https://www.powerstop.com/product-type/brake-kits/

 

Which fluid would you go with it? Stick with DOT 4 or 5.1?

 

Sosperformance.com has good options

 

Good call. Akebono makes very nice pads

 

Our trucks come with DOT3 but upgrading to DOT4 or DOT5.1 is a good call because they have a higher boiling point. Anyone else reading this though DO NOT PUT DOT5 in a tacoma.

I've actually managed to get the pop-up warning message saying my fluid has overheated so this was an upgrade I was going to do anyway.

 

DOT 4.

 

Akebono’s are good, while I have not used them on my Tacoma yet, I did run them on my Mustang and Trailblazer in the past.

Rotors, I’ve never used slotted. I always went with Wagner or the regular parts store brands and never had an issue. I have heard great things about Stoptech though.







@Mike402
DOT 3, 4 and 5.1 are all glycol-based so technically you can mix them but it generally isn’t suggested to the general public because it can be easy to goof up and drop on DOT 5. The only real difference between 3, 4 and 5.1 is their boiling point.
DOT 5 is silicone based and does not play well with others.

 

Bro, Step 1. Go to Toyota dealership. Step 2. Go to parts counter. Step 3. Ask for their finest Tacoma brake pads Step 4. Go home and change said pads Step 5. Go on your merry way and stop overthinking.

 

Lol, I love the simplicity and it's definitely a valid option.

I just wanted to know if anyone had success with another pad/rotor combination given I was going to replace the pads anyway. I obviously dont have to replace the rotors but I've heard that stottled rotors have better success a clearing debris than non-slotted.

All that said, at the minimum I'll probably go with the Akebono's because they're $30 cheap than OEM and have the same or better profomance.