Brake Upgrade: StopTech Rotors + TRD Performance Pads

finally found my order receipt. I’m running orange stuff on the Tundra.

 

Getting ready to do my brakes at a bit over 50k miles, I am flushing brake fluid and swapping to braided lines from wheelers, I commute about 70 miles a day with most of that being highway mileage and some stop and go traffic have recently noticed a little bit of pulsation with the factory brakes. Not currently towing anything. Debating whether the StopTech rotors are worth it at 225 a piece now that they weigh the same as stock, looking at napa Adaptive one pads/rotors (rotors have straight vanes), not looking to break the bank, would like to stay around $450 or less out the door for pads, rotors, slide pins and all associated hardware.

 

Here you go...you get new calipers too in your price range...

https://autobrakesolutions.com/prod...tacoma-fj-cruiser?_pos=1&_sid=6d648106f&_ss=r


Also, I'll be adding the Caliper/Pad/Rotor kits for both the 338mm 4th Gen 4runner (OEM tacoma is 319mm) that bolts on with either removal or trimming of the dust shield, as well as the 1st gen Tundra kits...look for them in the next couple days

 

Are those new OEM calipers? If so, that’s a smoking deal! I rebuilt and painted my 13 year old OEM calipers this spring, which was a PITA, but worked out great (&cheap not counting the elbow grease). I’ve been happy with the pads you sold me.

 

If going with the StopTechs I would advise non-cryo since the slotted rotors cannot be turned/refinished if any uneven wear occurs.

Highly unlikely to be OEM calipers at that price point.

 

Non-cryo and non-slotted? or just non slotted but still cryo treated?

 

The Sport rotors are not available plain. Either slotted or drilled or both. If going with the Sport rotors, I would advise non-cryo unless towing. Reason being I had gone cryo on my sports and I ended up getting uneven wear in the rotor. In a plain rotor you can turn it on a lathe to re-true the rotor. With a slotted rotor you cannot, or at least can't find a shop willing to do so. So the extended service life of the cryo (and cost) was a moot point, since the rotor couldn't be serviced and the only fix was replacement.

Centric, StopTechs parent company, does sell plain cryo rotors. After the acquisition and changes to the product lines (like the Sport rotors going down in mass to stock), I'm not sure how they compare. It could be the same rotor without the slotting. Someone would have to buy both and compare.
https://www.centricparts.com/disc-brake-rotor-7016223

 

no, new aftermarket

 

Good luck getting them to cryo anything...the place is falling apart. All the Stoptech branded product which used to be Centric Premium blanks are all using raybestos rotors now...stoptech is a skeleton of what it once was...last I heard they didn't even have anyone left in an engineering position over there.

 

Your rotors and pads are looking better and better, I don't need calipers at this time so I will skip the bundle. Do you have any info available regarding country of origin, composition, etc... on the TP976 pads as well as the 44129G rotors?

 

sorry for the late reply...got busy.

All of our rotors and new calipers come out of China from trusted factories that we've done business with for decades. I'd have no issues putting these up against OEM parts. This particular pad formulation (our truck performance pads) are also made in China....while some of our other pads are make in Thailand, Mexico, Malaysia, etc... We deal with pad factories all around the world.

I would classify the material used on our Truck Performance pads as a hybrid material....doesn't really fit into any one catagory, but neither does anything else except a "semi-metallic"...which is still a rather meaningless piece of information in the grand scheme of things. What the pad is called or how it's catagorized isn't really important...the operating and performance characteristics are what's important. People get too hung up on buzzwords and marketing wank. There are thousands of ingredients that can go into brake pad friction material...to classify brake pads in 2 or 3 catagories (semi-met, ceramic, etc...) is not helpful in the least bit when attempting to choose a pad.

 

Unfortunate. Best luck might be finding older stock cryo parts, but hard to say. Way too many acquisitions of good companies end up having the purchasing company gut it and ride it out to squeeze every last dollar out of the brand name possible.

 

If anyone near dfw plans to do this I have a new slotted rotor. I ended up with a spare.

 

After much debate I figured I would go with OEM rotors/hardware, the factory stuff has given me 50,500 trouble free miles without any maintenance being performed on the braking system so why try to fix what isn't broken? I think the most improvement for my use case will be had from flushing the brake fluid, swapping to braided stainless hoses, and a moderate pad upgrade, either TRD pads or something else along the same lines.

 

With the weirdness going on at Stoptech I was curious what other options people have enjoyed? The ones I’ve been eyeing are the Hawk LTS and the EBC Yellows.

I have run the Hawk HP+ (I know they are not even remotely similar) on my track cars and my track buddy has good things to say about the EBCs.

Update: I ended up getting the Hawk LTS and have put about 1000 miles on them. Initial bite was mildly increased ~15%. Required brake pedal pressure to decelerate at the same rate on the stock pads was about 25% less. I find the largest benefit to be as you heat the pads and rotors up (i.e. mountains, aggressive driving, towing) the brakes bite and deceleration improves noticeably. I used to have an issue when I would switch between my other cars, including a Miata and 718 Cayman, where I would not brake the truck hard enough initially and would have to add more braking to stop where I expected. With these pads that issue is basically nonexistent. Otherwise, no noticeable increase in brake dust and no brake noise even when cold. Cold morning bite is adequate and have not caused any scary situations.

 

A few guys here are running our Truck Performance pads and I haven’t had any complaints.

 

I've been running them for about 6 months and they've been great. Better stopping power than stock and I'd say less dusting. Very happy so far.

 

I just came across this a few days ago and will be putting on the TRD pads and the Cryo rotors! Awesome post to read and now gonna put on the oem rear drums and shoes

 

@crashnburn80 are the current versions of the “STOPTECH SPORT CRYO-TREATED SLOTTED DISC BRAKE ROTORS” still a worthwhile upgrade?

Anyone have a recommendation for a semi metallic pad to go with this installation? Planning on towing so I want the better heat capability.