OEM or aftermarket?

What are the best brands for:

front disk brakes
wheel bearing seals and grease

2003 tacoma with 68k miles on it. 2wd, 5 speed. 2.3L engine. No options except the enhancement package (AC, allow wheels, painted bumpers, and 2 extra front speakers).

No short trips under 5 miles. Rarely driven on the highway. No off roading, no mud. Although many of the roads here are packed shell rock and very old worn out asphalt. West central florida. 3 miles from the beach. Most times its just used like a car. very rarely anything heavy transported, although seven times since 2003 I loaded her up to and maybe even beyond the rated capacity.

Finally I need new front brakes and will repack the front wheel bearings at the same time. Once in 14 years not too bad, huh? Should I go OEM or are there equal or better quality after market parts available.

tks,
pa

 

Are your wheel bearings giving you any indication of needing replacement?
I ask because I have over 245K miles on my truck that gets used like a truck 90% of the time and offroaded the remaining 10% and the wheel bearings are still fine.

 

Mine lasted 250k miles

 

have u ever repacked yours? My toy service manual says to lubricate them ever 2 yr or 30k miles and I never have. Dealer told me that lubricate means repack. Now that im going to do the brakes I should just do those too. I hope they are fine. What prompted me to check my breaks is that truck is skweeking while moving. skweek changes whenever brakes are applied. However, I have about twice the wear limit of 0.04", so Im just hoping new breaks will stop the skweek.

 

As far as I knew they're sealed bearings. Maybe they're different between trucks. But I thought all 1st gens had to be pressed out & new ones back in. So you can't lube them

 

service manual tells how and yes need to be pressed in and out, although a few years ago I found a site listing how to do it at home.

 

and why they list 24mo or 30k? for service dept revenue? Service manual lists 3 service levels and all 3 say every 24mo or 30k.

 

I also think they're sealed bearings that can only be replaced.
I imagine the squeaks ARE from the brakes not the wheel bearings - but that is only my opinion.
I hope it is only the brakes for you as those are EASY to do! Much more easy than bearings too!
Good luck.
"Recommended service" could just keep the stealer-ship in the $$$.