vegaskurt

Tundra brake upgrade, with pics.

I did this swap this weekend and thought I would share my expierence. The basics, I had a 97 Limited that came with 16" wheels/brakes. I used the "13WE" 199mm pre-tsb calipers.

First off, I got the calipers for $20 a piece from a junkyard on car-part.com, but when I got them sure enough there was a lot of rust. So I bought a caliper rebuild kit and went to town on both of them with a wire brush and flap disk. When it was time to paint them all pep-boys had was bright red caliper paint or what looked like grey. Well it turned out tin-foil silver, oh well, flame away....


The 4runner calipers are almost identical to the tundra ones. If the tundra pistons are bigger, its not by much. The brake pads for the tundra were bigger and the caliper is noticeably different to allow for a much thicker rotor.

Also, I did NOT have to modify the dust guard. Everything fit.

4runner (left) vs Tundra (right)


I got a set of Centric rotors at a local parts store for $50 each.





The calipers like I said needed some work. Rebuilding them was for some reason very very easy. After I wire wheeled all the rust off it was just a matter of popping the pistons out and replacing the seals. Maybe I will do a write up on that later.

Before:


After:



Parts I used:
1) Centric Posi Quiet pads from wheelersoffroad.com (~$33)
2) Centric Rotors ($50 each)
3) Steel braided lines from wheelersoffroad.com ($66.50) *optional
4) Junkyard calipers ($20 each)
5) Caliper rebuild kit ($10 each).
6) Brake pad pins from toyota ($6)
7) Brake fluid, Prestone synthetic dot3 ($6)
8) Power bleeder, borrowed from co-worker (free) <-- best tool ever

You can save yourself some time and get reman calipers for $60 a piece, but every shop in vegas was out of stock when I went looking. I was planning on using the junkyard ones as cores till I found the rebuild kit.





To install, just unbolt the old calipers, bolt on the new. Bleed, drive and enjoy.






Overall, I've only put 10 miles on the new brakes. The pedal feel is great and it feels like I have a lot more breaking force now. I'm gonna wait 100 miles before I slam on the brakes to really test them. If you have the 15" wheels the difference in braking will probably be a lot more noticeable.

UNR.Grad

You mean Tundra right and 4runner left? Nice job, looks good.

vegaskurt

Good catch, I will fix that.

MTL_4runner

Very cool and thanks for posting all those pics....keep us up to date as to how you like the new setup. I am thinking of doing the junk yard route for calipers since they are god-awfully expensive up here so if you get around to posting how you did a rebuild on the seals that would be great.

Great job on those!

profuse007

looks good, bro.

ive heard to properly break them in, you do as they called, "bedding". means to brake to stop at ~30-40mph. i dont know how many times but there should be procedures online. it should be done right after replacement of new pads.

iono why, but theres a theory behind it.
btw, whats the rebuild kit included?

FUZION

I went with junkyard calipers but cross drilled rotors

hotlavaaaa

here's instructions from stoptech on how to bed in new stock brakes.

http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_bedinstock.shtml

vegaskurt

Yeah, I am gonna take it easy on the pads all week and try to get some miles on them. I did do one 20mph to 0 (hard brake) just to see what would happen. As I expected, I stopped.

The rebuilt kit: One kit for one caliper. It has 4 new inner seals, 4 new outter seals and 4 retaining rings. I've heard of other more complete kits that come with caliper grease and a new nipple for the bleeder but thats it. Autozone wanted $29 for a rebuild kit. Meyers out here sells it for $10 or $11.

I took a bunch of pics of the rebuild, so there will be a guide posted later on in the tech section.

04 Rocko Taco

Could it really be that easy?

vegaskurt

Once the wheels are off, its 2 bolts and a brake line per side.

tom_mag

I thought the larger calibers would not clear the 15" wheels. Is this true?

vegaskurt

You are correct, there is no way to fit these with 15" rims that I can see.

What I meant by that comment was, that if you still had the 15" version of the brakes on newer larger rims then it would be worthwhile.

MTL_4runner

Yes, you are correct, they won't clear and you'd need new rims too to do the mod.

kevin444

has any one tried the non tsb brakes, the brakes that were meant to upgrade the tundras, on the 3rd gen, i dont care if i need to mod that dust shield but i want bigger and better!! no thank you to those freakin drums in the rear = D

vegaskurt

Some one on here has used the 231mm ones. They had to grind 1mm off the caliper and another 1mm or soo the rim to clear. If you have aftermarket rims you might have better luck. My next project is to figure out rear disc....

vegaskurt

Update, I put 70+ miles on them this week. Did a full loop around vegas cause we had some friends in town. All I can say is this setup is holding up great.

DoubleZero4x4

Glad to hear your results were like mine with the Tundra upgrade.

Good luck on the rear disc conversion. I know a lot of people have wanted to do this type of conversion for a long time.

d0ubledown

i just did this upgrade recently and wow... what a difference! it stops so much faster & easier. i would like a better brake pedal feel, so ill probably change to SS lines on my next brake job. the stupid tacoma pro comp ones i got had the banjo fittings on them..so i guess they were for the smaller taco brakes.

did you have any rubbing issues with your wheels? i had to grind of a bit to clearance my LC wheels..no biggie though.

nicely done

ebelen1

Be careful w/ your statements or the brake police will come by and tell you there is no way you will faster.

I did SS brake lines, a brake flush and tightened up the drums and have much better pedal feel. BTW, I also swapped my Raybestos pads w/ Akebonos.

FUZION

I have crappy pads on right now. How did you just change the pads if you did them yourself. thanks