Well, I have been driving with warped rotors on the front of my '02 4Runner for at least a year or two now (75k on the originals now). I decided I would finally like to stop the shaking when I stop, especially from highway speeds, so I had my dad (a mechanic) order some new rotors & pads. He ordered them from NAPA, and got their ceramic pads & the cheapo replacement rotors.

We went to do the job this Sunday and he was unfimiliar with the calipers, so we came on here for advice. What do we find? That the consensus seems to be that the stock rotors are crap and that replacing them with OEM replacements would likely result in doing it again in the not too distant future. Reading around on this board it seems like the Brembo standard rotors are pretty good (no need to pay extra for slotted or cross-drilled?).

My questions are:

A) Where is a good place to get a good price on these Brembo rotors?
B) Has anyone ever used the NAPA ceramic pads with the Brembo rotors?
C) Are the standard Brembo rotors fine, or is it worthwhile to pay extra for slotted/cross-drilled?


I mainly drive mine on the road, but do use the 4WD quite a bit if it's a bad Ohio Winter.

Thanks for any suggestions guys!

 

tundra brakes. i just did mine..and what a difference. no fade, and a MUCH better braking feel...and no warping (so far but i doubt ill get any). dont have any experience with NAPA ceramic pads. im using akebono calipers that were loaded with pro act ceramic pads. other have had excellent results using stock OEM tundra pads with plain (blank) brembo rotors. i wouldnt bother with the slotted/X-drilled flavour but thats just me. tirerack.com is apparently a good place for brembo's. where are you located?

search tundra brakes..and you'll find a wealth of info and hands on experience. and dont listen to the brake upgrade nazi's when they say the tundra brakes offers no significant improvement on a 3rd gen 4runner. they havent done it so they have no right to that opinion...

 

I used BREMBO standard rotors with PBR Deluxe organic pads after my warpage got so bad my steering wheel seemed like it was going to shake it self off the column and the dash was going to come off . I know I was lazy but after an 800 mile roundtrip I was getting headaches so I caved. :-)

I had been happy with PBR Deluxe brake pads from the days when I had my Mercedes Benz 400E (*when* it ran Wow! but most days it had electrical issues or something or other always went kaput) The Brembo/PBR combo on all 4 wheels worked like a champ bringing that thing down from triple digits every time

I have about 1200 miles so far on the new front rotor/pad combo on my 2001 SR5...so far so good...

I got them from autohausaz.com

 

I'm located in Northwest Ohio. I'll check out tirerack.com

 

I have had my tundra conversion on for about 6 months now and love it. In fact we are getting the parts together to do the wifes truck next.

 

Cross-drilled (and slotted) do nothing for braking performance, and actually are prone to cracking.

I haven't done the brakes on my 4Runner, but my past cars, I've used Autozone blanks. They're cheap and most come with 3-4 year warranty (or maybe lifetime on some). So if they do warp, just take it back in, and they'll give you a new one. I've heard good things about Brembo rotors, but it's going to be the same thing as the Autozone's, minus the warranty. Really, a no-brainer here.

Brake pads will give you the most noticable difference. Most performance pads that have better bite will be a little more expensive and they dust a lot. But if you can't stand brake fade, a good set of pads will be the way to go. I haven't done too much research on the 4Runner pads, so I'll look around and post up some good candidates.

 

I'm really not looking to drastically improve the braking performance, my truck stops well enough for me; as I stated I use it for daily driving, not really offroading or anything. My problem is that I want to get a rotor that won't have me replacing it again in a year or two. I'd much rather pay more now for a rotor that will last than buy something cheap that will warp like the stock ones did.

Has anyone ever used Autozone rotors for the 4Runner?

I checked tirerack.com too, but after I put my vehicle in the rotors that they were turning up were for the 15" rims. I know that's not right, I've got the 16" rims. 2002 4WD SR5 sport. The rims are the 16 inchers with 6 lugs. If I put it in as a limited instead of an SR5 they give me the 16" instead of the 15", but it does have me worried. I know mine are the 16", there shouldn't be any other differences should there?

 

If your truck stops well enough, I'd say stick with OEM pads. As far as the Autozone rotors, I've had mine on my Integra Type R on the tracks, and with TONS and TONS of abuse, I have not had one warp on me. Even IF it does, changing out the rotor is a cinch, anyway.

**edit: Just checked the price: $55/each, which means it's $5 cheaper than Brembo's AND comes with warranty. But, if you want to pay for name brand, I've heard nothing but good with Brembo's. For me, I'm sticking with Autozone Duralast rotors.

 

Brembo rotors (not slotted or drilled) + ceramic pads = smooth braking. For sure not as good as the tundra conversion, but cheaper and less work. I'm happy with mine.

 

not for the 4runner but have for other rides. figured theyd perform like the stock did. and the flat brembos i went with were cheaper too.
never had issues w/the calipers, so i just did the rotor swap. +10k mi and no issues. stops every time

shouldnt be any other issues, just match to be sure they gave you the right size

 

There are a ton of threads here on YT that talk about Brembo's, slotted, tundra upgrade, etc.. Some of the threads will address the part numbers for the Brembo rotors. There are even write-ups on the Tundra conversion, stainless steel lines, or even just a simple pad change or rotor swap.

RE Pads: I agree that a good pad will get you what you want as far as bite goes, I have used the Performance Friction pads now for a couple of different application and will never go back. They seem to produce less dust than the "AutoZone" pads that I have used. Maybe its my slotted rotors, I really don't know. I just know that I have seen less dust from the PF pads than AuoZone pads.

Just make sure that when you change out your pads and rotors that you are adjusting your rear brakes to the proper spec so that you are braking with the correct ratio front/rear.