95.5-2004 Tacomas & 96-2002 4Runners 4th gen pickups and 3rd gen 4Runners

A note on the Tundra front brake upgrade

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Old Sep 3, 2024 | 08:30 PM
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A note on the Tundra front brake upgrade

Last year I did the Tundra front brake upgrade on my '98 runner using rebuilt 199mm calipers. The brakes work fine, except for two issues:
The first is the Brembo P83118N pads I chose are constantly coating the wheels with dark brake dust and I would not buy those again.

The second issue is the "W" shaped anti-rattle wires have both broken after just 5k miles. I remember being puzzled about these wires as they did not fit well at all. I did consult a few pics of installations to make sure they were on correctly, but I saw two variations on the install. These wires have a short right angle bend at the two ends of the "W". These ends obviously fit into holes on the pad plates, no question on that. Just before those right-angle bends the wire has two rounded bumps or wings facing outwards from the "W". In some pics, these bumps are shown fully contained between the pad plates. In other pics these bumps overhang the edge of the pad plates.

I have tried each of these positions and there is just no way to do either one without reshaping the wire quite a bit. The result is a very poor fit either way. This may have something to do with my pads since I see that some pads have a bit of a step in the pad plate for the "bumps" to fit into. Mine do not.

Luckily one of my brake kits also contained sheet metal pad retainers like the original 4runner brakes use. I have installed those instead of the "W" wires and they seem to fit perfectly fine. The first pic shows a new "W" wire just squeezed between the pad plates - clearly not fitting properly. The alternative position would not even stay in place to take a photo.




Update: The reason I checked the brakes was that I was looking for the source of a metallic rattle when driving over uneven asphalt. Hard to believe that such a loud sound could be caused by broken/missing pad clips, but that rattle is now gone! Never going back to those hokey wires.

Last edited by tns1; Sep 13, 2024 at 12:56 PM.
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