20k and my front brakes need replacing

Anybody have an aftermarket rotor / pad recommendation that lasts longer? I hate to go oem if that's all I'm going to get again...

 

Factory wearable's go fast. Same with the OEM crappy tires. Ones from the factory will wear twice as fast as the exact same replacement from a recognized tire shop.

 

Keep in mind they need to cut weight to meet the lofty MPG ratings. My tire change which was next to nothing over stock took a 2.5 MPG hit which I calculated as weight gain

 

Dont agree with OEM brakes being slipshod like the tires. (at least in the past) ‘99 and ‘09 GMs went 100K on first set of pads and ‘16 Tacoma went 75k on fronts and rears were still great at 110K even with towing on all three trucks. Not sure what’s happening on our Gen3 Tundras. I don’t have enough miles yet to see wear. The crazy amount of braking with Adaptive Cruise bothers me and I’ve quit using it in any kind of traffic.

 

Factory front brakes worn out at 20k miles? I'd have to see pictures to believe it. If so, something is wrong.

 

OK. Show me where a heavier tire got better milage and I will buy you a beer

 

Agreed. The crazy aggressive braking of adaptive cruise caused my brakes to overheat and shudder going down a long mountain pass, and I wasn’t towing and had no load. That’s actually been the only flaw with my truck in 8200 miles.

It sucks to have no confidence in the longevity of the brakes, since they were always great on my previous Tundras.

 

Really the only complaint/disadvantage to a V6 over a V8 that I have is little to no back pressure for engine braking. Specially when coming down long mountain passes.

 

Tow/Haul helps some

 

Thanks!! Maybe it locks up the converter on deceleration or something. 1200 mi trip coming up over 3 big passes. Will give it a try!!

 

To the OP
Are you changing them because they are worn or because of them sometimes squealing?

 

" That wasn’t weight that affected your MPG" ....sorry, that's exactly what you said.....maybe not your intention but you said that. Take it from me, my milage took a hit and it was tires with the same rating, slight and I mean slight increase in size. And I am fully aware I would get that changing them but the OEM tires look lame AF. And I will still buy you a beer.

 

I'd also like to see a pic. Just checked my 23' Pro with about 19k miles, 5k of which were towing a toy hauler with two big motorcycles over the rockies and all through Colorado and Utah so they have seen some use. Mine appear to have lots of pad left. Hard to get a pic through the Pro wheels but could see much better with naked eye. I get some squeal when backing up in mornings and a buddy at work has a nearly new Tundra that also complains about occasional squeal from brakes, but not wear related.

See if you can just get a similar pic through the wheel if someone told you they needed replacing. If you have looked at them yourself then disregard all this, but would still love a pic. Did a little looking and although the calipers look identical to my gen 2, the pads use a slightly different design/backing plate, so no idea if they are as good as the 2nd gen OEM pads. On my 2 and 2.5 gen trucks they would go 50k on way low end and had a OEM set last 100k with plenty of life left when traded.

 

Did Toyota get rid of the automatic downshift when you tap the brake going down hill? My 2024 doesn’t seem to do that.

 

It does. Tow Haul is excellent. There are two levels. <5,000 lbs and >5,000 lbs. After you press the tow haul button, turn the drive settings knob to toggle between the two. I use the <5,000 setting almost anytime I have a decent load in the bed and passengers in the cab.

Just got back from a ski trip to Snowshoe. 4 guys, all our gear (boards, skis, coolers, food, and drinks) and tow haul was very impressive in the mountains.

 

No, mine are shot too. Very intense, I would dare say violent pulsing at 20k miles. Took it to the dealer and they told me I had .03 runout on the backs .02 on the front. (at least that's what the report said the dealer). They turned the rotors and they were fine for another 20k, but then they got so bad I was afraid I was going to damage the suspension and bushings. I've never felt pulsing that bad in any vehicle ever. Very poor quality OEM rotors.

 

Are the brakes pulsing? If it sat for a bit could just be some rust on the rotors. Happened to my wife's Pilot during covid.

 

I just put a set of Brake Performance rotors on mine. https://brakeperformance.com/brake-...&-slotted-brake-rotors-black-zinc-coating.php

Just took a trip to the mountains loaded up pretty good (4 guys and bunch of ski gear, food, drinks, boards,) and was impressed. I have not yet subjected them to any high speed hard braking, but so far so good.

 

Violent pulsing as in shaking the whole dash violent? I had this happen once right after getting all my pads and rotors done. It was happening because of a sticking caliper.
I’ve had nothing but bad experiences from my two local dealerships. The thing I just described was the last time I went there. It took me years to find out that they were over torquing my lug nuts. I didn’t know that doing that would cause rotors to warp either- I assumed it was because of the way I drove.

 

When my brakes overheated in my story above, they shook the entire truck fairly violently. Fortunately, the shaking went away when the brakes cooled down. I haven't used adaptive cruise in similar situations since, and haven't experienced the brake shudder again.

Matt

 

Yeah, it comes right back when they heat up again. Mine were ok as long as the stayed cool, but one good high speed brake on the highway and they were right back to shuddering. Then as they cooled down it would go away, but always come right back whenever they heated up.

 

Yes shaking the whole dash violent. Got worse and worse over time. Didn't start out that violent, but after repeated heat cycles they would just get worse and worse.

It's like the rotor composition is not uniform. Like there are irregularities in the iron that react to heat differently or something. I dont know... I just know it was awful and kept getting worse.

 

Experienced the same in the Tacoma a couple times bringing 4K# UHaul double axle trailers down Grants Pass OR. Who knows if the surge brakes on those trailers even work. Rotors seemed fine after. No hard spots detected or warping.

 

Now that you mention it I haven’t felt that like I did in the Tacoma. That actually worked really well.

 

Thanks for that. 281 for the set isn't bad hopefully they last, please report back at 20k miles if you can remember haha. I see sparks have oems for 71 ea I may go that route this time and as others have suggested not use the overly aggressive the adaptive cruise as much. I was hoping sometimes it was just coasting, but I now suspect it's either always adding gas or braking.

 

Pads look good its my rotors are shot

 

Probably not 20k miles yet, but you still like the results with these brakes?