I drove 15 months with no front brakes

I bought my 13 crewmax with 84xxx miles June of 2020. I test drove it and it seemed fine. There were a few things about it I didn't like but chocked it up to "driving a vehicle twice the size of my last car for the first time." I told myself "I'll just have to get use to it. It's a full size truck, not a 2d hatch back."

A few months in I began complaining to my SO and friends about how the brakes sucked. I pulled the front right wheel off and the pads looked good. So I bled them a bit, thinking the dealer was lazy about it.

Over the last year I started noticing things that were bugging me. I genuinely didn't enjoy driving in town because of it all.
The transmission was slow to shift between p,r,n,d. I would have to wait a few seconds to feel it shift and engage before I could go or the truck would lunge and hard shift.

I would slow to a stop light or hit slow traffic or anything that would cause me to let off the throttle then a few seconds later go back to throttle and the truck would lunge, especially at slow speeds (5-20mph). It got bad enough that I began being paranoid about my transmission and nagged the forum about changing my fluid. Maybe I had slop in my drive shift yoke? I checked for any play but didn't find anything.

Normal braking was slow and I was constantly hitting corners way too fast. I couldn't find any information about it and it's hard to explain how a vehicle handles to someone else. So, I chocked it up to "stupid 'smart' braking".

I have had 3 instances of my abs kicking in during a dry summer day, when I didn't slide. I only heavy braked. It was instantly abs. I was beyond upset both by the situation needing heavy braking, and how my truck responded to heavy braking.

Yesterday, I heard a light grind on my way to work. I did a quick check on the front and rear pads (I didn't pull the wheels). Yep, fronts are grinding. "May as well do the rear too since the dealership most likely didn't change them" I tell myself.

This morning I discover the amount of danger I've been driving in for the last 15 months!

The 3 of the 4 PADS were completely seized into the front calipers! It took me, a mechanically skilled and capable man, 3 hours to remove the pads, sand off the built up dust and rust from the calipers and install the new pads. I had to use a 10lb brass hammer, a pry bar, and channel locks to remove the pads (not the pins and hardware, the actual pads).
All the pistons are good and functional.

My truck now feels like a COMPLETELY different beast!

No shift delay or lunging. No more hesitation when slowing/going. The truck even coasts and accelerates different!

I am once again in love with my tundra!

The dealership, I purchased it from definitely did NOT do the inspection they claimed they did. It's too late now to do anything about it, but I will definitely NOT be going back for anything.

I'm sure there are other things I can't recall at the moment.

 

Wow! I spent 5 hours doing the brakes on my Nissan Armada today (I had multiple interruptions with work calling me on my day off). Mine was a pain in the rear but not like what you are talking about. Nothing like riding around on new rotors and pads right?

 

On my day off.....my phone is out of earshot....not really. I just don't answer work calls or texts. Ha!

 

Agreed!

 

I work in an office and like to take a day off to work on my cars - gotta keep my man card. But I answer calls from my staff only. They wouldn’t call unless they needed me.

 

Good brakes are like coming from baldish tires and driving on a new set. (as long as your brakes are good!)

 

My boss will take a couple days off and stay locally. He will still take calls from other lab managers, corp, and micro manage our lab from home! Heh.
But.....just before that last hurricane hit, he took his family to New Orleans. He let us know....."Don't call me, text me, nothing. I don't exist." His wife had something to do with that I'm thinking.....my boss works long, crazy hours. You need time away from work every couple years. Obviously an emergency is an exception. Define "emergency" with your staff before you leave!

 

It's not just the stopping power that changed, it's so many other seemingly unrelated issues cleared up.

 

It's a heavy truck. Has yuge front rotors and calipers. The rears don't suck. Folks forget but back in 07 the new Tundra had the largest front rotors and calipers over the not so big 3!

 

Consider posting about the dealership here so other folks are aware.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/dealership-experience.45850/