Replace Brake Pads; NOT Turning Rotors!

So, I'm a full time RV'er and had planned to do my front brakes on 2019 Tundra. Gonna take rotors to shop to get turned and do the rest.


Unfortunately where I'm at it's impossible to get to a machine shop. Local dealer may be able to get me in but not sure yet.


Problem is I just got news about a family "emergency" and need to hit the road on a trip that will be 2000 miles when all said and done with no hope of finding a shop along the way. Everything is appt. which is tricky when travelling....


Unable to find rotors locally (maybe dealer...). I had ordered them up and Toyota canceled the order as not shipping to billing address.....screwing up my plans so all I have are pads....


So my question; How bad is it to NOT have rotors turned? I KNOW 100% YOU turn your rotors BUT am I better off dropping in the pads now as the old ones are shot..... They do have minor grooves but no extreme wear.....


I know they may take longer to bed in slightly grooved rotors but probably better than no brakes!


What do you think? What's the worst case scenario doing a halfarsed job? YES I WANT to do properly but please see above!

Thanks!

 

If there is no pulsation when using brakes, the rotors will probably be ok with just pad replacement.

 

My mechanic doesn’t even turn rotors anymore and just replaces them if needed; I have over 50K miles on my rotors, but I did just have the pads replaced at about 50K miles. My Tacoma has almost 208K miles.

 

Yep!
I had ordered up a set of rotors from Camelback Toyota and at the last minute they cancelled the order due to shipping to address not my billing address. They actually have fields for separate addresses and don't mention this being a problem but bottom line is I am now stuck with just pads and out of time...

 

NO pulsing and they don't look too bad. Not like a vinyl record anyways!

It's a drag as where I have to land for a few weeks is courtesy RV parking and not allowed to work on vehicles. I'd almost do it but it's my friends who'd get busted!

Old ones are at ~5mm......!

 

On my wife's 1994 Land Cruiser we lived in a hilly area and I used to do just a "Pad Slap" with new pads every 12,000 miles. My best friend and Toyota tech said that was fine if the rotors were not gouged. Did that for many years and no problems.

 

I never turn my rotors OR replace them unless I have to. Obviously I inspect them and mic them to make sure they are in spec.

Throw some pads on and call it a day.

 

I wouldn’t sweat it too much I’ve don just pads on a couple different vehicles, as long as the rotors aren’t warped,or torn up as to take chunks out of the pad, wouldn’t sweat it, do what ya gotta do, and once things settle go back and swap out the rotors and pads

 

What I have always done.

 

I don’t replace rotors unless they are grooved or I want to. They are not the consumable the internet makes them out to be.

 

Unless your rotor have an issue, the wouldn’t have a he machined. And if they did have an issue, you’re better off with replacing than machining.

 

if braking is smooth, I wouldn't touch the rotors. Slap the pads on and good to go! Side note, north louisiana where i'm at is pretty flat. I make it a game to hit my brakes as little as possible. Might be wishful thinking, but im at 40k miles and i think i can hit 200k on factory rotors and pads we'll see!

 

Thanks everyone!

All done! No pulsing and they feel great! Old pads were glazed and ~5mm left! Yikes!

 

I've always replaced my rotors with the brake pads as a general practice. However, for the first time, I took advantage of the ease of just removing the brake pads without removing the caliper, etc., since I wasn't having any pulsation issues.

Happy to say no issues here after about 3000 miles, and I'll probably do that again in the future on our Sequoia too.