Read Brake Pad Wear

Just picked up my '24 Tundra Limited and the service advisor said the rear pads are already at 8mm (fronts at 11mm). The truck is 3 months old with 3200 miles on it and that seems like excessive rear pad wear, and the opposite of what I would expect (more front pad wear). Anyone have any issues like this? Waiting on the dealer to respond.

 

Search the 3rd gen forums, there are some threads about brake pads, noises, early wear.....and yes several have had rears wearing faster than front.

 

A quick search didn't show anything quite similar to what I have but I'll spend some more time looking this evening. If you happen to know a specific one, feel free to send me the link. There's a lot to search through on this topic.

 

22K miles on a 2023. Brakes checked this morning by the dealer. 9MM front. 8MM rear.

 

Disable your auto parking brake if you havent already...helped me with pad wear and rotor warp

 

Do you use cruise quite a bit? I think the radar cruise is pretty notorious for eating rear brakes.

 

The Toyota dealership replaced mine under warranty when i complained of them squealing. Had trucks in the past that would squeal off the surface rust on the rotors after setting in damp weather but I told them about it and they changed them all out under warranty ZERO dollars and problem solved .

 

FWIW as a reference. As mentioned above, 22K 2023 Tundra. 9mm front and 8mm rear. I had a minor pulse when I applied the brakes moderately hard at >75MPH. Front rotors needed to be resurfaced. The tech was of the opinion that most would live with it but I wanted the truck spot on. He took a minimal out. He said they will turn 2 or 3 times and still be in spec. The new machined surface takes 1mm off the pads almost immediately.
$190 to have them turned. Yes, I know I could buy rotors but it's not something I wanted to screw with today. Brakes are flawless now.
Fix the radio knob. Inspection, oil change, fix the radio knob. S/W for the neutral issue and the fuel tank fix. $410 out the door. Service level and quality of information was very good. Price is a little high but on this day, I didn't care.

 

I've had the fronts replaced under warranty, rears werent part of that squealing issue campaign.

I'm going to be ordering a new set for my rears from Rock Auto.
For me the rear pads material is currently the thinkness of the backing plate.
I do have the auto rear on but no adaptive cruise or anything else was ever used.
Odd that after 18k they wore down for me so much.

 

Well I had some free time today and the weather was just right. I replaced the rear pads on my truck.
(this is by no means a FAQ but a residental mechanics method to getting the job done)

I searched high and low for the proper method to retract the parking brake (and put it into service mode)
Tried a few posted methods for other Toyota models, no luck.

Two alternative methods were listed. Take the back motor off (cover?) off of the caliper and retract it with a allen wrench.
The method I used was to provide power to the electric motor on the caliper.
I did disconnect the battery first. I read about how some folks ended up with an error that needed to be cleared.
The way I did it, no error no issues whatsoever. (I did disable the auto parking brake prior to anything)

First disconnected the battery, then jacked up the rear by putting the jack under the center of the axel.
Used a jack stand and took off the passenger tire etc... same on opposite side.

Removed the connector and attached a positive and negative to engaged the calipers "parking brake" or running with the voltage in the reversed method retracted it all the way.
You'll hear it basically come to a stop and you'll know it is fully retracted. Spin the rotor if you like, if its locked into position, go the other way to back it out!
I did this proceedure before removing the caliper off of the bracket. (BTW, I wasnt replacing the rotor, just the pads) The piston didnt spin or even really move. Just retracted.


I used a caliper spreader and loosened up the bleeder valve. Pushed it back as needed and all was good so far.
(No adjusting the slot in the piston etc)

Harder part was getting the caliper off. You need a 17mm thin wrench to hold onto nut on the slider assembly to remove the 14mm bolt off.
Also had a hard time finding the correct torque settings for the caliper bolts. When I removed then the were in at 65 lb-ft. Looked like red locktite on them too?
Replaced the pads and cleaned up everything. Went back together pretty easily like a standard brake job.

Not sure what the correct torque settings are for the caliper slides or even the caliper bracket. (put the on at 65 lb-ft)
For the caliper bracket, those bolts were larger. I suspect by the size of the bolts, its going to be over 100+ lb-ft.

One thing to note, the slides on the calipers were not moving freely at all anymore. (only 18k miles)
I cleaned them up and used a silicon grease made for it. Much better movement.
Some folks on here didnt even check the sliding pins, you should otherwise you can get weird pad wear.


Decided on taking a few more pics on the drivers side.


Used an older radio shack variable voltage power supply. Use anything from 9 - 12 volts.



A five gallon bucket was the perfect workbench for this work. Brake line is fairly long. Just dont twist up the hose. Be nice!



Didnt have to hang and dangle the caliper etc.
I also took the clips off the calipers and cleaned them well. Afterward greased them a little with high temp lubricant to prevent future corrosion.

The last thing I did after re-assembly was to power the motor back and make sure it gripped. After it did, I back it off a little, wiped down the rotor and did a little brake bleed.

So far so good. No errors on the dash and the parking brake are working fine.
One thing that I sort of didnt like was that there are no separation (spreader) spings etc to keep the pads away from the rotor while not engaged.
The power stop pads I bought had some spreader springs in the bag though.

Hope this helps! Any questions while its still fresh in my head, please ask away!
(if you find grammatical issues (and oh you will) too well. I'm too old to care.)

 

My 2022 has 49k and the rear pads are 3mm (I off road and carry a lot of gear often) and I was just researching the service mode for the parking brake, did that not work for you? My parking brake was flashing but I haven’t changed the pads yet to confirm if it worked.

Service Mode:
Press start twice and turn off the parking brake
Turn off the truck
Press start twice and push the brake pedal and pull up on the parking brake 3 times and press in 3 times and then hold. The PARK indicator flashes to indicate service mode

Again I haven’t done it with the tire off yet.

 

I tried that proceedure and also the one where afterward you press and hold the park release for 5 seconds.
Neither one did it. I asked while at the dealership and they claim you need to use a scanner to back the motor in.

As I mentioned in the previous posts, I disconnected the trucks battery and used 12v power to back the motors in.
Easy enough to do and no codes or issues afterwards.

One more thing to note was it did take a minute or two to get the pistons in. Do it while its still on the truck.
If you go the wrong direction, you'll know pretty quickly as the parking brake will be engaged on that rotor and it wont spin.
Just reverse polarity and let it spin till you hear the load stop. Dont need heavy amperage to do this at all.

 

That is quick. Not just a Toyo problem. All these vehicles with laser cruise, auto hold, auto brake, auto emergency brake, etc are very rough on pad life.

My wife has a 24 non Toyota, and the exact same discussion is on that forum as well among owners with the higher trims and all the features.

I have not seen anything on self driving modes but got to imagine brake pad life is not baked into that design either

 

How are the PowerStop pads working for you, given it’s been a whole week! Haha

 

I have no complaints on the pads so far.

No noises etc. I've driven them for a few miles in the past week.
In my area of the middle of Long Island, suburbia with lots of traffic.
In the evening its heavy and just a bit less during the day.
Gas, brake, gas, brake, honk, punch, punch..... gas gas gas.

 

I've had napa UP 882853CR rotors and power stop 17-2439 pads for 10k miles and they're great. Low dust and no noise.

 

^^^ This. Cruise control activates rear brakes to slow down on these trucks.

 

Thanks for this write up, very informative. The only thing that would concern me is the attaching those alligator clips to the parking brake connector should they accidentally touch each other. Would be a good idea to find a mating connector with flying leads to connect to a 12V power source.

 

thanks for the post.

how much current did you use? I have a dc power supply (adjustable 0-60V and 0- 10A) I use lifepo4 batteries

 

I can understand the rotor warp (heat) but how does that help pad wear? I wouldn't think that would wear the pads since the two are only touching not rubbing against each other.

 

I'm using 12 volts with barely any amperage. 12 volts is NOT considered high voltage and normally will not shock you.
What makes the car battery more interesting is the amperage. Cross over two poles with a wrench and the sparks will fly and can burn you.
The unit I used was an old radioshack 0-16 voltage supply from at least 35 years ago.
If the aligator clips cross, it simply shows on the voltmeter as no voltage.

Others used a 9 volt battery and some clips. (I would imagine the retraction of the piston is going to take some time at the lower voltage)

 

12 volts and barely any amps. The units I think has 1 amp.

 

Here is the procedure for rear brake service mode.

 

I'd be interested if the proceedure really works for anyone else.
This read to me like the standard toyota proceedure for a bunch of other models/years.

I was at the dealership the other day, I'm friendly with the service advisor.
So I asked him to call over one of the techs, I wanted to know how the dealership mechanics retract the parking brake piston.
They dont use an proceedure. Only way they know how to do it is with the scanner they use.
Now this can be opinion of just one tech, but he was honest about it.

I really do hope that Toyota has a good working proceedure that the average guy can do to retracting them (I dont want to buy another scanner!)

 

It doesn't work

 

Doesn’t work. It does on my 2023 RAV4.

I have a little tester set up using my RC plane Lipo battery that’s 11.1v with alligator clips and ran the motor in and out, super easy. I also have a 12v circuit tester that one could use. This unit tests but it can also deliver power

12 Volt Test Light Automotive,...

$25 12 Volt Test Light Automotive, Power Circuit Probe Kit, 6V - 24V Car Fuse Tester, Voltage Tester 0.3v-70v, AC DC Outlet Tester, Automotive Short Circuit Finder, P60

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Make sure is to do the proceedure while the caliper is still on the truck.
Dont think the piston will be happy being extended all the way without the rotor there to stop it.

 

It doesn't move that fast

 

Saving for future use. I just had my 10K service done and nothing was mentioned about brakes. I haven’t used cruise control yet. I’m not a fan of cruise control.

 

I never used cruise control once.... Back brakes pads had very little left at 18k