Better front rotors and pads?

I was under the impression that the premature death of our brake pads and rotors was using the cruise which is always slowing or braking when you come up on another vehicle? 37K no issues yet. Peace. D

 

I put EBC rotors and EBC pads on my 2nd gen a few years ago. Also purged the old fluid. Absolutely massive upgrade over stock.

 

Did you use those black/gray EBC rotors? How do those look when they start to wear in? Any pictures?

 

The adaptive cruise feature hasn't hurt my brakes at all, near as I can tell. And I use it fairly often.

 

If you use adaptive cruise in moderate to heavy traffic, or mountain driving, it will definitely overheat the brakes and cause them to shudder. Been there done that.

 

I went down the warped rabbit hole a few years ago with our Edge and found an interesting article from a brake shop that said rotors don't warp, it's just pad material sticking to the rotors which causes the pulsing we feel. I haven't experienced it on my F-150 and am only on my 2nd set of pads in 100,000 miles. I do bed in any new pads using progressively harder stops and cooling in between.

My wife's Telluride would appear to warp rotors, but I would take it out and do some very aggressive stops from 50mph, 5-6 and it would seem to scrub the rotors, and the pulsing would go away for a few months.

I'm surprised you can get rotors turned, I haven't been able to find anyone here in Canada that will turn rotors anymore. The build up of pad material kinda makes sense as "turning" them basically cleans the built up pad material off???

 

It seems to me that pad buildup on the rotors would cause the brakes to shudder all the time. That's not the case for several of us on this thread.

 

No, it seems to me that warped rotors would vibrate all the time. Once they are warped, they don't magically go back to being true again with smooth braking performance. Deposits may be variable amounts and come and go to some extent due to heat cycling as mentioned. IMO, that is what most of you are reporting and is probably more about the pads than the rotors. And, of course, you could have both warped rotors and irregular deposits coexistent. In my experience I have never had rotors that were actually warped until I was cheap and kept an old set when they were getting thin. But that was a long time ago when I was cheap. LOL.

 

I have used cruise control (both versions) exactly zero times in my truck over its life. I wish that was the simple cause, but it isn’t for me. I just don’t think they handle heat well.

 

Please explain how pad deposits can result in brakes that go from smooth to shuddering when hot, then to smooth again when they cool down.

Not arguing, just trying to pinpoint the cause of this brake behavior that several of us have experienced.

 

I can't explain that. Never heard of it before this thread. LOL. The only way it really makes a little sense if the post about re-bedding the pads which might be able to even out the glaze and help for awhile. I have had brakes that squealed and could make that stop by re-bedding the pads. But it was always temporary. Replacing them with better ones while using the same rotors was the permanent fix. Of course, I deglazed the rotors prior to the new pads to get rid of as much of the old glaze as possible.

 

https://ricksfreeautorepairadvice.com/the-truth-about-warped-brake-rotors/
https://alconkits.com/blogs/news/the-real-truth-about-warped-brake-rotors

 

Those are great articles, and I learned... and/or relearned... a few things. Rotor metallurgy is important, and I can see how cheap rotors could have less than consistent surface properties. Another point they made that stuck out is when they described how improperly torqued wheels could create the exact issue several folks are reporting here, smooth braking when cool, pulsating braking when hot, then smooth again when they cool off. You guys experiencing that might want to start with re-torquing your wheels. May or may not work, but at least it would be quick and free.... although it would probably be a good idea to deglaze the rotors and then re-bed the pads for best results.

 

This damn truck is an enigma. I just finished 2000 Miles through Michigan and mid-west. Quiet, great power, perfect transmission. 21MPG for the trip which I think is outstanding. None of the wind noise or other niggles others mention. The brakes were so bad on hill declines it felt like it was going to throw a wheel. As soon as the brakes cooled it was a light shudder. I have the rotors of taffy. Others don't have the issue. Just weird how the issues occur with random trucks.
I'm buying new rotors and pads to be installed next week by a meticulous indy I know. Hopefully, it fixes the problem for more than 30,000 miles.

 

Are you upgrading with high-performance rotors, calipers, & pads? If so, which brand?
Thank you!

 

You mention brakes on declines. Personally I limit my brake use and always manually downshift while descending hills, I pick a gear that will hold my speed and basically never touch my brakes unless I need to scrub a little speed before downshifting again.

This was our daily commute for 15 years...


"Hwy 33 east of Osoyoos (910ft) to the top of Anarchist Mountain 4200ft, Though widened and somewhat straightened in the late 1950s, the road is still rumoured to include “the longest continuous hill in Canada” – 12 kilometres of seven and eight percent grades."

Within a month of moving there my wife had "warped" the rotors on her Edge, as she tends to drive quite spiritedly, and would be racing down the mountain, slamming on the brakes for the switchbacks, rinse and repeat a dozen times, daily.

I asked if she was downshifting, and she said "Why? It's an automatic!" So I coached her on manually downshifting, replaced the pads and rotors and never "warped" rotors again.

 

No I'm not dragging the brakes although I'm sure if I never used the brakes they'd last a long time. Christ, it's a truck problem not a driver problem.

 

I don't think he was suggesting that, but maybe saying that until you get the brakes changed just do whatever you possibly can to keep heat out of them. Heck, maybe my brakes would suck under your conditions, IDK. We have some very steep downgrades but the ones where you would need to brake are short and lower speed. While the longer ones are on the Interstate where aerodynamic forces from going 75 MPH make it unnecessary to brake much, if at all.

 

I raced cars and I'm used to blowing through pads and rotors. Bleeding the brakes daily and changing fluid every other week.
The Tundra gets hot with a light touch of a couple of 100' to slow from 68 to 65. An empty truck no less.
The part of the problem I own is that I never should have let the dealer resurface them. That's a short term sugar rush if the pads or rotors are sub standard in the first place.
I don't know what I'm going to replace them with but too many people are having the issue to replace with OEM's.

 

I've done road race track days myself (not the Tundra!) and experienced fade, but not this kind of crap. The only thing I had that was this bad was when I did a pad slap on a Camaro 30 years ago... old high mileage rotors, not resurfaced or deglazed. Braking from 40 mph felt like the wheels would come off. I learned a lot from that one, mostly not to be cheap. LOL.

I hope your replacement brakes fix the problem. As for me, I will be gentle with the Tundra brakes whenever possible.

 

@6rian currently has the Wilwood calipers, not sure about rotors.
Break Kits for 3rd gen Tundra...recommendations?

 

I also do a lot of mountain driving and have had similar issues happen on my old 4Runner. Those were notorious for undersized (thin) rotors. But through that, I've learned to avoid hard braking as much as possible and when I do, I make sure to avoid letting the truck sit with the pads engaged in one spot. I'll even put the truck in neutral and let off the brakes when I'm stopped.
I think heat transfer is a big variable. If the rotors are hot from heavy braking and there's pads clamped on in one spot, you get uneven heat transfer circumferentially. That's what my engineering brain tells me anyway lol

 

The Wilwood kit includes calipers, rotors, and stainless lines. The rotors are actually about half an inch smaller in diameter than the factory rotors to accommodate the larger aluminum caliper under 17" wheels. Overall, I'd say it's a moderate upgrade from the factory brakes as far as braking torque goes. It's a great option if you're wanting a BBK that's less than half the price of the other kits on the market but a click down in performance.

Brake lines for my Alcon kit are off backorder and arrive at the end of this week. Looking forward to making the swap.

 

As a Coloradan living in the mountains I can attest to having shorter brake rotor life cycles. I've had the best success with stop tech kits. They work the best, for the longest time.

 

Makes sense for the smaller rotor, I wonder if the offer a larger size for 22" rims.
I'll have to reach out to see if they offer it,or if a 27 offset will even work,because the rears have plenty of room from the rim to caliper but the fronts are a pretty tight tolerance as is.
IDK.

 

My case exactly. Smooth, shudder, really bad shudder and back to smooth in the same day.
Other than track cars, I've never gone through brakes in less than 50K even on the euro stuff.
I hear the baby the brakes solutions but what do you do if you tow a trailer?
This is nuts.

 

On the routes I experience the smooth to shuddering to smooth again brake performance, there are no stops, so I don't think uneven heat transfer is the problem.

My wheel lug nuts are all torqued to spec, so that's not the problem either.

This is my 3rd Tundra, 2008 and 2015 previously. I never experienced the shuddering while driving the same routes in those trucks. I got north of 75K miles on the factory brakes on both of them, so I know the problem isn't my driving style. This 2023's brakes are a joke.

 

I've been lucky so far, still running the stock brakes after 55,000 miles although they're due to be replaced now with 3mm left on the rear pads and 7mm left on the fronts. I tow a trailer frequently and have been across the country three times from CT to out west. The only time that I experienced a pulsating pedal was towing through Colorado with the trailer where the brakes got hot, smelly hot, on long mountain passes. I adjusted the brake controller to put more demand on the trailer brakes after stopping and letting the brakes cool for a bit, the pulsation ceased and hasn't returned since. I do my best to use low gears and stay off the brakes as much as possible on those long down hills but the truck doesn't have a lot of engine braking capability being a 6 cylinder unfortunately, ( I wish Toyota made a diesel with exhaust braking). On down hills I avoid using cruise control, especially when towing, as it does rely heavily on brakes.

 

As I read through this thread I think a couple of things become clearer. The first is that I more than likely for whatever reason got a bad rotor. The shudder is largely the right front. The second thing is the brakes are biased toward quiet not durability. Toyota would rather charge you for brakes as opposed to hassling with warranty claim for noisy pads which Mercedes did for years.

 

Don't tell me that, wife just bought a GLE.