vintagelex

Later this fall, I'm planning a complete brake overhaul on my Lexus (pads, rotors, hoses, rusted brake lines, etc) and I was going to rebuild all 4 brake calipers as well, just preventively. My question is, does anyone here have experience rebuilding these calipers? Is it realistic to try to rebuild them or will I run into problems?

I've heard that many times when you take the piston out of a caliper to rebuild it you find that it is rusty and unusable, etc - is this a common problem on these Toyota calipers or not? Apart from all the rubber parts and seals, should I also plan on buying new caliper pistons (I'd rather not if this is usually not a problem). The car is a 1992 ES300, any input is welcome, thanks!

LeX2K

You can rebuild the calipers yourself it's not difficult. But you won't know if the bores and pistons are usable until you dismantle and inspect. You might want to consider getting some spares from a wreckers and rebuild those, or put them on your car while you're rebuilding your originals.

One thing you MUST do is use genuine Toyota parts, No exceptions. I've seen so many people use aftermarket rebuild kits only to have issues. The Toyota kits come with everything you need including packets of rubber grease. I like to toss the calipers in a vat of EVAPO-RUST then paint them, I do clean them up first with a wire wheel and carb cleaner then with soap/water before hand to give the solution the best chance of doing its job. After soaking for a day or two they come out like new.

vintagelex

For the rears (gonna do those first) I'll definitely have spares on hand. I'm going to try to find OEM rear calipers in good condition at the junkyard and rebuild those, because the OEMs don't rust. The front calipers are original OEM and after 22 years of Chicago winters they are still not rusty. The rears were cheap replacements probably like ten years ago, and are really rusty. Gonna go with the Toyota kit for sure, I don't want to have to mess with the brakes again for the next few years hopefully.

hypervish

The RF Caliper on my RX has been sticking recently, even after cleaning and lubing the slide pins. I'm going to throw on two Raybestos Professional Grade Calipers tomorrow. I'm not going to bother with rebuilding it because I know the boot on the RF piston is damaged so it's very likely my piston is corroded. I figured I might as well replace both front calipers, couldn't hurt at 209k miles.

vintagelex

If I had the extra money I'd probably just do that as well, but the whole brake job is going to cost me something over $400 already (also replacing all the rusted lines, rear proportioning valve, hand brake rebuild, etc) so I can't really do that

But I forgot to mention, the calipers aren't sticking, I was just going to do the re-build as part of the brake overhaul, more because of age than milege (157k miles)