dewana421

So just wanted to share with everyone that I changed my front and rear rotors and brake pads on my 2008 es350
with the kit from BREMBO and I am LOVING it! Best upgrade I did on my car. I can literally feel the difference.
I bought it from Newparts.com (genuine parts and sealed) but you can also buy directly from Brembousa website or eBay (becareful on ebay as there re fake ones too).
I paid around $280 bucks for full front and rear kit with pads and did the installation myself.
below are the links if anyone interested in doing it.
Make sure you guys service the pins as I showed in the video. It makes a big difference!!!

REAR VIDEO


FRONT VIDEO

Zereldo

Great job! I recently changed all 4 rotors and pads with OEM Lexus parts. They are reasonably priced I didn't want to gamble on ebay, lots of subpar copies online. I also had to change the rear calipers as one of them had seized and OEM ones weren't only expensive, they were on back order so I bought some from my mechanic. Some chinese brand with lifetime warranty that I doubt I can ever fall back on.

With that said, I have never found the brakes to be a strong point of the car, the pedal is spongy (pedal travel is long and the bitting point far down) and the brakes are not confidence inspiring. I have drive two other ES 350 (same gen) and they were more or less the same.

You're a knowledgeable person, do you reckon a set of BMW M550i M calipers will fit the car? I'm pretty sure it won't be a direct bolt on application. Is there such a thing as caliper adapters? What else needs to be taken into account besides the rim size (in order to clear the 380 mm rotors)? Will I need an upgraded master cylinder, brake fluid plumbing, etc?

I upgraded the brakes in my M550 to a set of larger M5 brakes and so I have a brand new set of these BMW calipers, pads and rotors just sitting in the garage and I reckon if they can be installed, the breaking power increase would be significant.

Please share your thoughts.


Cheers!

dewana421

So honestly I have owned every generation of ES350 from 3rd Gen onwards and always had good experience with brakes. Now along side i have owned BMWs, Mercedes and currently own a Tesla and yes i can't compare those with Lexus brakes because keeping in mind this is a luxury economical car so it doesn't have that aggressive breaking as other sporty cars have. Now on the other hand i never had issues with break feeling spongy. It is possible that the ones you test drove had never had their break fluids replaced. they need to be replaced every 2 years and should not have any air in the system. you would be amazed how many cars out there have air in their system making their brakes not as good. the fluid in the system is porus and absorbs moisture and that is why it needs to be replaced. you can actually buy a moisture testing device which will tell you if there is moisture in the system which is bad.

On the other side i would not recommend you doing any modifications to brakes system unless they are specifically designed for the car. in any case i would NOT install any adaptors or brackets. brake systems are specifically engineered for the car and should not be altered. i suggest sell the calipers online. you can get decent $ for them. no gain in taking the risk to mount them on your lexus.

w84me

ya - I'd check your factory brakes first before dropping money on aftermarket stuff, unless you are tracking your ES350. any combination of items may be causing bad brakes. old fluid, crud in the brakes themselves, poor pads, old rubber lines expanding, big brakes have 2 things to offer, potentially faster stopping time and ability to cool off faster. they also add more weight to the car impacting fuel economy and stopping distance.

btw - if your brakes can lock up the tires, then its not your brakes, it now becomes a tire/road friction issue.


129 ft stopping distance is not shabby, they really should give 100-0 times, thats more realistic!

https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-car...-lexus-es-350/

Zereldo

I changed the brake fluid (including all other fluids) when I purchased the car in 2018 w/ 133,000 KMs (currently clocked at 166,000 KMs). I had the brakes changed in early 2020 from a local mechanic who didn't lubricate the guide pins or do any decent prep works that goes into a pad and rotor change, this results in heavy corrosion. They did a brake fluid flush though, I made sure of that. The rear caliper seized late 2020 and that's when I changed the rear calipers, rear pads and rotors. The pads and rotors although new, were heavily corroded and the the parking brake was getting stuck. Instead of resurfacing I opted to change all the brake related parts in the rear (including parking brake shoes, springs, hardware and parking brake cable). With changing the calipers, the brake fluid was inevitably changed as well.

The reason I mention all of the above is to highlight the fact I change the brake fluid twice last year and once in 2018, all the components are new and OEM.

There is no air in the system (I'm 99% sure of this). I can't really think of anything else. It's the brake pedal travel that I find alarming, and it's always been like this since day 1. It's an old and well used car and so I didn't expect it to be perfect though I was hoping it would improve after all the maintenance work.

The brake pedals feel is very different to my M550i and XJ that have a firm brake pedal and the biting point is quite far up/early when pressing the pedal. Please note that I'm not trying to improve the braking power of my car or trying to compare it to much newer and performance based sedans. I would however like if the brakes engaged with a reasonable amount of force on the brake pedals at a higher brake pedal travel point (for lack of a better term). I do not like the fact that brakes properly engage when the pedal is all the way to the floor (or just before) where they work reasonable well for an old heavy luxury car. I'm not referring to emergency stops either.

nevernu

adjust pedal height?

dewana421

This sounds like a bad master cylinder.

w84me

make sure your brake line hoses are not soft. the es350 is my wifes car, i just get in it and drive w/o thinking, so I haven't really compared it to my 545 or my M6. will try to remember to do that.

w84me

good point, another thing to verify. and make sure brake vacuum lines are sealed nice on the brake booster

https://parts.autonationtoyotasoutha...draulic-system

Zereldo

I was wondering about this. Asked the Lexus dealer, they informed that pedal isn't adjustable.

Thanks!

Zereldo

I should point out that the recent brake change and fluid change was done at a Lexus service shop. Usually the point out any problem the car might have, but this time around nothing was mentioned. I was informed that the brakes feel like this in all ES 350s of this generation.

Zereldo

Soft as in easily pinchable? Or am I looking for degradation of the rubber pipe.?

Zereldo

is this a common problem? Lexus didn't point out any problem with the master cylinder. Would this trigger a dash light, perhaps something I can find using a scan tool? Any visual clues indicating a bad master cylinder? The fluid is at the correct level and clean.

nevernu

the att pdf seems to indicate otherwise

w84me

the rubber hoses that go into your calipers should be firm, no cracks and not easily pinchable. another test you can perform is to start your car and press your brakes down. the brake pedal should terminate somewhere and stay there. if it slowly keeps going lower towards the floor, you have a problem.