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Awesome job, specially w/ all the soundproof mats/pads........Your post 41 mentioned adding brake fluid, next brake job would be a great time for a gen3 cost effective upgrade.....Gen 3 pads/rotors w/ a pr of reman calipers are a direct bolt on & since your opening up the brake lines, great time for SS brake hoses as well. One look at the oem #1005 pads vs #1324 gen 3 pads (more surface area) as well as going from a single piston calipers to two piston calipers. The rotor diameter isn't much 12.6'' vs 12.9'' thou. Add a set of Goodridge G-stop ss brake hoses as well as flushing the old fluild w/ new dot 3 & you'll find the the pedal travel less w/ a firmer pedal.I ended up w/ Hawk Talon rotors/ performance ceramic pads as well as the ss brake hoses. http://tirerack.com should be having a sale on Hawk brakes soon, IIRC its March thru April. Yea I could of went w/ $2k Stoptech bbk, 13'' two piece rotors/ 4 piston calipers, but this isn't a performance vehicle. Great you changed out the fluilds. I'd flush the coolant w/ new Zerox red.
Thanks Felix! That brake upgrade is going to happen soon for sure, and I'm planning on going over the top with caliper paint and decals before the install
Am I looking at the right things here? will watch for some sales to roll around.
For some reason they had the Japanese & USA versions of these calipers. From the spec's on Oreilly's web page, the caliper pistons are 1mm difference. 44mm vs 45mm. I went w/ the 44mm ones, for less pedal travel, but I don't think it makes a difference. I would have painted these a gloss black, but w/ all these clips & shims that Toyota uses, I didn't want to keep redoing painting these w/ the wear. So I went w/ gen3 MGP caliper covers, in gloss black w/ the "L' & Lexus lettering. They have been holding up great. For the rear pads as Hawk doesn't offer gen2 pads, I went w/ the akebono performance pads. Use the gen3 Goodridge G-stop brake hose kit. The Hawk sale should be coming up next month. Hit them to see. btw, I surprised that Toyota went w/ iron calipers vs aluminum. Yea it does add more unsprung lbs, but its worth it, btw the wheel bearings are similar sizes. The outer diameter iIrc are sightly different. The brake hoses fitting are all the same. Flush out the old w/ new dot 3. These pads need to be bedded in. as you'll see.
I have the Japanese front calipers on my Highlander and the USA ones on my RX350. They both have the same fantastic feel to me - take the same pads, hardware etc too. The USA ones look a little nicer externally, but I don't think it really matters.
For the rear brakes, I have 2008-2013 Highlander ones on my Highlander and 2010-2015 RX350 calipers on my RX. They're both aluminum and far better than stock as well. Way lighter and easier to service. The 08-13 Highlander one is physically larger and has a bigger piston, but they're harder to come by and don't share parts with many other cars like the 2010-2015 rears. They'll both bolt to the knuckle and factory brake line but unless you trim the dust shields they'll require 2008-2013 Highlander or 2009-2015 Venza rear dust shields to house the bigger 12.2" rotor (has to be 2008-2013 Highlander only rotor, unless you go vented). The best part about the 2010-2015 RX rear caliper is despite me liking the Highlander ones more, it's objectively the better choice as it's cheaper and has way better pad selection.
Matt, I thought you'd need to change out the rear spindles/knuckes to bolt the higher postioned caliper to clear the bigger diameter rotors, hence I didn't do it as it was more work then I wanted to do....11.3 vs 12.2'' rotor diameter difference. What I find is figure out what pad style you want to run= long & narrow(1325) vs wide & short(1391) as that'd dictate what calipers your needing. Your going to need a pr of reman '08-'12 Hilander rotors, as they use the same size parking brake hats as the gen2 rx's. I find the 1391 pads are so very close to the same size as the 996 pads.
I had both knuckles side by side and the 2008-2013 Highlander / 2009-2015 Venza knuckles are almost exactly the same as 04-09 RX / 04-07 Highlander, except they are a little beefier and have 17mm camber bolt holes instead of 15mm (they use the front strut bolts). The dust shields are interchangeable too but they're probably the hardest part of this swap to find, also changing them sucks having to take the bearing off. They also use the same bushings, etc.
I do want to test the RAV4 Prime brake front setup one day and will post here when I get around to it.
Alright, so a lot of information about things I'm just learning about. But if I'm getting it, then the parts I listed are not sufficient and I also need to plan for new dust covers?
I was somehow able find a set of the covers / backing plates from the junkyard and a set from free at work (Venza got new bearings and backing plates). They're stupidly overpriced and I'd definitely just hammer the crimped ends straight or cut them instead of trying to track them down. Those are the ones though. The 08-13 Highlander ones are the same overall diameter but leave a little more room for the caliper to breathe (only really a concern for 08-13 HL calipers). If I was doing the rear brakes again though, I'd try to go vented from the IS350, now those are what F-Sport RXs should have came with
[QUOTE=meown;11450532]Alright, so a lot of information about things I'm just learning about. But if I'm getting it, then the parts I listed are not sufficient and I also need to plan for new dust covers?
Is this the correct set? that adds a lot to the cost of this upgrade Yes....... >>>The front 3rd gen upgrade makes the biggest difference...You'd have to swap out the rear spindles/knuckles as the caliper sits up higher to clear the bigger diameter rotor....So for me its not cost/time effective. The price of the gen2/3 rotors/pads are pretty much awash, The additional cost is a pr of reman rotors & if wanting to add SS brake hoses, since your opening up the system & also replacing the oem old brakes hoses. Throw your oem calipers back in the boxes to get your core $ back....Jump on Oreilly site & have a look at the 2nd vs 3rd gen rx rear pads....#996 vs #1391 The only gain is just under .05'' bigger rear diameter rotor. A quality pr of rotors/pads is what I'm running, w/ the 3rd gen Goodridge g-stop ss brake hoses.
You can run the rear setup with the stock RX knuckles, I made sure to confirm that too and installed the bigger rear brakes first on the stock knuckles. The caliper's mounting bracket is taller to account for the large dia rotor. I just changed the knuckles because my old ones had blown out bushings, seized hardware and the new knuckles allowed me to add some neg rear camber (there's camber bolts available for the stock knuckles too, but I want those suckers TORQUED with some big ol' bolts). Unless your rear calipers are tired or you can get the dust shields at the yard or yours are rotted away like mine (probably not because California), I would probably just do the fronts unless you're a psycho like me who plans to take their RX to the track. The 3rd gen RX rear calipers can also use rear brake pads from the newer IS350 which is also why I went with them. You do add some unsprung weight with the brakes, but it is definitely worth it.
I would try to get OEM used caliper vs remans. I have had a horrible experience with reman and know others who have had their calipers lock up on them less than a year after install (Napa Performers on a Corolla). For mine it was a Cardone but they sent a caliper with a beat up chipped piston, and stripped out threads for the banjo bolt. I WAS BEYOND PISSED! So mad and desperate that I just straight up bought a new OEM for that one side. My Highlander has Cardone reman calipers up front and while they weren't as bad as the rears, the bleeder screw OEM caps didn't fit properly on the screws they used, plus they had hardly any sliding pin grease and one of the boots was ripped for the sliding pins. If you go with reman, DOUBLE TRIPLE check those things just in case. Check banjo bolt threads, use compressor with a block of wood to see if piston is free, etc.
After the Cardone mishap I just got OEM used for my RX350 front and rear. So much cheaper and they are practically in new condition. Sorted by lowest price on eBay and got some Siennas for 37 ea. Sold the front ones for the same price locally. The rears I got burned on though as they’re the Euro spec ones for vented rear rotors. I know the rear isn't as important but if you're going with the SS lines and those seeexy rotors it might be worth it to get the bigger rears as you'll already be in there taking it all apart. I see some Sienna and RX rears under 50 USD and a '14 HL one for 36 and these are for a complete rear caliper w/ mounting bracket, bolts and everything. I didn't fully appreciate the SS lines on my Highlander until I had nice new calipers on her - the old ones required a lot of force to compress and felt bad. I wonder for the brake shield if what Dodge does can just be applied to RXs with stock backing plates? On the Pursuit Chargers with the large 370mm rotors, the dust shields are flared up and bent out of the way for more clearance instead of actually being bigger.
02-13-23, 09:24 PM
