Brake Pad Replacement

C Yohman wrote in news:3e0cf691-9108-4cbc-8b5b- snipped-for-privacy@e23g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

Only with aftermarket pads.

This car has rear drum brakes, no? Sticking is typically a characteristic of rear disc brakes.

You pull the calipers off and look at the pads. With a really good light you can just peek through the inspection hole in the caliper instead. No other way to tell for sure. Plus you need to make sure the pins are sliding freely.

If any part of any one pad is less than 1/8" thick, replace the axle set.

You replace the pads when they wear down to near the minimum specified thickness, which is 1mm for Toyotas, but for me 2-3mm is acceptable. Unless they are wearing unevenly. Toyota calipers can use regular cleaning and lubing to avoid sticking. But if they are sticking then at least consider cleaning and lubing them.

You'll never know which batch of brake pads from the dealer you get, from the cheapo NBK to the better Akebono (used on Lexus). I just buy Akebono ProAct ceramic aftermarket. Quiet even without the stick-on noise shims (later ones they stick'em on at the factory, so I use the shims). Did I mention quiiieeeeet!

Cost depends on where you live. The brake pads probably (should have been) replaced at least once in those first 65,000 miles. Find a good or reputable shop and ASK them to check the brakes. Ask friends/neighbors for places. BTW, its your life so, maybe you should do something soon.

Lou

The best way to check brake pad wear is to remove the wheels. If you have alloy wheels with large openings, you may be able to use a mirror to see the pads.

It's a hell of a lot easier to take the front wheels off the car and take a good look - an inspection can be done tires-on with a small inspection mirror on an extension handle and a flashlight, but that also means turning the front wheels full lock and then sticking your head into the fender well and bending into several positions God never intended your spine to go... >_<

The rear wheels you almost have to take the wheels and the drums off to check for wear - some cars have a little "window" to see the shoes, but that shows only one spot and they don't always wear evenly.

If you don't live in snow country, there aren't big wear ridges on the drums, and you remove the little retainer clips on the studs, remove the tire and the drum will practically slide right off. If there are bad wear ridges you might have to get out a brake adjusting spoon and back off the star-wheel self-adjuster to retract the rear shoes first. Have a can of spray Brake Cleaner handy so you can flush out the gack and see what you are doing.

And if you are in snow country and haven't touched them recently, the drums most likely have rust holding them to the axle shaft. They will come off, but... Good luck. ;-)

(Jack bolts in the 6MM drum holes, a SMALL squirt of penetrant between drum and hub so it doesn't get on the shoes and contaminate the lining, and a lot of tapping the backside of the drum with a soft face dead-blow mallet and working it back and forth by hand.)

Or pay your mechanic for a half-hour to hour of his time, and he can run it up on the lift and check the front and rear brakes, and a few dozen other things that need occasional attention.

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If you're not mechanically inclined and don't want to remove the wheels, just assume, at 100K miles, that you need new brakes. I'd take it to a reputable brake place or the dealer and make sure they use Toyota pads. Around here (Tucson, Arizona) a complete brake job will run between 3 and 4 hundred. I bought new pads for my Avalon a couple of months ago at the dealer. They ran $102 for both front and back.

If you do take it to someone to have it done, they may tell you that you need to replace one or more rotors because they cannot "turn" them which is a process in which material is removed from the rotor to restore it to a flat surface. Anyhow, in my experience, they are right. It's better to install new rotors rather than turn the old ones. I tried it once on another Avalon and in a few miles, I had the old pulsating pedal back. New rotors, no pulsation. Good luck and post what you end up doing. jor

C Yohman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@a35g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

Without a shadow of a doubt, yes.

It also involves knowing what you're doing. You need to do some substantial reading-up on auto mechanics before you tear into what is an essential safety system on your car.

If you're this new to brake work, I would advise not touching them at all yourself until you've done considerable study of the subject. There is DIY info available on the Internet, for a start.

That reminds me: there was a car that allowed changing, not just inspecting, the brake pads without removing the wheel. Seemed like a good idea, so why isn't that brake design more common?

Even on fancy alloy wheels you often can only see one pad from the outside if the inside isn't obstructed by suspension components. And since calipers and anchor pins may stick causing uneven wear, it's better to inspect the whole pad rather than just a small section. Pad wear is also compared to the other side of the axle.

Therefore a pad inspection checks more than checking for wear, it also tells you about the operation of the brake hydraulics.

many places still turn rotors. However, it's becoming quite common now that if there are no deep scores (catching finger nails) and warpages then you don't have to turn rotors. Such a simple replacement job is about $60 labor per axle at an independent. You do need a good reference, not just going to any mechanic.

In my case with Akebono and Raybesto's Raymold $20 noise dampening iron rotors I didn't even need those stick-on noise shims that came with the package (later ones Akebono pre-apply them at the factory).

You could do this on cars with inboard disc brakes like some Jaguars had. Inboard disc brakes allows the rotors to be larger and reduces unsprung weights. The drawback to inboard disc brakes is that rotor replacement required removal of the axle and the brakes intruded into trunk or passenger cabin space.