In general, the rear brakes on a Tacoma or 4Runner wear much more slowly than the front - after all, they are only providing a small fraction of overall braking, and as drum brakes wear more slowly anyway. However, eventually they need to be changed - whether due to wearing out or - perhaps more commonly - due to a rear axle seal leak. A rear axle seal leak was what caused me to do the job on both my 3rd gen 4Runner (full story) as well as 1st gen Tacoma (full story to be written), which you can read…
6 CommentsGuide Section: Brakes
Drum brakes in the rear, disc brakes in the front, Tundra brake upgrade.
Adding Tundra brakes to your 1st gen Tacoma (1996-2004) or 3rd gen 4Runner (1996-2002) is one of the easiest upgrades you can make. The larger calipers, pads, and rotors give your truck significantly more stopping power and at the same time decrease brake fade since the larger rotors are able to better dissipate heat. The entire process takes only a couple hours, and requires little in the way of special tools. After doing this work on both my 1st gen Tacoma and 3rd gen 4Runner, as well as helping several friends with their brake upgrades, I figured that it was…
62 CommentsWhich Wheels/Rims Fit the Tundra Brake Upgrade (13WL 231mm rotors) on a Tacoma? (or 3rd gen 4Runner)
Which Wheels/Rims Fit the Tundra Brake Upgrade (13WL 231mm rotors) on a Tacoma? (or 3rd gen 4Runner)
So, you want to upgrade the braking on your 1st gen Tacoma (or 4Runner), and you're wondering which wheels will fit the larger calipers and rotors? Hopefully, over time, this page can become a comprehensive list of wheels that generally work. What's the Issue? The only reason this page is necessary is that some early 1st gen Tacoma's (pre-2001) shipped from the factory with 15" wheels. 3rd gen 4Runners always had 16" rims, but not all of them fit the larger calipers. Tundra's on the other hand always shipped with 16" or larger rims that obviously fit the larger Tundra…
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Post by BigFishAllDay, circa 2011. Captured here for posterity, given the wealth of info the post contains. For my Tundra Brake Upgrade, see New-to-me Tires and a Tundra Brake Upgrade. I’m in the process of doing the 231mm Tundra Brake Upgrade and I realized while I was searching for information on the upgrade, there was very little info available as to the differences in specs between the stock hardware and the 231mm Tundra calipers/rotor. A lot of this information would have been handy for me in deciding whether or not to do this upgrade, and whether or not to go w/the 199’s…
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