ES 300 Brake Upgrade

[Silent Runner]

I thought I might post this Mod., since the FAQ's are a little muddy on it, at least for swapping from a Gen3, 3VZ. model, LE. I spotted the 2 ES 300's last weel in a pick-n-pull, check, and had to go down and see. Got me one set of ES300, rotors and calipers, must have just been redone, they had a set of new Sumitomo Pads and good boots on them.

As I said, the FAQ's are muddy on what needs to be replaced and not. I started measuring a few things and noted that the ES, calipers were set out by just the right amount to compensate for the bigger rotors. Now, would the brake drums work? Initial measurements said yes, but I didn't know for sure until today.... Yup they fit too. Before:
After:
Rotor size comparison:
Passenger side was a direct bolt in replacement job. Oddly enough, the driver side backing plate bolt holes were about 2mm too narrow for the ES caliper, and I had to hone/slot one out about 2mm! A Toyota thing? Ida know, but the brakes, parking brake, work great, everything else was turn a bolt and feels and sounds right so far.

[Mister_Perkins]

Cool , Stickied

[N/A Camry Sleeper]

Thanks for that post, Silent Runner - I am doing a similar swap from the teeny I4 stock front brakes to a 1991 LS400 front with the 10.82" rotors. Those are the twin-piston calipers, aren't they!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all you need for the swap is rotors, calipers, pads, and backing plate right? You DON'T need the brackets and you DON't need to switch knuckles right?

Have ordered the other 1" X 8" sqaure 7075 aluminum block to make the other hat for the carbon conversion. Should take about 12 hours total machining time to complete it and then it's time to center it on the hub, drill and tap the hub-to-hat screws and check clearances! Can't wait!

[Silent Runner]

Originally Posted by N/A Camry Sleeper

Thanks for that post, Silent Runner - I am doing a similar swap from the teeny I4 stock front brakes to a 1991 LS400 front with the 10.82" rotors. Those are the twin-piston calipers, aren't they!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all you need for the swap is rotors, calipers, pads, and backing plate right? You DON'T need the brackets and you DON't need to switch knuckles right?

Have ordered the other 1" X 8" sqaure 7075 aluminum block to make the other hat for the carbon conversion. Should take about 12 hours total machining time to complete it and then it's time to center it on the hub, drill and tap the hub-to-hat screws and check clearances! Can't wait!

My conversion was from a V-6 Camry with rear disc brakes, to ES300 rotors and disc's. All I needed was the rotors and disc's. The FAQ's suggested I would need the brake drum hardware, brackets and backing plate. These were not necessary, since the drums are the same size, and the mounting brackets identical on the passenger side, and easily adapted on the drivers side.

With a 4cyl model, your starting with drum brakes in the back, right? You will likely need to pull all the hardware off the donor car. Since alot of that stuff is firmly rivited together, you may have to take it all, including unfortunately, the knuckles... But I'm pretty sure your hubs will fit.

[N/A Camry Sleeper]

I forgot to ask - What year ES300 did you pull from? The 1995 and up have the honker-huge rotors front and back - I'm using the in-between size for the fronts only. For the rear I have solid .745" diameter X 11.875" width carbon rotors. Whatever Lexus (Toyota) used that is closest to what size rotor I have will be the one I use...just want to the the conversion/adaptation ONE TIME to see if it's even plausible

Oh - and I won't need the rear drum hardware on my setup since the hats will be custom. The e-brake will have to be plumbed into the hydraulics

[Silent Runner]

Pulled mine from a 93 ES300, same year as my car. I never measured the diameter of the new rotors, just that the radius was about 14mm bigger, and noted that the caliper mounts were also set out about 14mm further from the bracket mounting bolts. So I guess that makes the rotor around 28mm (about 1 1/8") bigger than the stock Camry rotor.

Just measured, the stock rotor was 10.5", so the 93/ES300 rotor is probably 11.675".

[bigbird]

good work man. I did it on my coupe with adam about two years ago. looks much better.

[N/A Camry Sleeper]

Originally Posted by Silent Runner

Pulled mine from a 93 ES300, same year as my car. I never measured the diameter of the new rotors, just that the radius was about 14mm bigger, and noted that the caliper mounts were also set out about 14mm further from the bracket mounting bolts. So I guess that makes the rotor around 28mm (about 1 1/8") bigger than the stock Camry rotor.

Just measured, the stock rotor was 10.5", so the 93/ES300 rotor is probably 11.675".

OK if you're using rotors from a 1993 ES300 then you have the same size + setup I am going after. THanks for the info - now I know I won't need the knuckles!