How can I upgrade the brakes on a 2007 Corolla? - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

nishalp · 01-09-2012, 10:03 PM

So I have a 2007 Corolla for my wife and I bought the car for the great reviews and friends saying it is a great reliable safe car. To be honest the car is great. But the brakes are horrible. I have seen many people complain online. They are spongy and very weak. I am not comparing to my G37 for obvious reasons but I have had many mid and compact cars from altimas to ford contours and their brakes are no where as near as bad. Considering that to me it is one of the most important parts of the car, can anyone tell / help me if there are any ways to improve it?

I have blead the system with no luck. Are there steel braided hoses available? Where should I look? What about better pads and roters?

What / where else can I look?

Thanks.

Bob Shiftright · 01-09-2012, 11:23 PM

Does your car have ABS? I think that was a $390 option in 2007.

nishalp · 01-09-2012, 11:28 PM

No ABS.

hardtopte72 · 01-10-2012, 12:28 AM

My brakes feel very nice. I can almost guarantee your problem is your rear brakes are out of adjustment. This will lead to a lower brake pedal and the feeling they don't work great. Also your parking brake will be very high. Try first a clean, lube, and adjustment of the rear brakes and you should be good.

onemph05 · 01-10-2012, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nishalp

So I have a 2007 Corolla for my wife and I bought the car for the great reviews and friends saying it is a great reliable safe car. To be honest the car is great. But the brakes are horrible. I have seen many people complain online. They are spongy and very weak. I am not comparing to my G37 for obvious reasons but I have had many mid and compact cars from altimas to ford contours and their brakes are no where as near as bad. Considering that to me it is one of the most important parts of the car, can anyone tell / help me if there are any ways to improve it?

I have blead the system with no luck. Are there steel braided hoses available? Where should I look? What about better pads and roters?

What / where else can I look?

Thanks.

Google Matrix XR braided brake lines. I have a set of XRS SS braided lines on my C-XRS, which is the same set on a Matrix XRS. They do improve the brake pedal feel with a good brake fluid.

To Add:
You'll notice, most questions here are for stock A to B cars. Google other forums with members, who upgrade to performance parts. I can't link any here, they'll be deleted.

***PhatRoyale*** · 01-10-2012, 11:11 AM

High performance compound brake pads
Stainless steel brake lines
High temp synthetic brake fluid

MasterTecInSTL · 01-10-2012, 12:09 PM

The way I see it if you are complaining about the brakes on your Corolla then you're either VERY PICKY about how they feel or there is something mechanically wrong with your brakes.

You also may simply not be used to driving a car with rear drum brakes before.

As a Master Technician I've driven a *LOT* of different makes and models of cars ranging from the old Model A to the Ford Taurus to the Ferrari and the Ford GT. I've even driven hearses, limousines, buses, and even a couple of tractor trailers. I'm also very picky about how the brakes feel. It would drive me absolutely bonkers to have to drive a 90's Chevy pickup! Anyway in my opinion based on everything I've driven this generation of Corolla is definitely in the top 5% of cars that have the best brake pedal feel!

As mentioned above, by far the most common reason for a low (or semi-low) brake pedal on these is the rear brakes being out of adjustment. Yes it has self-adjusters but they only do so much (without them the pedal would be going to the floor within a couple of weeks!). Most people don't notice that the rear brakes have gotten out of adjustment because it is a gradual process and almost no one ever adjusts them back where they are supposed to be.

Virtual every rear brake adjustment I do on a vehicle is done at the same time as another brake service. For example if they need front brakes I'll usually inspect, clean and adjust the rears while the car is in there, I mean why not? They came in to make their brakes safe and it makes me to feel good to know that when they pull away they will think "WOW! These brakes really work well now! He did a great job!" What they don't know is that this is due more to the rears being adjusted than the new brake pads being installed on the front!

Anyway my point is that the previous owner probably never bothered to have them adjusted and that's contributing to the low pedal you feel. Before jumping to conclusions about performance brake parts start off by getting the brakes inspected. Get the fluid bled (or flushed with fresh although these are pretty good about keeping the fluid clean.) And get the rear brakes properly adjusted.

Bob Shiftright · 01-10-2012, 03:42 PM

Have you driven another Corolla of the same vintage to compare? I don't think the stock Corolla brakes are something that I would call "bad". They are definitely decent brakes for a small economy car built in 2002.

As far as modifications to the brakes go -- when modifying a car, I'm an advocate of first attaining "Stage 0" (get the car running right) and going on from there. If you don't do that, you'll never know if something is screwy because something is wrong or it's screwy because of some modification that you did.

nishalp · 01-10-2012, 06:46 PM

Thanks for the help. So just a few things. I bought this car new. It only has 4K miles on it and it is a 2007. Yes, it is only 4K in 4 years. But it is mainly for local driving for my wife. I drive when home.

As for being picky. I would have to agree. You got me. I cant stand it if I hear a tick of noise out of place in a car. Brakes and Tires to me are the most important. I am pretty good with working on cars and yes I have driven other cars in same class but not another Corolla.

I think you guys are right though. I didnt really think of the rear brakes. Considering this was my wifes learner car, there is a possibilty of hard braking. I did check the front brakes when I was bleeding the system and they were ok but when bleeding the back I didnt bother taking off anything to see the rear drum brakes.

Let me go try that adjustment as you mentioned first and see how that helps. Thanks.

nickxrs · 01-10-2012, 10:40 PM

Have a mechanic look at it, see what they say then try to see if you can do it yourself. Probably just needs a rear clean and adjust. Good luck!

Bob Shiftright · 01-10-2012, 11:39 PM

My '03 has 8K -- and it's not driven much now. The brakes rust after it's parked for a few days and it requires a couple of hard brake applications before they function normally. Then they're fine.

My daughter has a very low mileage '06 Accord and since she takes the train to work and walks to the station her car doesn't get driven much, either. She noticed some brake problems -- vibration/noises -- and my guess was rusty rotors. She took it to the dealer to get the brakes checked (it's still under the extended warranty). Nothing abnormal was found and the techs agreed with my theory about the rust. When several days of rust accumulation comes off the brake discs or drums my guess is it produces flakes larger than the dust particles that are produced by the brake pads, and the flakes might get lodged in the brake components and produce odd symptoms.

I agree that cleaning and adjusting the brakes is a good place to start.

MD1032 · 01-13-2012, 09:12 AM

This vintage of Corolla has the best brakes of any compact car I've ever driven. You can literally stop on a dime, and they grip extremely well, at least for me.

If you feel that the brakes are spongy, I would head to a shop and get them adjusted. For me, I feel like the discs on this vintage of Corolla are already the correct size, and a larger size would make the brake pedal far too sensitive (it is already a tiny bit too touchy in my opinion).