[mcgowaw]

if there's a thread covering this, please shoot me the link as I couldn't find it.
my 06 I4 goes through brake pads every 5-10k miles. i realize that having rear drums doesn't help much as they are near worthless for stopping, making the front's do the majority of the work but i need help upgrading the fronts.
i've used raybestos professional grade pads and rotors and then worked my way down to autozone and none of them go over 12k so far.
i'm trying to decide which is easier/cheaper:
a. upgrade the rears to disc or
b. upgrade the fronts to double piston calipers.

if a's the answer, which gen's work without modification on this car that you'd recommend replacing the oem front's with.

if b's the answer, again, which gen camry is the best to use?

i'm assuming possibly the v6 version of this car might be the answer to A and B but i'm looking for any and all responses on this decision.

thanks much for your help.
tony

 

[kitacamry]

c. cheap pads?

I got Kitacam with OEM brakes @ 97k miles and replaced them @ 130k miles with high performance Akebono pads with no expectation of needing to replace them for 80-100k miles.

More here:

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/1...585-oem-brake-pads-high-performance-pads.html

 

[Kingdom934]

Something is wrong. It should not be wearing the pads out that much. Only thing I can think of is dragging.

I autox'd my 04 XLE V6 and I pound my brakes kind of hard in it daily. I had my brakes done awhile ago because the rotors were glazed, but the pads have a ton of meat when replaced. Even after some 30/40K w the new pads and rotors, they still look good.

 

[mcgowaw]

kitacamry, is your rears drums?

king, i'm sure your rears are discs. i'd love to do a conversion but think it's gonna be too costly.
guess better pads is the answer.

i don't have dragging pads and the rotors aren't warped and as I said, i've used oem, raybestos, and autozone without going over 12k and that was the PG of raybestos. autozone gets me half that but they're free after you buy the 1st set.

maybe i'll try a set of hawks.

btw, 1 scenario i didn't ask about. would it help, and be possible to do without mods, to upgrade the front caliper/rotors to the v6 model? would it bolt up and are they a bit beefier?

thanks
tony

 

[kitacamry]

hawks not for daily driver...need to be heated up (as on the track) to be 100% effective...Akebonos very effective.

Drums in rear.....still on factory drums.

 

[mcgowaw]

ok, Akebonos ACT908 it is. can't be any worse.
thanks guys..
tony

 

[Pvt-Public]

Just as a side note. make sure the rears are adjusted and/or working correctly. If they aren't of course the fronts are going to wear out quick. But if they wear out as quick as you say either something is wrong somewhere or you are on the brakes hard entirely too much.

 

[Kingdom934]

I've got disk in the rear for my 04 V6 and my 04 I4 SE 5spd...lol.

I've never had excessive brake wear in all the cars I've driven so far. I've driven cars with front disc/rear drums (moms and dad's 00 and 01). They don't wear out that fast either. They have gone way past 10K on their front brakes, more like 50K+.

I think the front/rear disc might help. The front + rear disk is an optional upgrade if you'd like. If you go with that, might want to grab it from a V6 LE model. I think the V6 SE and the V6 XLE had larger front rotors?

 

[mcgowaw]

you got a great setup there king.
i'd like to have rear discs but maybe akabono front pads paired with centric rotors will last a bit longer.
tony

 

[JohnGD]

So you don't want to stick to the free Autozone pads? Otherwise +1 Akebono/Centric (C-Tek or Premium coated).

 

[Kingdom934]

you got a great setup there king.
i'd like to have rear discs but maybe akabono front pads paired with centric rotors will last a bit longer.
tony

Yea, I'm lucky the I4 SE has rear disc. I think I was reading up on it and the absolute base trim SE doesn't come with it - at lease for the 2002 model. I'll go check when I get home.

 

[mcgowaw]

john, nah, gonna go with c-tek rotor this time. didn't think rotors had that much impact since they're just a steel hat but I do know from personal experience, the pads make a difference.

king, the 4 banger LE trim for 06 don't have rear discs either. :-(

tony

 

[Kingdom934]

john, nah, gonna go with c-tek rotor this time. didn't think rotors had that much impact since they're just a steel hat but I do know from personal experience, the pads make a difference.

king, the 4 banger LE trim for 06 don't have rear discs either. :-(

tony

Yea, The Gen5 LE I4 all had drums except for the I4 XLE? Only the SE I4 had disc option (I think was option in early years?? I didn't get chance to look at my brochure).

From the Gen6+ though, ALL camry (USD market anyways) had rear discs :thumbsup:

 

[kitacamry]

My Gen5 2005 LE has disks up front and drums at rear with ABS. Mine are VERY effective. I have to be very careful to avoid "extreme" braking (as defined by my insurance company that monitors my driving). I have a lot of "hard braking" on my record

 

[mcgowaw]

not to mention any names, but is the word progress in the name of that insurance company?
i knew they had a monitor dongle tied to insurance rates but didn't know how closely they tracked the actions like braking, gassing, etc.

king, don't make sense to me that toyota puts drums on the rear of a heavy sienna van and heavy camrys but then put discs on a little TC..missing something in the logic tree there.
tony

 

[kitacamry]

The Camry weighs about 3100 lbs....light (by 500 lbs), for a car its size.

Allstate, like Progressive, has a doggle IF YOU CHOOSE to monitor driving to lower your rate. I'm getting about 10% off with no real effort.

 

[mcgowaw]

"The Camry weighs about 3100 lbs"
yes, but both the camry and the sienna gotta weigh more than the TC.
just weird.
tony

 

[Kingdom934]

My Gen5 2005 LE has disks up front and drums at rear with ABS. Mine are VERY effective. I have to be very careful to avoid "extreme" braking (as defined by my insurance company that monitors my driving). I have a lot of "hard braking" on my record

There's something monitoring your car? Man, I would get all kind of violations.

Funny thing is I'm usually a petal to the floor in my 04 V6 but in my 5spd manual, I'm a more chill driver. Probably scared that I'm going to destroy my 2AZ lol...

Worth the cost for lower insurance though?

not to mention any names, but is the word progress in the name of that insurance company?
i knew they had a monitor dongle tied to insurance rates but didn't know how closely they tracked the actions like braking, gassing, etc.

king, don't make sense to me that toyota puts drums on the rear of a heavy sienna van and heavy camrys but then put discs on a little TC..missing something in the logic tree there.
tony

Maybe because nobody wants to buy a car that had drums in the rear that could be seen thru the nice sport alloys? Of course with the sienna and camry, the brake rotor is hard to be seen with steelies unless you get the top end package (i.e. XLE) which DO come with nice alloys that you can inspect the rear brakes.

That and they assume most Camry/Sienna drivers are going to be chill folks and not some young adult taking their Camry through the mountains or autox. Suppose the thought of why put more money on disc vs drums when the drums are sufficient.

 

[kitacamry]

RE: drive monitor
I'm not penalized for driving...i.e. I won't pay MORE than the calculated rate, but may get a reduction for "good" driving, calculated by:
1. braking....a. hard and b. extreme braking events
2. drive time...time of day, most penalized time after midnight
3. speeding...miles over 80mph, regardless of the speed limit
4. total miles driven

I like my alloy rims even with drums at back.

 

[mcgowaw]

you got some good points king, but....
the sienna has factory alloys with rear drums...and
the newer camry's come with discs in the rear even with steel wheels.
so, still a mystery to me. heck, even those little smart cars that weight 500 lbs (?) have 4 wheel discs.
tony