Pictures

Taking a measure of the rotor. Don't forget to consider the lip thickness vs the dipped area. At 55K there was barely a difference.

 

So today was time to do the rear pads.
Rear rotor was a solid 10mm thick, and this one is a solid disc unlike the fronts, so easy to keep track.

Rear was much cleaner and easy to simply pull off the pads with little dust. I had more life on the rear pads, but not much more than 2mm, so I tossed them and put in the new ones.

I need to check the manual to make sure I don't over tighten the lug nuts on the wheels, so that I need to redo.
Posted pictures:
Rear jack point, and the stands going under the rails.(I still don't like this).
Passenger side rear brakes
Driver side without pads
And how I sit on the floor and use my feet to align the wheels back on. Much easier than other methods I have tried. Put a top and bottom lug nut on, and then you can easily apply the rest.


OH, don't forget...particularly for the front! (yes....I DID forget). Busy worrying over jack stands I guess....
Loosen the lugs a bit before fully lifting off the floor so they don't turn freely.

The first time doing brakes on this car, and in general, its been a while.

 

Here are some parts and tools pictures....

Front pads (and the rubber piece that is useless unless you use a floor jack under the rails. SO you really don't need these.
Rotors in boxes, front and rear
Silicon lube
Some tools

 

Phil, noted the rubber piece to fit the pinch welds for lifting. I swiped some old hockey pucks from my older son and made same by grinding out a narrow grove to fit the depth of the weld on my HL which came with the OEM "running boards". Could not get a floor jack in place without interference from the boards. Works fine now and doesn't interfere with the boards.

 

Good information, thanks.

Remember that you could also use a micrometer to measure the rotors instead of calipers. The mics will easily measure the true thickness and will read the rotor away from and off the high ridge of the lip.

The thickness of the rotor to determine if it meets the requirement for remaining depth takes into consideration the air gap for cooling. In other words just measure the total thickness of the two outside surfaces. This will give you the total which in your first post is 28mm.

Using that you can compare to what is an allowable thickness to continue using the rotor. If you have it machined which is still done but not near as prevalent as it once was, you would measure the final thickness after machining and see if it still meets the requirement.

 

Yes, a micrometer would do it.
I measured each disc face more so if there is a variance between rotors...and simple curiosity.

 

I just don't know when someone would use it. If using a floor jack you should use the lift points I show for front and rear, which are solid metal areas taht a grooved rubber is not any help. Once lifted, you can use something like this for the jack stands under the pinch welds
http://a.co/gKr3NxQ

 

For some related info here is a link:
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/3...tion-2014/1549530-3-ton-jack-lift-point-3rd-gen-brake-service.html#post13035042

Also, here is the prices I got for doing brake jobs.
Posting prices I got from Dealer vs DIY...


I wanted to know how much it cost to replace all 4 rotors and pads.
ALL OEM.
Keep in mind that a number of sellers I came across sell the 2014-16 pads with METALLIC pads as OEM. 3rd Gen HL OEM is a Ceramic based pad. Not the standard metallic. So look out for that.
$679+tax for front
$695+tax for rear
About the tune of $1497.66 with tax !!!! PLUS either a drop off back to where ever, or wait for hours at the dealership, and HOPE they didn't take any shortcuts. Most dealerships here are overbooked most of the time, so they rush things.

Anyway...I don't mean to talk about brakes...but I wanted to give an example I know about in price differences.I will be saving $1100 doing it myself! I can also take it to an indie shop, and that labor is about $150 for each axle.

 

I'm actually impressed that you had to replace pads and rotors at 55k miles......I drive like a idiot and I still am on factory rotors at 175k...not sure how you managed that :lol:

 

SweeneyP!!
I thought I was going to replace the rotors as well, but not so...maybe need to make that more obvious above, but No..just the pads.

Great to see you online...And your 2nd gen brake job write up gave me some reassurance! Next round I will be putting it in to more use as I will need to replace fluid and bleed it, so that should be interesting to do, as I rely on your write up..

Didn't mean to disappoint you on my driving..lol! But I get pretty idiotic time to time

 

My experience has been front rotors last for 3-4 pad changes before they become thinner than spec. So if the driver is a gentle braker the rotors will last the life of the vehicle (or 400,000+ miles).

 

I noticed that the rotors were made in USA. OEMs are the only ones that I know of where this is still true or at least is for Honda too.
I assume that the pads are USA as well?

 

The Rotors are on the package stamped USA, the pads are on the package stamped Japan.
"Madie In..." used to actually mean the product was made and sourced in that country. This does not mean much these days. It could be as little as 50% assembled in a country and they can call it "Made in" that country.
The opposite is true, the materials can come from X country and if it is made someplace else, it can still be marked as the material source dictating the country it is made. Legally it is supposed to be 50% or more...at least close to something like this, I have not looked into deep, and I know companies in the garment/Fashion industry, and many other lie all the time.

But I have no reason to think the parts are not accurate. In fact I think the US forces imports such as Toyota to use a certain percent of parts from US in order to allow their presence. Of course not so much publicly, but I'm pretty sure there are agreements made.

 

For future reference:

2014-2019 Toyota Highlander
TIS (Technical Information System)