Gen1 - Brake Pistons

[Portugue]

So I was swapping out my old pads last night with ceramic ones. The brake job is fairly easy with the tundra but I noticed that 3 piston on each side were fairly easy to compress, but the inside top piston on both sides was took much more effort to compress. In fact I was thinking one of them was seized, but the old pads wore evenly. I didn't do the TSB either so I have older style calipers.

Has anyone else seen this on their gen1 pre-tsb calipers? I just thought it was interesting that it was the inside top piston on both sides. The last time I had them replaced was at the dealer so I haven't noticed it before.

[lelandstanford]

Did you compress the pistons without open the bleeder valve?

Is the inner top piston the last one you compress?

[Portugue]

I didn't open the bleeders and it didn't matter if it was first or last, they were both tougher to compress.

[chasmac]

Hi - I've a 2005 Tundra and am in the process of replacing the front brake pads. I replaced the drivers side and now i'm on the passenger and I cannot compress the pistons for the life of me. The Tundra does not have the swing up calipers, so it's impossible to get a c-clamp in there.
In checking the web I see that when changing pads on cars with ABS that you should open the bleeder value when you compress the piston, I did not open the valve on the first attempt. Now I'm opening the valve and I still cannot compress the pistons.

Help!

[chasmac]

I completed the installation of the front pads on my 2005 tundra yesterday. I was surprised to find little information on the details as to changing the pads. Much of what I found suggested to use a c-clamp, however the 05 calipers do not swing up as most others do. This is great in that it's one less step in the process, however not having easy access to the pistons it does make compressing the pistons a little more difficult.

There were a few differences I noted from when i last replaced pads on older cars. In the past i never needed to open the bleeder valve, unless I wanted to bleed the brake. Removing the reservoir cap was always enough to compress the pistons, having access with a c-clamp. What I found is that you must open the bleeder valve when compressing the piston (guess this is because of the ABS) on these brakes.

Another big difference to me was that you need to rotate the piston (clock-wise I believe) while compressing the pistons. I never needed to do this on older brakes.

Here is the process I used for compressing the pistons. As soon as you remove the old pads and clean up the rotor, you should compress the pistons. If you inadvertently depress the brake pedal with the pads out you will extend the pistons to the rotor. If you do this, it's VERY difficult to compress the piston, as you do not have access to the piston face.

As in most recommendations, use the old pad as when compressing the pistons.

Open bleeder valve.
compress piston as much as it will easily go.
close bleeder
rotate piston appx. 1/4 turn
open bleeder valve
compress piston as much as it will easily go.
close valve.
do this until you've compressed the pistons far enough to insert new pads.

Rotating the pistons was the key step that I was missing, and if you do not do this it will seem impossible to compress the pistons. When you rotate the pistons be careful not to scar it, if you do the brake will eventually leak.

Some recommendations suggest doing both pistons on the same side of the rotor at the same time using an old brake pad. I found it easier to do one piston at a time. If you rotate the pistons, when you compress one piston the other will not pop up, as described in many recommendations i found (pop-goes the weasel).

Lastly, I've 85k on my truck, and i drive rather aggressively, however I'm a coaster and drive a few cars ahead to avoid brake use and save gas. My point here is that the stock brakes still had a bit of pad left, i probably could go to at least 100k. I'm accustomed to changing pads much sooner then 85k. However i did what many folks do and replaced them 'while i was in there'. This is a waste of good money. I'll be watching my 07 Highlander brakes much closer, going to see if i can make it to 100k!