Brake Upgrade items

Jim told me to get them on here.

$217 Callahan Front Calipers For Lexus GX460 Toyota 4Runner Replacement Brake Calipers

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DKKDNRR?ie=UTF8

 

Yep. That’s what I did, and had them shipped to him. Then a few days later he shipped em back machined. I wouldn’t hesitate to do business with him again

 

Seems like the double cabs have less issues with the mushy brake pedal issue.

 

Possibly, I haven’t heard that

 

I haven't heard of this upgrade before. Does anyone have pics of the machined calipers? Just wondering what exactly needs doing.

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/2000-2006-tundra-big-brake-upgrade-kit-14wa-calipers.61231/

Reality is, if you've got one of the earlier trucks that doesn't have the 13WL calipers found on the later trucks, you'll get just about as much bang vs. buck using the bolt-on-ready 13WL brakes rather than the expense of properly milling 14WA calipers from other Toyotas.

While most of the complaining about brake ineffectiveness seems to be in the earlier year trucks, and among DC owners, you'd be shocked at how many people don't have their rears dialed in properly, which is a huge source of ineffective braking. #1 on the list is improperly adjusted rears and/or faulty or missing rear e-brake system, and #2 would probably be improper bleeding. Adjusting your rears is so critical to good braking with these trucks, there's an entire sticky thread dedicated to the topic which has solved problems for a huge swath of people.

PS - don't trust just anybody to do the machine work. At least one person here ended up throwing away basicall new brakes because the shop screwed it up. There's a reason people use Jim Smola or whoever to do the work - he knows exactly what needs to be done and exactly how to do it.

 

Shifty, Thx for the informative response. I already have the later 13WL calipers that I just replaced with new including new hoses, full flush etc. And properly (I hope) adjusted rears with all new parts including drums. Braking is great for now but I find these calipers are problematic as time goes by. I've also had a bought of warping rotors ( fixed by replacing the calipers). What does Jim Smola charge for machining? At $200 for the Callahan calipers ( Amazon)plus a reasonable machining cost it sounds cheap enough to me. I'll continue to read up. Thx again.

 

Not sure on machining. One of the guys in the other thread would need to answer, you basically ship the parts from Toyota to him. I don't know if Jim works on non-OEM calipers, the castings would be different, thus the work different.

I know for a fact many people on this forum have had problems with aftermarket brake parts, *especially* rotors and drums being out-of-round, straight out of the box. With that in mind, brakes on these trucks are just one of those places where I wouldn't be buying Callahan or any other brand besides OEM (or Denso, or Aisin). And with how many confirmed counterfeits scAmazon has shipped people across the various forums I've been posting on the last couple decades, I sure as hell wouldn't buy any replacement parts. Hell, I've gotten a handful of counterfeit/whitebox/non-genuine parts there myself. fleaBay isn't much better these days. They've all turned into Alibaba.

Depending on which booster/MC combo you have, you may also find poorer braking on your truck. Seems some setups for certain cab types/options were worse than others. I feel like it's often the guys with auto-VSC/traction control crap that tend to bitch the most about poor braking response, we also see it from the '00-'02 or '03 crowd.

You may want to go into your profile and in the 'Vehicle one-line description' field, input your truck's year/cab-type/engine/drivetrain where engine is just V6 or V8 and drivetrain is 2WD or 4WD. Like, "2005 DC V8 4WD" where DC is double cab, AC is access cab, RC is regular cab or write "Sequoia" with the year if that's the 1st gen you've got. It may help others help you in the process, since there's so many variations.

 

Jim machined my calipers July of 2022, he charged me $170 for machining and shipped to me with a really fast turn around, maybe a 3-4 days. I absolutely love the upgrade. Stops my truck with 34's with ease.

 

I see 912 further up the thread here used the Callahans and had them machined by Jim Smola so I guess he does. As for different castings, they'd have to be pretty close to originals to fit in the first place, No?
As for rotors warped out of the box I've had a few and the worst by far were the Toyota ones from my local dealer. Unfortunately I had them on a shelf for over a year, installed them , found to be warped and warranty was up so Toyota wouldn't replace them. Mmmmm
I'll take a look at my profile and add some info. Thx again

 

I’m all in like 600 700 bucks. That’s the calipers Smola recommended, I found oem rotors and pads from a Lexus dealer in Scottsdale. Shipped to Vegas. Cheaper than any of the Toyota online places and cheaper than Napa. 4 new springs the ones to keep the pads away from the rotor. And new “shims”. I also did new rear shoes, and steel lines front and rear. Couldn’t be happier. I chased warped rotors like crazy. Until this

 

Where do I find Jim Smola contact info? Does he have a website? Is he a member here?

 

If you search this subforum for "smola" you can find his instagram and contact info.

 

Will the 13WL calipers work with stock Patrick wheels on a 2000 AC?

 

I was afraid of that. Instagram is confusing to me. I was hoping for an old guy contact solution.

 

You can contact him through Facebook (Messenger) if you're into that.

 

Thanks, that i was able to do.

 

Jim’s cell
+1 (864) 205-6175

 

Sweet, just texted him!