Brake caliper preventive maintenance rebuild?

My 2010 TRD Sport has 185k KM with the original brake calipers. No issues sine I've owned it, original owner.

I understand caliper rebuild kits are fairly inexpensive and the actual act of rebuilding doesn't look too difficult. I'm considering 'rebuilding' the caliper as a preventative measure to avoid a seized piston or leak later on.

Anyone else done this or any input? Would do it if it would extend life of caliper and avoid unexpected failure.

 

No prevention against a seized piston unless your rebuild kit has new pistons. Just flush your brake fluid every 4 years per the maintenance booklet and replace the retention pins while you're at it.

 

I have rebuilt calipers on German cars many times. Those ones are usually made by companies like Ate or TRW-Girling, and are aluminum but with a zinc plate coating on top that is supposed to protect from corrosion as well as provide the bore with a smooth round surface that resists rust. Because the bore is in contact with hydroscopic brake fluid constantly.
This is why they say not to cut the bore hole larger to clean it, because that strips off the zinc plating.
Some people offer zinc plating, such as Eric at PMB Performance, known to do that on Porsche's.
I don't know if the same applies to the Tacoma.
I noticed the Tacoma caliper is much heavier; maybe it's made of iron instead of aluminum. I don't know if that was to save money at the factory; am not sure if iron is cheaper.
Usually the lighter the better with street cars; I don't know if iron offers a benefit to trucks. Heavier stronger metal certainly seems better in trucks in certain other areas to handle rough driving, such as suspension.

That being said, the seal is rubber and flexes to retract the piston. Supposedly they can wear out over time.
They also might like lubrication with a safe grease such as rubber grease (won't dissolve it like petroleum-based wheel bearing grease) and dust boots that are not torn, to keep out contaminants.

But I don't know how to measure current condition of the caliper, such as how it acts when new versus when old.
For example, what if someone had a new Tacoma, coasted it without braking, and measured the disc temps with a laser thermometer to see and make sure the brakes are not dragging.
And what if they did the same test on an old Tacoma and found the disc to be hot, even when not braking, indicating that maybe the brake is dragging for some reason such as not fully retracting the piston.
The seals are square cut for this reason; to retract it.

It probably wouldn't hurt, but I don't know if I agree with you saying it's cheap and easy.
Here is how I imagine it to be.

Steps:
remove wheel, lift truck. Remove calipers, block off brake lines from leaking with caps.
Figure out way to clean the shit out of calipers, and pop pistons out; maybe with compressed air. Install rebuild kit.
Re-install calipers and bleed fluid, after buying expensive Motive pressure brake bleeder kit, with special attachment that fits Toyotas.
On one side, it's not a 5 minute $5 parts job.
But I guess it's also not a transmission rebuild either.

I don't know if it would be easier, reduce downtime, and be more convenient, to find cheap junkyard calipers to keep on the side and rebuild in your spare time, so they look shiny and ready to swap in when you have time.
This is probably what rebuilders claim to do, selling reman./remanufactured calipers. But supposedly they all suck and throw calipers into media tumblers that strip the coating off the inside of the bore.
Because what's cheaper and faster? You putting loving elbow grease into maybe brushing the calipers with chemical and water? Or them tossing many calipers at a time into a tumbler with bead media

IDK the typical lifespan of a Toyota caliper and when you can expect what wear, or also in which environment/part of the world.
For example, what if you find out any used ones to buy start turning into shit at 100k miles/10yr old. Or hopefully they don't. That might make finding a good donor harder; one with low miles and age.
Or, what if you find out all the ones from dry states tend to be fine, but all the ones in rust snow states tend to look corroded in eBay pictures online.

One time I bought front brakes for a car for about $50 and sold the pads for the same amount. I saw it as a gamble; I had no idea what they were going to look like inside when taking them apart. But luckily, everything appeared fine with them upon teardown.

I have new OEM pads and rotors ready for an install when I get time, and while I'd like to rebuild the calipers while I'm in there, I honestly don't know if I will just yet.
Toyota seems known for lasting 300k+ miles so maybe they are fine for now, IDK.

 

Silicon grease for the pistons. Best to do the maintenance before they seize. There’s some general YouTube videos on this. Chrisfix imo has a decent one on maintenance of breaks.

 

I used Castrol Red Rubber grease before but have seen some sort of silicon-based (or maybe it was lithium) in listed as correct to use in many car make parts catalogs

 

I like the idea. The rubber boots only last so long before cracking.

 

I believe preventative maintenance is key....An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. A little precaution before a crisis occurs is preferable to a lot of fixing up afterward

 

While I absolutely agree with that statement, let me offer a word of caution. The OEM calipers have high quality OEM parts in them and are assembled in a controlled environment. If in the spirit of preventative maintenance one rebuilds with lower quality parts in a poor environment, you could actually do more harm than good. This at least partially explains why some rebuilt / remanufactured calipers last such a short period of time.

 

That would be for a rebuilt caliper - with highly variable quality. A new (OEM) one costs $237.02:

https://parts.olathetoyota.com/auto...0l-v6-gas-engine/brakes-cat/front-brakes-scat

 

The op was talking about rebuilding as a way to prevent break piston seizing. I don’t even know what that means, as some routine silicone grease following regular schedule oil change and tire rotation will solve this problem. If the break system is already messed up or worn to a level that safety is in question then yes a rebuild or replace will need to be done. Past that, preventive maintenance and rebuilding are two different things.
What I think he wants to known is if he should just do the rebuild before any issues start. My opinion is, maybe, if it looks bad enough.

 

Correct. What I was pointing out is that your statement "For what they cost new $65.00 to $100.00 why bother" referred to the price of a rebuilt caliper from a Parts Store. That's not a truly new caliper. They cost over $200 each. Sorry if I was not clear.

 

Just rebuilt mine. Blasted, painted and resealed. Needed one piston. Cost for everything was less than 25$ including shipping.

 

I have rebuilt lots of big 3 domestic single piston calipers, but I have not yet had my Taco calipers apart. Rebuilding a single piston caliper is easy. Use a rubber tipped air blower to blow the piston out, clean the rust out, push the piston back in with new seals and assembly lube. Rebuilding a 4 piston caliper is just as easy. Just times 4 plus unbolting the caliper halves. The oem rebuild kit is dirt cheap.

In a perfect world, the calipers should be rebuilt every time the pads are replaced. However, lots of pads are replaced without rebuilding the calipers. Calipers are the same as Schrodinger’s cat. You don’t know how much rust is in them unless you pop them apart. Although the calipers may be fine till the pads wear out, when you push the piston back in for the new pads, you push the piston into the rust. Rust residue also builds up on the piston outside of the internal seal. This residue makes a tighter fit between the piston and the seal. If the piston pushes in easily, you’re probably OK. If the piston pushes in hard, the new pads will wear out faster. 90% of calipers are cast iron with a stationary rubber seal, a plated piston and a rubber boot to keep the elements out. It is rare for a caliper rebuild to require more than new seals. The other 10% have weird designs that require a much more involved process.

 

what's everyone using to find the part numbers on an OEM rebuild kit?

I normally use Olathe Toyota Parts but it's only showing me the whole caliper, not the seal kit.

 

Go to your local Toyota dealer and give them your VIN number. It’s only about $20 for enough to do both sides. They should be able to get them next day with no shipping charge.

 

Thanks for the feedback. No issues with the calipers and they look in good shape. I've flushed the brake fluid a couple of times in the past 10 years. Only other "maintenance" I've done on the capiler would be when I have changed the brake pads, but that was limited to greasing the back of shims and any sliding part. I haven't done anything to the caliper body, pistons, piston seals.

Just seems to me that there are some rubber seals/boots that could benefit from being replaced before they fail. I'd imagine that if a seal/boot fails and the pistons corrode, you might just be better of replacing the caliper. Personally, I've had 10 years of trouble free usage from the OEM part and would only consider using OEM parts/calipers if I rebuilt or replaced.

My thought was that a failed caliper seal/boot would lead to a seized caliper and/or rust in the caliper and once a caliper seized or the piston rusted, you're most likely better off replacing the entire caliper assembly. The idea occured to me that if you rebuilt the caliper prior to it failing, could you extend its life. I rotate the tires at every oil change, but I never occured to me to apply grease to the caliper seals. I'll have to look into that.

Had to look that up. Made me laugh, but going to make my head hurt for a while as I try to understand how the cat can be both alive and dead. I've got about another few months left before new pads will be needed. I think I'll pull the caliper and rebuild it at that point, before putting on the new pads.

 

OK, went outside to look at the caliper and watched a few videos on the topic. Are you just refering to applying the grease to the pins the brake pads slide on? I lube those up when I change the brake pads. I am not sure how you could access the caliper piston boots properly without removing the brake pads and most likely unbolting the caliper so the rotor isn't in the way.

 

Putting grease on the boots as a preventative maintenance is some kind of cockamamie BS. Don’t do it.

 

Yeah, I agree. Thought for a minute that I had missed a key maintenance item, but even if applying grease to the boots would help (not sure it would), you can't get at the piston boot without pulling off the caliper and removing the pads. I think the reference was to greasing the slide pins.

 

Just this, I might have accidentally said piston earlier when I mean the pins.