Brake Upgrade to Tundra Rotors on a 1st Gen?

I am getting ready for a road trip and need to get my brakes serviced and have heard about upgrading to Tundra rotors and was wondering if anyone has done this on a 1st gen and has any advice. Anything helps!

 

Changing the rotors won’t do much. The upgrade is changing the entire front brake system including calipers to the 13WL tundra calipers.

 

If what you're referring to is the Tundra brake upgrade, many have done it. It's a reasonably easy modification assuming you can fit the rotors and calipers behind your wheels (you need most 16" or larger wheels) and can result in significantly better braking.

There are several write-ups on TW, and there are multiple routes (quality and cost) to go - from reasonably cheap aftermarket kits to OEM Toyota parts that cost a bit more but give better braking performance.

Personally, with this modification, I wanted to get the best braking performance possible and of course the brakes are a large part of your trucks safety system so I didn't mind spending a bit more money to get it right.

As such, I went with mostly OEM or remanufactured OEM parts. You can read my write-up here, which has lots of photos and also links to purchase all the parts should you decide you want to go this route.

New-to-me Tires and a Tundra Brake Upgrade

...and a list of the parts from that post:

• 2 Toyota Tundra OEM rotors (L/R: 43512-0C011)
• 2 Remanufactured Tundra 13WL calipers from Napa (L: CAL SE3263) (R: CAL SE3264)
• 1 set of Toyota Tundra OEM brake pads (L/R: 04465-35290)
• 1 set of Toyota Tundra OEM brake pad shims (L/R: 04945-35120, or 04945-0c030)
• 1 set of Wheeler's
• Some DOT4 brake fluid, and 3M brake cleaner

It's also worth reading this write-up which compares OEM to non-OEM specs, so you can better understand the trade-offs in quality that you'll be making with aftermarket.

Hard to find Specs, Info & Measurements on 231mm 13WL Tundra Calipers & Rotors (archive)

Lastly, if you decide to do this work, you should be sure to bed the brakes properly to get the most out of them. You can follow the steps here to get that take care of quickly and easily.

Tundra Brake Break-in and First Impressions

​