Cracks in brake pads.

My truck was at the dealer for state inspection this month and this is what my 4 year old pads look like. These are OEM rotors and pads. I’ve never seen cracks like this before.
Safe or not? i have new rotors and pads that I am going to swap out myself, but hate to put them on if not necessary. There is still a lot of pad left.
They passed them, but were hoping I would let them replace them.
What’s everyone think?

 

Replace, your safety is worth $90 in new pads. Could have been due to heat, age or a casting defect.

 

They likely will be fine, but its worth swapping for sure.

Ive only seen aftermarket budget pads do this, never oem. Worst case is it starts to break apart and you loose braking force.

They are ~50% so its not a terrible waste, but its annoying for sure when you pay for quality.

 

I was never aware until recently that dealers have a “value” line and an original equipment line. I found my 4 year old receipt and found that these were the value line pads. These pads and rotors were purchased at a Virginia Toyota dealers parts department.
If i had known I would have requested Original equipment pads.

 

Akebono makes a good pad for these. Not too aggressive, easy on pads, a great option. Maybe $65? I would use them or OE.

 

Probably fine. I’ve only seen one pad “split” and it was because the pad froze to the rotor (salt water boat trailer). FYI, it did completely locked up that wheel

 

Hard to tell in the pic, but are they cracked or just look like rough casting in the edges?

 

Not sure. I’m going to pull the wheel tomorrow and have a better look. This was from a video clip the dealership took.

 

Took a while to clean up 4 years of rust. Next brake change it’s getting new calipers too.
This was the worst pad. It looks worse out of the caliper.

 

We've seen the econo pads, not a lot of dealers sell them, we usually get unusual complaints about them and this fits the bill.

I tried denying a customer warranty because they don't even have the same stampings.

The factory shims also go through the pins, yours are on the outside, its just odd.

 

I'll probably go this route next time. Calipers, rotors and pads...

https://autobrakesolutions.com/page...17~mk_toyota~md_tacoma~ix_all~lh_all~in_front

https://autobrakesolutions.com/prod...17~mk_toyota~md_tacoma~ix_all~lh_all~in_front

 

I bought the rotors and pads at the Staunton Virginia Toyota dealer. I was naive and believed that I was getting the same pads and rotors that came on my truck and lasted 6 years with no issues.

 

I would go with any decent rotor and Akebono over those. Never heard of 'em and I have had a lot of track cars and have bought a ton of pads. They may be fine but probably Chinese. The "New, not rebuilt" stinks of China.

 

@lbhsbz

The rotors are from China. Just about every rotor on the market is now. There was a huge forum about upgrading brakes and rotors to the TRD pads and stoptech rotors. Stoptech was sold or bought out and the rotors changed slightly. I forget, but I think they aren't made as thick now. Anyway, the guy that sells the stuff I linked is/was active in that thread and I believe a former employee at Stoptech.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ch-rotors-trd-performance-pads.523829/page-66

 

Not a fan of Stoptech, had a few of their rotors crack on other cars that were driven hard, but that was a decade ago at least. I would not doubt that they have improved. I am just not a fan of Chinese calipers, but I certainly understand that on ancient trucks options can be limited.

 

Yes, new aftermarket calipers are from China...all of them are. The only place to get new calipers that are NOT from China is to buy OEM units from the dealer. They work very well. The only other option is rebuild / remanufactured calipers (same thing)...but even then, half the time you're gonna get a new aftermarket (China) unit in the box.

Rebuilt calipers from mainstream sources are problematic for several reasons. First, keep in mind that calipers are typically replaced due to the level of corrosion present and/or stuck pistons (which is also caused by corrosion). There is no "magic" to rebuilding a caliper....the process entails tearing it down, cleaning the casting in a big tumble shot blaster, "cleaning" the pistons in one substandard manner or another, then reassembling with new boots and seals. That's it. Some will paint the caliper or maybe zinc plate the caliper. The painted calipers need to be masked off to keep paint out of the bores...and to do that in any sort of timely manner results in sloppy masking.

The only part of the caliper casting that really NEEDS to be protected from a functionality standpoint is the bore and the area around the boot to keep corrosion in check. Guess what the only part of the caliper is that has NO coating whatsoever is?....the bore and the area around the boot. Also consider that most of the castings have been shot blasted fairly aggressively which actually results in "shaping" the casting...knocking down detailed features into more rounded ones and after the aggressive rust removal, what we're normally left with in a lot of cases is a coarse pitted finish. The finish in the bore doesn't matter so much since the sealing surface is the piston...but the surfaces contacted by the square cut seal and the surface against which the boots seal is compromised....they won't last very long.

Pistons are also cleaned in a shitty manner. Most are thrown in a vibratory scrubber with some ceramic media, which does an effective job at cleaning but also scratches the shit out of the sealing surface and damages the chrome. Then they're typically blasted to remove the heavy rust near on the parts visible while the calipers is assembled. The time consuming part is masking the piston to protect the sealing surface during blasting...which is why it's not masked...takes too much time. There are a few automated processes but most of it's done by hand and they all suck...many pistons that go through the reconditioning process are destroyed by either blasting the sealing surface or not adequately cleaning it to be able to inspect it for damage/defects.

With a new caliper, none of these issues exist. That's why new calipers are better. You'll notice, I don't sell rebuild kits for Toyota 4 piston calipers on my website....because it's not worth doing. Just get a new one. Some calipers are worth rebuilding, others are not.

The only NON China rotor available for the Tacoma is the OEM rotor....and they're cheap. I would recommend buying those, since they're about the same price as I can sell china aftermarket rotors for.

Pads are a different ballgame....there are lots of options...some suck, some are awesome, but the same is not true for every driving style/application. We do not sell bottom of the barrel budget parts, we leave that to the rest of the internet. We have 2 high end options...one for "normal" condition driving and one for "extreme" or those who require a higher temp range/more aggressive friction level. I've sold lots, and used lots, and have had nothing but positive feedback.

Ask any questions you want. I've been in this industry to for long time