My 2006 Tacoma brake upgrade (EDITED!!)

(edit: these brake upgrades make the Tacoma brakes absolutely fantastic. The wrong year of Tundra master cylinder and booster was previously posted by me, the correct year Tundra master cylinder and booster is 2007-2018, the 2008-2019 Sequoia master cylinder and booster are exactly the same as the Tundra).
I wanted a brake upgrade for my Tacoma using all stock parts that could be purchased at any auto parts counter.

I installed stock new 2010+ 4Runner front rotors, calipers, and ceramic pads on my 2006 Tacoma. I purchased them on eBay in a package deal for $222. The rotors look to be about 3/4" larger.

The stock Tacoma brake backing plate required some trimming which I did with a handheld grinder and a cut off wheel.


The trimming off of the bottom of the backing plate is on the left, the top trimming is on the right.

You can also buy 2010+ 4Runner disc brake backing plates for the larger 338mm 4Runner rotors. Toyota part numbers 47781-60140 and 47782-60140 (thank you @crashnburn80 ) ALWAYS USE LOCTITE ON THE BOLTS FOR THE CALIPER/KNUCKLE!
The next thing I installed was a (EDIT: 2007-2018) Tundra brake master cylinder and booster. 2008-2019 Sequoia master cylinders and boosters are the same as a Tundra.
Tundra on the left, Tacoma on the right. I bought the used Tundra master cylinder and booster off of eBay for $140.

The Tundra master cylinder and booster installed on my Tacoma. The Tacoma brake lines go into the Tacoma master cylinder on the right of the master cylinder, on the Tundra master cylinder the lines go into the master cylinder on the left and the line's fittings are of a different size compared to the Tacoma line's fittings.

I kept the lines from flopping all over the place with this little bracket I made, some pieces of heater hose rubber, and hose clamps.

The Tacoma brake booster actuating rod is 9 1/4" long from the base of the booster mount to the center of the hole in the actuating rods yoke, the Tundra measures 7 5/8".


So I combined the Tacoma yoke with the Tundra yoke using a mig welder to extend the Tundra's booster's actuating rod.

The Tundra has 4 wheel disc brakes. I used the master cylinder as is with no residual pressure valve on the rear drum brake lines.
The last thing I did was for the 3" lift front spacers is I slightly reshaped the brake line going from the caliper to the flexible rubber brake line and I built a new bracket for the brake line which allowed me to use stock brake lines with a 3" front lift. The sway bar delete can also be seen.


The Tacoma ABS brake system requires some sort of a special computer hooked up to the truck to properly bleed the ABS system. I haven't done that yet. The appointment for it is in an hour at my friend's offroad shop (Lifestyle Garage). I'm positive there is air in the system right now. Even with air in the system the brakes are already a LOT better than stock Tacoma brakes. Far less pressure on the brake pedal is required, it's not even close. I attribute most of the added braking power to the switch from a single 9" diaphragm brake booster to a dual 9" diaphragm brake booster.

 

Very nice!

Wonder how the clutch is taken care of for manual transmission Tacomas, since Tundra's didn't offer a manual.

 

Pretty sweet. When you say they are larger, is that in relation to the thickness of the new caliper? I am curious on how they would fit on my current 16" wheels.

You need techstream in order to cycle the abs module to properly bleed it. Bummer that all of the air couldn't be taken care of while bench bleeding the mc.

Having access to a welder is a godsend. I like what you did with the actuator extension. Overall I feel this is a very worthwhile and cost effective upgrade. I considered going wilwood ultra light bbk like all of my vehicles but can't justify it on a truck that doesn't really utilize a race brake that effectively. Thanks for sharing!

 

There's a thread or two on TW that gives exact dimensions of all of the changes I did with the exception of the Tundra booster.

All bolts/nuts are the exact same sizes between the Tacoma, the 4Runner, and the Tundra with 2 exceptions: master cylinder brake line fitting size and brake booster actuating rod length.

I read 1 post on the internet somewhere that claimed to have installed the Tundra booster and claimed the only mod required was new brake lines. That post was incorrect as evidenced by the booster actuating rod's lengths.

The 4Runner rotor is approximately 3/4" larger in diameter, I didn't take any other measurements comparing Tacoma front brakes and 4Runner front brakes. The 4Runner pads look almost 1/3 larger than pads for the Tacoma.

I don't have a clue about the differences on any of these models when comparing vehicles with automatic transmission versus with a manual transmission. With vehicles that I've owned in the past I think it's reasonably safe for me to write that other than the pedal assemblies there are no differences - but that is a guess on my part.

After having the brakes professionally bled the braking performance is even better. Far far less pressure is required on the brake pedal to stop in the same approximate amount of distance. The brakes are still easy to manage (i.e. I don't accidentally slam on the brakes with the current setup) and I'm positive the brakes stopping distance improved at least by 20% in a panic stop and the amount of pressure required on the brake pedal is at least 40% less in a panic stop. I thought about getting more technical and measuring stopping distances etc but if I read 1 vehicle stops 20' sooner than a different vehicle in a panic stop it's pretty much meaningless to me personally other than knowing how far 20' is.

The difference is HUGE. I couldn't be any happier with the end result. It crossed my mind prior to purchasing these parts to get the fancy stuff with cyro coating and TRD pads etc etc etc I would expect the combination of the Tundra master cylinder and booster and StopTech 4Runner rotors and pads combined with Tacoma rear drum brakes to have better stopping performance than insanely expensive big brake kits with aftermarket rear disc brakes - that's how much the braking performance was improved.

I can't wait to tow another heavy boat with this setup and once my eye is fully healed I'm going to tow a really heavy boat I towed prior to the brake work that I did just so I know how much of a difference it made in an extreme situation. The stock Tacoma brakes with that really heavy boat in tow were flat out extremely dangerous.

 

I forgot to include my tires and wheels weigh 95 pounds each and are 37x12.50x17. There is more than 1/2" between the wheel and the caliper so on my truck with my wheel spacers I could run 16" wheels.

 

Great posts and very informative. I appreciate you going through your thoughts and processing through the install.

I will agree that there is no replacement for displacement and surface area. I am confident that your upgrade has substantially improved your performance at a very reasonable cost.

Time to piece together my kit, I found the original thread with alot of helpful information as well!

 

Great post man, Please keep this thread updated as you get the system worn in a bit and let us know your impressions.
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That tundra MC and booster, is the MC the same bolt pattern as the Tacoma MC, could you in theory swap the MC from the Tacoma to the Tundra booster?

 

Great post! Seriously thinking about do this! Do you have the part numbers for the adapters you used rerouting the lines on the master cylinder?

 

Every post I've read except 1 that used the Tundra master cylinder didn't use the Tundra booster and every one except that 1 post complained of spongy brakes so it should work.

I don't understand the term spongy brakes.

I'm ecstatic with my results.

I had those stainless steel lines custom made by a local to me hose company. They are both 12" long. The Tundra master cylinder uses 12x1.00mm asian inverted flare fittings. The Tacoma uses 10x1.00mm asian inverted flare fittings. Asian inverted flares are different than all others, the flare is at a different degree.

So the SS lines I had made are male 12x1.00mm asian inverted flare to female 10x1.00mm asian inverted flare.

It was actually difficult finding a local to me company that could build those lines for me. 2 of the companies I called said they could build it and when I showed up at their store they told me they couldn't make it. This is the company that made the lines for me and they cost me $90.

 

When I was installing the Tundra booster and master cylinder it was a tight fit to get it to where it needed to be. I almost started hitting the inner fender with a hammer but I grabbed more patience instead and got it in there with no dents/mods.

 

thanks for sharing!

 

Here's my tundra MC/BB install. I did the stoptech 340mm BBK alone and wasn't too impress with it. After the Tundra Master cylinder and booster install, it was a night and day difference. I used adapters and bent pre-made 8" hard lines to adapt to the master. Tig welded my own pedal extension from a couple nuts and a spacer I found.

 

There is a Sequoia MC swap kit available from www.sosperformance.com. I have done that install before. Not sure how exactly similar it is to the Tundra MC though. Should be quite similar. Check it out for ideas.

 

Very nice!

 

The sequoia has disk all the way around. So it’s too much pressure for the drums in the rear

 

So you're saying you should go ahead and do a rear brake conversion? I like that idea.

 

It's not needed at all. My trucks's brakes are simply amazing now. The difference in required pedal pressure is huge.

 

I saw that kit prior to purchasing the parts but I didn't want to pay $190 for the extremely cheap parts in the kit. That kit probably costs them about $10-$15 to make at the most.

 

You also extended the wiring harness for the low brake fluid switch in the master cylinder. On mine I just pulled a little on the main harness on the inner fender well to get it to plug into the MC. Yours looks cleaner.

The plugs for the Tacoma MC and Tundra MC are identical.