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2003 Lx470 Brake Pads, $1,100 Estimate!?


i8hotdogs

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Hello All - I know everyone must be tired of this question, but I would greatly appreciate some assistance after I got back from the dealer and they told me I needed 4 new pads and turn th rotors for $1,100! I know the dealer needs to make some money but this is rediculous. My rotors are still pretty smooth after 30k miles. I asked the dealer not to work on the rotors and just give me new pads on all 4 corners and they would not do it. They require that I thave the rotors turned before they can install new pads.

I have done many searches and cannot find the answer to these questions. Do I need a socket wrench (16mm) to get the calipers off? If not, what do I need? what torque setting should I use to tighten the two bolts for the caliper after the new pads are installed? What size C clamps are recommended in order to push the pistons back in? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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I have a 450 and I do my own brakes, easy job. I just tighten the caliper bolts really tight, I think mine were 15mm but I cant remember

I use a 6 inch C clamp. I havent turned mine yet but I will next time.

Not a bad job at all.

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If the rotors are pretty smooth and there is no vibration when braking then turning just needlessly grinds away valuable life off the rotor, plus it's a wasteful expense.

Best ways to avoid rotor problems are to avoid abrupt stops, use engine braking to help control vehicle speeds on long downgrades and avoid overtorquing the wheel lug nuts.

Genuine Toyota Pads are relatively inexpensive when purchased from discount Toyota dealer websites like newlexusparts.com, irontoad.com and 1sttoyotaparts.com

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If the rotors are pretty smooth and there is no vibration when braking then turning just needlessly grinds away valuable life off the rotor, plus it's a wasteful expense.

Best ways to avoid rotor problems are to avoid abrupt stops, use engine braking to help control vehicle speeds on long downgrades and avoid overtorquing the wheel lug nuts. 

Genuine Toyota Pads are relatively inexpensive when purchased from discount Toyota dealer websites like newlexusparts.com, irontoad.com and 1sttoyotaparts.com

I too have had great success with the Lexus pads. When you do the job buy a 6 inch C clamp. put a small piece of wood against the piston and drive the piston in with the C clamp until the piston and dust cover (rubber boot) are flush with the piston casting. Most bolts on the calipers will not be torqued to more than 20 to 25 ft lbs. Make sure you always torque the tire wheel lugs with a torque wrench to avoid brake disk warp. It really is a easy job. The pads will probably cost around $70 to 80 dollars at Lexus unless you can order them from a Toyota site. but That is quite a bit cheaper than the $1000 dollar brake job at Lexus, By the way if you do not feel comfortable to do this, try a Toyota dealership for your maintenance. They are always about half the price of Lexus dealerships for the same job. It really is a easy job, however the first time is always the learning process and scarey part. good luck

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That's ridiculous. I mail order all my Toyota parts from American Toyota in Albuquerque (ask for Dan, the cruiser guy). I would advise aainst turning the rotors, as they merely make them thinner, making them more suceptible to warping in the near future. When you do eventually need new rotors, either mail order the Toyota ones or get quality third-party ones like DBA Australia. Replacing the front rotors isn't trivial (rears are easy). Replacing the brake pads only is easy (fronts can be done easily once you have the tire off). Just remove the springs (remember which order you removed them), the two pins that hold the pads in. The pads can be removed, but you might have to jam something in there to push the pins back and/or remove some brake fluid from the resevoir. The rear pads wear much quicker than the fronts. You shouldn't have to remove the calipers to change pads (I think the two front caliper bolts are 17mm (deep 6-point socket), @90 ft-lbs).

If you do need to change the front calipers, I'd have the front wheel bearing repacked at the same time (recommended repacking interval is 30K mi, but you can really go much further unless you drive in a lot of water/mud). FYI, to remove the front disc, one needs to remove the hub-disc assembly (disc is bolted to the hub, inner/outer bearings are in the hub). There are writeups on how to do all of this on ih8mud. I think you should be able to do the pads yourself for $100-150 total for front and back using genuine toyota pads.

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changing the pads is so easy.

The Brake Fluid resovior is so big that you do not need to remove any of the fluid.

Take the Wheel off.

Lever back the pad prior to taking it off. Remove the spring clips holding the Pins in place. Slide the two Pins out. Remove the old pad. Insert the new pad. Put the pins back in. Put the springs back on. check the pads move and return when brake pedal pushed. Replace wheel.

Repeat another 3 times.

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  • 2 years later...

This might be a very isolated incident, but here's what I did to get my pads changed on my LX470: I went to autopartsplace.com and purchased brand new OEM Akebono pads for around $120. I then called my local mechanic and asked if he would install the pads that I bought. He charged me only $40 per axle to do the brake job, so it cost me around $200 for all 4 brakes. I know that everyone doesn't have the opportunity to have their local mechanic put on parts that he didn't buy, but Meineke did the exact same thing for me for my ES300. Hope this helps. PS. Nothing in it for me, but www.autopartsplace.com seems to have the absolute best prices for Lexus OEM parts.

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I replaced all 4 rotors w/ A.R.T. slotted & cryogenically frozen rotors and pads w/ Porterfield R4s carbon/kevlar pads over the labor day weekend ($750 for the rotors + pads, $80 for new OEM anti-squeal shims, $0 labor). Just replacing the pads is easy...hardest part is pushing the pistons back in. Before I bought my vehicle, it had been only dealer serviced by the PO. They replaced the front pads at 49K mi w/o turning the rotors, and a warp developed soon thereafter and progressively got worse over the next 10K mi (still safe, but annoying considering this is a $70K vehicle and my two other cars, which are either new or where I rebuilt the brake systems, don't do this). Anyways, one thing I discovered is I couldn't get the front pads out w/o pulling the rotor off. Reason is, the outer anti-squeal plates have two sets of "prongs" which stick into the hollow interior of the pistons to prevent the pads from moving around. There's a middle anti-squeal plate onto which you put disk brake grease (special high temp graphite grease) and then there's the pad. The dealer used this yellow stuff (I think the spray on junk) that sticks like a cushioned adhesive, meaning the pad would not slide out. You should be able to pull out the pad and middle anti-squeal plate (the one w/ the slots in it) as one unit, but mine wouldn't budge. After I removed the front calipers (need a 12mm socket to remove the brake hose bracket, then 17mm deep 6 pt socket to remove the caliper [torque is 90 ft-lbs]), I pulled out all the shims/pads and used a scraper (the type used to prep floors for tile) to scrape the yellow gunk off. For the front, one piston is smaller than the other, and the prongs are designed to fit this way.

For the rears, you just remove the caliper itself, NOT the torque plate. The caliper is the one that uses the two 14mm bolts (you might need a open-ended wrench to keep the other side of the bolt from turning when loosening it). Torque is only 20 ft-lbs. Don't confuse this with the 2 bolts that mount the base of the rear caliper unit to the car (that's called the torque plate...17mm socket, 76 ft-lbs). Do not remove any of the hoses. Just remove the little metal clip in the bracket just to the rear of the axle so you can rest the caliper on the axle as you change the pads. Use as pair of pliers and jiggle it since there's dirt and junk...don't pull straight back or the pliers might slip and hit you in the face...almost knocked my teeth out the first time I did this! You will also need high temp disc brake grease on the shims. If you buy new OEM shims (recommended if you live where the road is salted), it comes w/ a pack of grease. Like the fronts, you put the special grease only on both sides of the middle (slotted) anti-squeal shim. Hint: I buy my parts from Toyota and tell them it's a '03 Landcruiser...the brake parts are the same as with the LX, just cost less. For the rear, the outer shim (the solid one) is asymmetical w/ the inner one. The inner pad has this little metal clip you install on one end only, so the solid shim is designed to clear this clip.

Make sure you bed in new pads properly. For the best performance, it's best to replace the pads and rotors together. After my bedding process, the front pads were literally smokin'!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Stoptech has a bedding in process that I used. I did a series of 60-5 mph "stops" (10 of them) then a cooling off period afterward without coming to a stop. I did the bedding in on a 4 lane hwy late (after midnight) and my cooling off consisted of driving for about 20 min at 60 mph after the series of 10 "stops." I then repeated the same scenario. No complete stops at any time during the process. The hwy was wide enough to do a u-turn at about 5 mph without ever stopping. My brakes are responsive and smooth.

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Stoptech has a bedding in process that I used. I did a series of 60-5 mph "stops" (10 of them) then a cooling off period afterward without coming to a stop. I did the bedding in on a 4 lane hwy late (after midnight) and my cooling off consisted of driving for about 20 min at 60 mph after the series of 10 "stops." I then repeated the same scenario. No complete stops at any time during the process. The hwy was wide enough to do a u-turn at about 5 mph without ever stopping. My brakes are responsive and smooth.

That's similar to what I did...6 near stops from 60->10mph, then 10 min cool down, then I drove maybe 5 mi up the Sky Island Highway (climbs from 2500 ft to 9000 ft in 28 mi), which was about 1500 ft up, then did the twisty turns at 40/50mph slowing to about 10mph, then did 5 more near stops from 60->10 on the flats at the bottom. Pads were smoking afterwards! I drove about 20 min home w/o stopping, parked the car in the garage w/o brakes (tranny in P only), let it sit overnight.

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  • 5 months later...
Stoptech has a bedding in process that I used. I did a series of 60-5 mph "stops" (10 of them) then a cooling off period afterward without coming to a stop. I did the bedding in on a 4 lane hwy late (after midnight) and my cooling off consisted of driving for about 20 min at 60 mph after the series of 10 "stops." I then repeated the same scenario. No complete stops at any time during the process. The hwy was wide enough to do a u-turn at about 5 mph without ever stopping. My brakes are responsive and smooth.

That's similar to what I did...6 near stops from 60->10mph, then 10 min cool down, then I drove maybe 5 mi up the Sky Island Highway (climbs from 2500 ft to 9000 ft in 28 mi), which was about 1500 ft up, then did the twisty turns at 40/50mph slowing to about 10mph, then did 5 more near stops from 60->10 on the flats at the bottom. Pads were smoking afterwards! I drove about 20 min home w/o stopping, parked the car in the garage w/o brakes (tranny in P only), let it sit overnight.

Anyone know where I can find some DIY instructions with photos on brake pad replacement? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...
Stoptech has a bedding in process that I used. I did a series of 60-5 mph "stops" (10 of them) then a cooling off period afterward without coming to a stop. I did the bedding in on a 4 lane hwy late (after midnight) and my cooling off consisted of driving for about 20 min at 60 mph after the series of 10 "stops." I then repeated the same scenario. No complete stops at any time during the process. The hwy was wide enough to do a u-turn at about 5 mph without ever stopping. My brakes are responsive and smooth.

That's similar to what I did...6 near stops from 60->10mph, then 10 min cool down, then I drove maybe 5 mi up the Sky Island Highway (climbs from 2500 ft to 9000 ft in 28 mi), which was about 1500 ft up, then did the twisty turns at 40/50mph slowing to about 10mph, then did 5 more near stops from 60->10 on the flats at the bottom. Pads were smoking afterwards! I drove about 20 min home w/o stopping, parked the car in the garage w/o brakes (tranny in P only), let it sit overnight.

Anyone know where I can find some DIY instructions with photos on brake pad replacement? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

local firestone shop - changed the front pads for $225 total, rears for $170. Aftermarket pads, seem to be working fine. They did not grind the rotors as they did not need it. No point wasting money at Lexus.

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