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Brakes For Lx470


D.Rowe

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Hi. New to the forum. May be perfect timing. Our 1999 LX470 is in the shop right now getting the 60,000 servicing. During the inspection they found that the pads on both front and rear are down to 3-4mm and they are sugesting we have the brakes done. Brakes will run us an additional $1,000 on top of the 60,000 mile servicing. Bad timing here.

Anyone have any insight and/or experience doing brakes yourself on your LX470 ? My father-in-law just did rotors and pads for me on my 1996 VW Passt. Any reason to think we couldn't do the brakes on our LX470?

Help??? :cries:

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I forgot to ask..if I do this myself can I get away with just replacing pads only ? DO the rotors have to be changed?

No, but I'd at least recommend having the rotors turned. New, quality aftermarket rotors like brembo's or powerslots run about $105-120 each. Pads are about $50/axle for OEM. They should replace and regrease the anti-squeal shims (about $40 per axle). If you just slap new pads in, chances are, the brakes will start pulsating due to the new pads not distributing pad material evenly on the worn (not flat) rotors.

The rear rotors are easy to do...maybe 15 min each wheel. Fronts are a different story, as it's 4wd. You need some special tools...large brass bar and hammer, snap ring pliers, 54mm 6-point SST socket, fish-scale for tension, torque wrench, 17mm deep 6-pt socket, misc other sockets. You need to remove the wheel, brake caliper mounting bolts and hose bracket bolt (don't disconnect brakes hose). Then remove the dust cap, 4wd flange (use brass bar and hammer to pound the 6 studs). With the flange off, remove old gasket, then use snap ring pliers to remove snap ring. Use large screwdriver to bend tabs on aluminum lock washers back straight, then use 54mm socket SST to remove outer and inner axle nuts. Remove hub & rotor unit, unbolt rotor from hub, replace w/ new rotor. If you haven't repacked the inner bearing, do so now. Use a seal driver, plastic hammer, or stack of wood to set the brass seal for the inner bearing. Repack outer bearing and torque inner nut to the spec'd torque, turn wheel back & forth, loose nut, tighten to new torque, then install lock washer and outer nut. Use fish scale to test tension on lug nut. Reinstall snap ring, then 4wd flange. For each wheel, you'll need one inner oil seal (~$22), a new aluminum lock washer (~$5), a flange gasket ($2), plus grease. A bearing packer helps. Figure about 4 hrs to do the job if you've done it before, 8 hrs if you haven't. Labor is typically $250-300 for a front bearing repack, so I'd figure that much to install rotors up front alone. I glossed over the steps just to give you an idea of how labor instensive it is, and how, if you can get the dealer to do it for $200 in labor, it's a steal. :-) It's a labor intensive, messy job that no one wants to do, even for a pro. BTW, you are supposed to repack the front wheel bearings (in the above method) every 30K mi.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Jim & thanks for the great details on the fronts. The fronts sound a bit scary to me so I will stay away and let the dealer handle. The rears, however, seem to be much, much easier. So replacing pads and rotors on rear can be done for less than $300 if we do it ourselves.

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Hi Jim & thanks for the great details on the fronts. The fronts sound a bit scary to me so I will stay away and let the dealer handle. The rears, however, seem to be much, much easier. So replacing pads and rotors on rear can be done for less than $300 if we do it ourselves.

What is a fair price for the front brake job? Repack? At 70 k new rotors or cut?

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The repack along is like $250-300 in labor for both front wheels. The only additional work is removing the old inner oil seal, removing & cleaning bearing, regrease bearing, repack w/ new oil seal. The seal is about $22 at Toyota (list) or $33 at Lexus (list), each. Grease is $3. That's it! My guess is the dealer will try to charge the unsuspecting customer $350 for a front bearing repack, then $300 labor for the front rotors plus parts. FYI, front pads are about $50 per axle. Anti-squeal shims (recommended) are about $40/axle (I'm pretty sure the dealer doesn't do this). Resurfacing the rotors shouldn't cost much, maybe $50/pr?

In summary, to repack the front wheel bearings, you need to remove the hub/rotor assembly (rotor is bolted to the hub from the back side). To replace the rotors, you need to remove the hub/rotor but don't have to repack the inner bearing (you have to do the outer bearing either way). It's only like 10 min extra work if you did it yourself, so they shouldn't be charging you hundreds of dollars for it if they are already removing the rotors!!

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Jim...appreciate your feedback and input on this. The fronts still scare me a little. Would it make more sense for me to get all the pasrts on-line myself and then get a quote from a non-Lexus dealer. I have a local place that specializes in Foreign luxury cars. I wonder if it's worth getting a labor quote from them first before paying my local Lexus Dealer $650 for a front brake job that will only get me new pads and resurfaced rotor? Your thoughts ?

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Jim...appreciate your feedback and input on this. The fronts still scare me a little. Would it make more sense for me to get all the pasrts on-line myself and then get a quote from a non-Lexus dealer. I have a local place that specializes in Foreign luxury cars. I wonder if it's worth getting a labor quote from them first before paying my local Lexus Dealer $650 for a front brake job that will only get me new pads and resurfaced rotor? Your thoughts ?

If you want to avoid the lex dealer due to price, I'd try calling around and see if there's a local toyota dealer that will work on your LX. Then ask if they allow you to bring your own parts in. If they do, you can buy either quality aftermarket rotors or mailorder OEM toyota rotors from dealers in Texas (like Toyota or Grapevine, etc.). I buy my stuff from the parts manager at American Toyota in Albuquerque since he gives ih8mud board members a good discount; his name is Dan and he is a landcruiser owner and very knowledgeable about parts. I think one guy said he bought 4 new Toyota rotors plus toyota pads for front & rear from him for $500 or so. They are genuine parts, so lexus can't give you any crap about saying they are of poor quality, etc. So that's like $300 for new rotors and pads for the front axle, plus about $200-250 labor to install the rotors/pads. Still less than what lexus wants. There is no point on resurfacing the rotors if they are going to remove them to send to the machine shop. It takes the same amount of work to install new rotors. If you can't go to the toyota dealer, look for an indep toyota mechanic, not a foreign car shop. The Toyota front wheel hub assembly requires some oddball torques and methods to torque the axle nuts. I wouldn't trust a guy reading the values from a Haynes manual, as those are known to be wrong.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been using a local place for years to mount & balance new tires and I did speak to them about the front job on my LX470. Again..they deal with VW, Audi, Porshe, Mercedes,etc. I talked to the manager/owner and he thinks they can re-surface the rotors with a machine thay have without taking the front rotors off ? He gave me an estimate of $310.00 for labor, new front pads, and resurface front rotors....if he can do it while leaving them on. If he has to take them off then we go to $510 for the extra labor to repack the bearings etc. I thought the $310 quote seemed fair but I'm cocnerned now about....do we need to have the bearings done anyways ?

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I've been using a local place for years to mount & balance new tires and I did speak to them about the front job on my LX470. Again..they deal with VW, Audi, Porshe, Mercedes,etc. I talked to the manager/owner and he thinks they can re-surface the rotors with a machine thay have without taking the front rotors off ? He gave me an estimate of $310.00 for labor, new front pads, and resurface front rotors....if he can do it while leaving them on. If he has to take them off then we go to $510 for the extra labor to repack the bearings etc. I thought the $310 quote seemed fair but I'm cocnerned now about....do we need to have the bearings done anyways ?

You only need to do the bearings every 30K mi if you drive offroad or in water a lot or submerge half the wheel. Otherwise, they should be able to go 60K mi w/o repacking (they will loosen with time if you don't repack; test is to jack up the wheel, grab the tire at 6 and 12 o'clock, and see if there's any wiggle/play). FYI, the owner's manual spec's 30K mi intervals for the front bearing repack. I've done the bearings on my 4runner at 30K w/ some light offroading (dirt roads, no water) and they were in excellent condition. I then increased the interval to 40K, still seemed in very good condition. So far, it's been 25K. Toyota tech did the jiggle test when the rig was in there for a torn boot and said both were still good.

If they are charging for a front bearing repack, make sure they do the inner bearing. This requires using a new OEM bearing seal. Otherwise, the outer bearing has no seal other than the drive flange gasket, and had to be repacked regardless if you repack the inner bearing or not. Personally, I wouldn't trust a shop to do my bearings. They tend to relay on the Haynes manuals for the torques, and there's a unusual(?) procedure to properly torque the front axle nuts whereby you initially torque the inner nut to a certain value, spin the rotor/hub a few times, loose that nut until it's hand loose, then retighten it to a very low torque, then you install a new lock washer and outer axle nut. It's critical to get the torques just right, and I wouldn't trust any Haynes manual for torque values. They're only like 200 pages long and skip a lot of the details. Use the big factory manuals.

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Our LX has never been off-road and tires have never been underwater. I will try that test however.

Is it true that they can grind the rotors while they are still lef ton the car ? Just curious?

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Machining the rotor on the car is possible, and in my opinion the best way to do it. You eliminate all the hardware and brake lathe arbor problems that many not give you a "true" finish.

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Jim, We just got our brakes done on a 2002 with 60K miles. Longo Lexus did not mention anything about repacking bearings. I have to assume they were not done or the outside ones were done as you had described. Is this something we should worry about and have the inside ones done, will it cause damange? Thanks.

I forgot to ask..if I do this myself can I get away with just replacing pads only ? DO the rotors have to be changed?

No, but I'd at least recommend having the rotors turned. New, quality aftermarket rotors like brembo's or powerslots run about $105-120 each. Pads are about $50/axle for OEM. They should replace and regrease the anti-squeal shims (about $40 per axle). If you just slap new pads in, chances are, the brakes will start pulsating due to the new pads not distributing pad material evenly on the worn (not flat) rotors.

The rear rotors are easy to do...maybe 15 min each wheel. Fronts are a different story, as it's 4wd. You need some special tools...large brass bar and hammer, snap ring pliers, 54mm 6-point SST socket, fish-scale for tension, torque wrench, 17mm deep 6-pt socket, misc other sockets. You need to remove the wheel, brake caliper mounting bolts and hose bracket bolt (don't disconnect brakes hose). Then remove the dust cap, 4wd flange (use brass bar and hammer to pound the 6 studs). With the flange off, remove old gasket, then use snap ring pliers to remove snap ring. Use large screwdriver to bend tabs on aluminum lock washers back straight, then use 54mm socket SST to remove outer and inner axle nuts. Remove hub & rotor unit, unbolt rotor from hub, replace w/ new rotor. If you haven't repacked the inner bearing, do so now. Use a seal driver, plastic hammer, or stack of wood to set the brass seal for the inner bearing. Repack outer bearing and torque inner nut to the spec'd torque, turn wheel back & forth, loose nut, tighten to new torque, then install lock washer and outer nut. Use fish scale to test tension on lug nut. Reinstall snap ring, then 4wd flange. For each wheel, you'll need one inner oil seal (~$22), a new aluminum lock washer (~$5), a flange gasket ($2), plus grease. A bearing packer helps. Figure about 4 hrs to do the job if you've done it before, 8 hrs if you haven't. Labor is typically $250-300 for a front bearing repack, so I'd figure that much to install rotors up front alone. I glossed over the steps just to give you an idea of how labor instensive it is, and how, if you can get the dealer to do it for $200 in labor, it's a steal. :-) It's a labor intensive, messy job that no one wants to do, even for a pro. BTW, you are supposed to repack the front wheel bearings (in the above method) every 30K mi.

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Jim, We just got our brakes done on a 2002 with 60K miles. Longo Lexus did not mention anything about repacking bearings. I have to assume they were not done or the outside ones were done as you had described. Is this something we should worry about and have the inside ones done, will it cause damange? Thanks.

As long as the grease in the inner bearing is still good, you should be okay. Have you had the bearings repacked yet at all? If not, I think 60K is a good time to do it. The owner's manual specs every 30K mi, but that's if you do some heavy offroading, towing, drive in lots of water, etc. FWIW, the '86 4runner I inherited in '00 w/ 94K mi on it didn't have its bearings repacked until 102K mi. They were loose, but those Koyo bearings last. I've since repacked them at 130K and 175K mi and have been stretching the intervals out longer and longer since they are still in good condition long after 30K mile intervals. Currently, I have 204K on them. For the time being, I just did the LX bearings at 57K (will change rotors in Sept, but won't repack inner bearing). I'll likely next do them at 100K-110K. Even if the bearing went bad < 100K, I doubt there's any way the CPO warranty would cover it since it's a wear item, like brake pads/rotors.

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Jim, We just got our brakes done on a 2002 with 60K miles. Longo Lexus did not mention anything about repacking bearings. I have to assume they were not done or the outside ones were done as you had described. Is this something we should worry about and have the inside ones done, will it cause damange? Thanks.
I forgot to ask..if I do this myself can I get away with just replacing pads only ? DO the rotors have to be changed?

No, but I'd at least recommend having the rotors turned. New, quality aftermarket rotors like brembo's or powerslots run about $105-120 each. Pads are about $50/axle for OEM. They should replace and regrease the anti-squeal shims (about $40 per axle). If you just slap new pads in, chances are, the brakes will start pulsating due to the new pads not distributing pad material evenly on the worn (not flat) rotors.

The rear rotors are easy to do...maybe 15 min each wheel. Fronts are a different story, as it's 4wd. You need some special tools...large brass bar and hammer, snap ring pliers, 54mm 6-point SST socket, fish-scale for tension, torque wrench, 17mm deep 6-pt socket, misc other sockets. You need to remove the wheel, brake caliper mounting bolts and hose bracket bolt (don't disconnect brakes hose). Then remove the dust cap, 4wd flange (use brass bar and hammer to pound the 6 studs). With the flange off, remove old gasket, then use snap ring pliers to remove snap ring. Use large screwdriver to bend tabs on aluminum lock washers back straight, then use 54mm socket SST to remove outer and inner axle nuts. Remove hub & rotor unit, unbolt rotor from hub, replace w/ new rotor. If you haven't repacked the inner bearing, do so now. Use a seal driver, plastic hammer, or stack of wood to set the brass seal for the inner bearing. Repack outer bearing and torque inner nut to the spec'd torque, turn wheel back & forth, loose nut, tighten to new torque, then install lock washer and outer nut. Use fish scale to test tension on lug nut. Reinstall snap ring, then 4wd flange. For each wheel, you'll need one inner oil seal (~$22), a new aluminum lock washer (~$5), a flange gasket ($2), plus grease. A bearing packer helps. Figure about 4 hrs to do the job if you've done it before, 8 hrs if you haven't. Labor is typically $250-300 for a front bearing repack, so I'd figure that much to install rotors up front alone. I glossed over the steps just to give you an idea of how labor instensive it is, and how, if you can get the dealer to do it for $200 in labor, it's a steal. :-) It's a labor intensive, messy job that no one wants to do, even for a pro. BTW, you are supposed to repack the front wheel bearings (in the above method) every 30K mi.

Lexus wanted $800 for the front axle brakes, and Firestone did it for $175, all inclusive. I did miss the loaner car though.

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