Where To Buy Calipers For 04 Rx330

[04-RX]

I don't see calipers on Iron Toad. Where would one aquire new calipers besides the stealer?

[blk_on_blk]

www.autopartswarehouse.com -> http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/search/?...t=brake+caliper

or www.rockauto.com

[04-RX]

www.autopartswarehouse.com -> http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/search/?...t=brake+caliper

or www.rockauto.com

The autoparts warehouse has 4 different brands? Which of these would you recommend? What are the OEM calipers? Do these all work with OEM pads?

Thanks,

[smooth1]

I don't think you can get direct OEM calipers other than from the dealer. And those are brand new, and usually cost around 350-450 bucks each. The A1 Cardone is a an OEM remanufactured caliper. They will send you rebuilt calipers, and then you send them your old one's and get your core fee back. Iv'e used them alot and never had any issues. You can save a ton of money going this route. And yes, OE brake pads will still fit.

Question though, you have an 04 RX330? And need new brake calipers? no warrentee either?

[04-RX]

I don't think you can get direct OEM calipers other than from the dealer. And those are brand new, and usually cost around 350-450 bucks each. The A1 Cardone is a an OEM remanufactured caliper. They will send you rebuilt calipers, and then you send them your old one's and get your core fee back. Iv'e used them alot and never had any issues. You can save a ton of money going this route. And yes, OE brake pads will still fit.

Question though, you have an 04 RX330? And need new brake calipers? no warrentee either?

According to the dealer it needs 3 calipers. The back two are seized up and I think they said the front was on it's way. Torn boot, etc... She loves shopping and drives the car everywhere! We bought it new and it now has about 100K on the odometer.

I'm not sure if I should just rebuild them. I'm sure I could buy the boot and slider pin and grease them up and put them back on. This also makes the second time the rotors are warped.

[smooth1]

She must be dragging the brake pedal alot with alot of stop and go traffic. If you have to replace the rotors also, I would go to Power Slot and get the Cryo treated and slotted rotors. Don't get drilled. The reason I say this is because Cyro treating the rotors will make them last alot longer, and the slots will help dissapate the outgassing and help keep the rotors cooler, again, making them last longer, and you'll save some money at the same time. You can still use the OE pads if you would like. I've used Power Slot many a times, and I swear by them. I have never had an issue with them.

And for the calipers, I didn't mean rebuild them yourself, I meant purchase rebuilt calipers and then send them back your old ones. As you probably know, the only real waer is on the pistons and pins.

[mikey00]

I don't see calipers on Iron Toad. Where would one aquire new calipers besides the stealer?

Iron Toad has them. You just have to fill out their quote request page and they will email you back pretty quick. newlexusparts.com also has them for about 275.

[blk_on_blk]

I'm with Smooth on going with the A1 Cardone. I've used them, too (on our ES300), and they work great. If you notice, all these calipers are actually "OEM" calipers... they've just been rebuilt (and some powder coated) and are being resold (which is why they want your core... they rebuild them). So, in essence, you are getting OEM calipers.

If you've got 3 outta 4 calipers 'going bad', then I would replace them all. That fourth one is probably not far behind from going out, too. But I have a question.. you had mentioned just regreasing the slide pins and reparing the boot... are you saying the calipers are just not sliding on the float pins? Or is the caliper itself actually binding, meaning the piston pot is sticking and not wanting to retract? These are two totally different things. If the problem is the slider/float pins, then your caliper is fine. You just need to regrease your pins and replace your dust boots (if they are what is torn). If the caliper pots are binding, then the caliper needs to be replaced... there is no fixing them, because if they are binding, it means the pot is deformed and you'll never get it perfectly round again.

Again, if it's truly your caliper binding, then the A1 Cardone calipers are the way to go.

As to warped rotors, there are many discussions around this. One is that I've read from many places that when you buy new/replacement rotors, they are never truly straight and true, and will need to be turned right out of the box. That sucks if you ask me, for I don't want to ever pay money for new rotors and then turn right around and have them turned to get them true. Now, assuming one buys a quality rotor and it is true out of the box, Smooth has good input and I would trust his experience. I, myself, would go a little more conservative and (as I just did on my brake replacement last weekend) purchase something like Centric rotors, which are factory grade, but have a few niceties on them like cross machined surfaces to prevent squealing noise and powder coated centers (since most Lexus rotor I've seen rust nicely in the hub area).

Now if you are truly having siezed caliper issues and warped rotors on top of that, then I would get all replacement A1 Cardone calipers, all replacement Centric rotors, and all replacement Akebono ceramic brake pads. That would set you back about $600, but if you are mildly proficient with brakes, you can do the entire replacement yourself... then you'd have all new brakes all around for $600. Oh yeah, either way, if you get new calipers, buying a cheap little self-bleeder will come in handy when doing the line-bleeding.

[04-RX]

thank you all. I've taken your recommendations and done the following.

Purchased 4 Centric rotors, Akebona pads all around, 4 cardone reman calipers. All items purchsed from RockAuto. I've had problems with autopartswarehouse in the past so decided to try RockAuto.

The two rear caliper pistons are definately messed up. The front has a torn boot and is not sliding, not sure what the condition of the piston is. I could probably getaway with just greasing and replacing the boot but have decided to just replace both fronts as well just to be safe.

Doing it all my self and am saving over 50% as compared to dealer price.

[blk_on_blk]

I don't think you can go wrong with that combination! Here are a couple pics from my install (with the Centric rotors). If you bought the calipers with the mounting brackets, then it's a straight forward unbolt, replace, rebolt, bleed job. If you bought just the bare calipers, then don't forget to rework/grease those float pins before you mount the caliper.

Also, the brake pad baskets have a nasty tendency to 'click' and 'clunk' when changing between forward and reverse loads. This is due to the metal movement of the pads against the basket (there's a TSB on this). The remedy is to put some thick high-temp axle grease on the spring metal baskets during install.

Lastly, don't forget to put on your wear-indicator clips on your brake pads before you install them (they are separate on the Akebonos and just need to be slid onto the corner of the pad itself). Also, it's best to put the wear indicators on the inside pad (the pad against the piston) incase the caliper slide sticks at some point, because the highest wear will always be on the piston side if the caliper doesn't slide freely.

[smooth1]

^^^ That's all quality there. Good Post blk on blk.

The only thing I can add is:

1) Don't forget to have enouph brake fluid on hand.

2) Torque specs:

[bainzey]

Hi,

About 1500miles ago I started to feel a light “pulsing” sensation when braking, especially down hills… I knew that I was close to requiring new pads, so I replaced them. The “pulsing” was vastly reduced, almost completely gone. In hind sight, I probably should’ve replaced the rotors at that time. Now it’s been a while and the “pulsing” is back, only worse. I am assuming that I need new rotors as they (at least one for sure) are probably “warped”, as I do a fair bit of hill driving, so lots of pressure on them.

My question: Can I replace both rotors at this point and leave the existing pads, as I know they probably still have about 80% if not more left on them? Or will this in turn potentially cause the new rotors grief possibly causing them to warp…

thnx

[pauljcl]

Hi,

About 1500miles ago I started to feel a light “pulsing” sensation when braking, especially down hills… I knew that I was close to requiring new pads, so I replaced them. The “pulsing” was vastly reduced, almost completely gone. In hind sight, I probably should’ve replaced the rotors at that time. Now it’s been a while and the “pulsing” is back, only worse. I am assuming that I need new rotors as they (at least one for sure) are probably “warped”, as I do a fair bit of hill driving, so lots of pressure on them.

My question: Can I replace both rotors at this point and leave the existing pads, as I know they probably still have about 80% if not more left on them? Or will this in turn potentially cause the new rotors grief possibly causing them to warp…

thnx

Why not check the rotors and 'turn' them if necessary, without new pads?

[bainzey]

Hi,

About 1500miles ago I started to feel a light “pulsing” sensation when braking, especially down hills… I knew that I was close to requiring new pads, so I replaced them. The “pulsing” was vastly reduced, almost completely gone. In hind sight, I probably should’ve replaced the rotors at that time. Now it’s been a while and the “pulsing” is back, only worse. I am assuming that I need new rotors as they (at least one for sure) are probably “warped”, as I do a fair bit of hill driving, so lots of pressure on them.

My question: Can I replace both rotors at this point and leave the existing pads, as I know they probably still have about 80% if not more left on them? Or will this in turn potentially cause the new rotors grief possibly causing them to warp…

thnx

Why not check the rotors and 'turn' them if necessary, without new pads?

Well being the fact that I will have this vehicle for a while I don't mind springing for new ones at this point, as I do know that turning them will only be a fractional increase in life, especially with all of the mountian driving that I do. I suppose my question was more in regards to wheather I can stick with my existing pads, or should they be changed out.