How to Replace Front Disc Brakes in a Toyota Tacoma

If you want to keep up the maintenance on your 2001 through 2004 Toyota Tacoma, then you need to make sure that you replace the front disc brakes. If you take preventive measures rather than waiting for your brakes to fail, you'll avoid paying a heavy cost later.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

things you'll need:

• Turkey baster, syringe or similar tool
• Torque wrench
• Brake pads
• Hammer or similar tool
• Flathead screw driver
• C-clamp
• Brake Fluid

1. • 1

     Park the Toyota Tacoma on a flat surface. Put the emergency brake on and put wedges behind the wheels to prevent the vehicle from rolling. Disconnect the negative battery cable from the battery.

   • 2

     Drain 2/3 of the brake fluid from the master cylinder by using a turkey baster, syringe or similar tool to siphon a small amount of brake fluid from the reservoir. Remove the wheel. Loosen the brake caliper upper side mounting bolt. Loosen and then remove the lower side mounting bolt using a flathead screwdriver.

   • 3

     Press in the brake caliper piston using a hammer or similar tool. Remove the anti-squeal spring, if your Tacoma has one. Check the disc thickness and disc runout before you install the new pads. Remove the brake pads.

   • 4

     Compress the piston of the disc brake caliper using a C-Clamp or similar tool. Install the pad support brakes, the anti-squeal shims, to each pad and then install the disc pads. Make sure that the wear indicator plate is facing downward. Install the anti-squeal springs, if you removed them.

   • 5

     Install the brake caliper so the boot isn't wedged, torqueing the caliper bolts so that the 2-wheel drive with PD60 type disc is 29 foot/pounds and the 2-wheel drive with FS17 type disc is 65 foot/pounds. Install the wheel and tire assembly.

   • 6

     Check the fluid level and add brake fluid as needed. Press the brake pedal several times to seat the brake pads against the rotor. Keep pressing the brake petal until you feel resistance. Drive the Tacoma at a slow to moderate speed until you're sure that you performed the maintenance correctly.