Rear Rotor and Pads

Blank rotors. I like the Bosh quiet cast. 

 Regular organic pads. More modulation. I can lock up the wheels if I have to so having anything more aggressive is a waste. I want cold bite performance with low dust for the street.  

I went Centric ceramic (I know, I know but they claim to be decent cold).  I paired them with the Centric Cryo treated rotors. The Toyota dealers near me were not open, but from history, I figure 5 days minimum.  So no car until next weekend. The kit from RockAuto works out to about $10 more than simply purchasing the cryo rotors alone so I figured what the Hell.  The cryo-treated rotors are about $20 more each than the non-cryo treated. But with my wheels you can see them so it is nice when they are not rusty.  The CENTRIC 90944542 is the kit I went with. Total is $90 shipped in 2 days. Interestingly, Centric makes Stop Tech.  Basically Stop Tech is performance oriented Centric which means they are the the drilled or slotted or drilled and slotted Centric.  As a side note, the Centric rotors were recommended as good OE replacements along with a pro Bosch shout out over on the SC side.

The pivot rubber slight puncture on the lower side was the cause.  That rubber piece is available from Duralast (Autozone) item H16004 at $9.

Stop Tech are known to be famous for their products but when they sell drilled and slotted rotors it just ruins the brand for those that take them seriously. They have very good articles explaining braking and they could have led the way to stop this dumb practice.  I have the drilled and slotted on my rears only because I arranged a group buy long ago and was given a free set.  Its almost time to have the rears done and I will be happy to have blanks.  I found that blanks are better because there is more surface area and less noise for smooth consistent braking.  It was found out long ago that the Ferrari race team only used blanks and this was at the hight of the drilled and slotted fad. 

Interestingly, after working on the rear brakes for entirely too long, I discovered a pretty easy way to access the pads freely. As you may know, the emergency/hand/parking brake cable is a f-hassle. This cable housing connects to the caliper cradle using a spring clip that goes through a slot in the metal end piece on the housing. The metal end has to move in the direction it enters the cradle to back out of the caliper cradle. It clears by moving it about 2 cm. I found if I remove the spring that holds the cable end in the cradle of the caliper (not the pin...leave that in) and I pull the cable housing down and out (direction it enters cradle) then the cable will be free to move out of the way.  Remove the hydraulic cable attached to the strut (12mm). And the caliper will swing up.

Clean the parts, compress the caliper piston, install rotor and pads, clean the pivot slider, swing the caliper back down, screw in the lubed slider bolt WITH WASHERS on the bolt (without them the bolt will hit the rotor). Then with reasonable pulling force you can put the cable back in the cradle (remember the metal cable end has to clear the cradle to enter from the front of car direction). With the caliper compressed in this is pretty simple. Keep in mind, this probably would be impossible to remove from cradle if your cables are not freely moving (ie if they are seized). 

Newbe on this site, but have rebuild rear calipers. 

Does anyone have a source for the "dust cover" caps that go on the calipers?  I have not had much luck, and even contacted "driving4answers".  Great guy, but cannot find and will have to order two rear calipers to get as I have painted my calipers already......grrr.   HELP?

Mr. P

Any "dust cover" type cap can be substituted with an appropriately sized vacuum cap. I'm not sure of the size of the cap in the picture but if you approximate it & get a few sizes you should find one that works with no problem