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Hi I’m wondering if I could reach out to the Prado Point Community for idea’s on what the problem might be with my rear brakes heating up on my Prado 150 GXL.
A week ago I did my brakes. Replacing original genuine Toyota front & rear pads with Bendix Ultra Premium DB1482 (Front) & DB1200 (Rear). I had front rotors machined and bled all fluid from all corners using 1L bottle of Bendix DOT4. I also cleaned the calipers/rotors/brake parts with an air compressor and plastic bristle brush as well as 1:50 ratio of water to CT-14.
After the work was done I took it for a test drive. I noted the rear rotors were hot, far hotter than the front. I did jump on the brakes a fair bit to test my work, so I thought I’d keep an eye on it for a day or two and see if it was a real problem.
After a couple days I confirmed something was not right, so I started checking what might have gone wrong.
THESE ARE THE THINGS IVE CHECKED SO FAR:
1) Confirmed rear pads were installed correctly. Bendix mark the pads as Inner and Outer and they were in correct positions.
2) Cleaned off all the caliper slide bolts (again). I removed all the old grease from the bolts and rubbers seals/tubes and applied new grease. Note the grease I used is Penrite brand rubber grease designed for brakes & safe for rubber seals. I think it’s a Castor Oil base, No-where near me sells silicone based grease but I’ve been assured Rubber grease is fine.
3) Confirmed the caliper guide clips where positioned correctly. These are the spring metal things that are seated between caliper and brake pad.
4) Confirmed that the cable hand brake was not causing the heated rear brakes. Note after short drives around the block I confirmed the heat is definitely being generated on the rotor surface (i.e. the caliper) not inside the drum (i.e. the hand brake).
5) Determined both Rear right and rear left rotors get hot. I took the prado for a drive on the freeway with next to no brake application. After 10km the front rotors were cool enough to touch the flat of the rotor braking surface, where the rear rotors were too hot to touch the rotor at the point where the wheel bolts onto the hub. They don’t smoke, but you can smell hot brakes and there is excessive brake dust after a few days of driving. They get hot enough to creek when they cool down.
6) Re-bled the rear corners. Just to be sure.
7) When removing the genuine Toyota pads I noted they were fitted with a clip that makes a sound when pads run low. Originally I had unclipped this and fitted to my replacement Bendix pads. Although both genuine and Bendix backing plates where exactly the same size I thought perhaps this clip was causing the pads to jam up in the caliper… So as a test I removed the indicator clips and drove the car for another 10km drive. Removing this clip didn’t fix the heating issue.
8) After jacking up both rear corners (hand brake off) I remove wheel and confirmed that I can spin both wheel hubs with minimal force. The caliper might be applying some friction but it’s not much!
This problem is driving me batty. I don’t know what it could be. I’ve done brakes dozens of times on many vehicles although this is the first time I’ve done them on my Prado. After some thought,
THESE ARE THE THINGS I’M NOT SURE ABOUT:
1) Did I bleed it correctly? My method is to syringe out most fluid from the master but leave enough to never suck air through the system. I then refill with new fluid, then bleed from every corner until I get a few good squirts of new fluid from every corner. I use a plastic tube and jar to ensure air doesn’t ever get back into the caliper bleeding nipple. The brake fluid was Genuine Toyota yellow colour, which I completely flushed with Bendix DOT4 Blue colour I like to swap colours so I can see that it’s flushed. I did note that with a helper in the driver seat I could pump through fluid on the front corners when the car was off, yet on the rear I could not do this. Maybe the ABS valve were shut off? So after some tests I found that if the ignition was ON or if the engine was running when I opened the rear bleeders an electric pump started pumping through the fluid. When I closed the bleeder the electric pump stopped after a second. So I figured this must be the way to do the rears. Did I do this right????
2) Did I create an error or screw something with the Engine Management Computer? I don’t know if there was an ABS error during bleeding as my daughter helped me and didn’t look at the dash. But I know there’s never been an error on the dash over the days I’ve driven the vehicle since. After doing some Googling I see some modern cars require a computer module to connect to the diagnostic port to clear errors or cycle ABS valves. Does the Prado need something special to do the brakes?
3) Is there some special way to bleed the corners, and failing to do this might put uneven brake distribution between Front & Rear? Did I screw something up with how I bled the corners?
4) Front Pads I re-used the genuine Toyota Stainless Steel shims, but the rear pads seemed that the Shim was attached to the original and replacement Bendix pads. So I discarded the metal Toyota ones and just used the Bendix ones which were stuck to the pad.
Any help you may have would be greatly appreciated.
Aside from saving me some $$ & a trip to Toyota I really want to understand what the issue might have been. It’s good to learn stuff :>
A week ago I did my brakes. Replacing original genuine Toyota front & rear pads with Bendix Ultra Premium DB1482 (Front) & DB1200 (Rear). I had front rotors machined and bled all fluid from all corners using 1L bottle of Bendix DOT4. I also cleaned the calipers/rotors/brake parts with an air compressor and plastic bristle brush as well as 1:50 ratio of water to CT-14.
After the work was done I took it for a test drive. I noted the rear rotors were hot, far hotter than the front. I did jump on the brakes a fair bit to test my work, so I thought I’d keep an eye on it for a day or two and see if it was a real problem.
After a couple days I confirmed something was not right, so I started checking what might have gone wrong.
THESE ARE THE THINGS IVE CHECKED SO FAR:
1) Confirmed rear pads were installed correctly. Bendix mark the pads as Inner and Outer and they were in correct positions.
2) Cleaned off all the caliper slide bolts (again). I removed all the old grease from the bolts and rubbers seals/tubes and applied new grease. Note the grease I used is Penrite brand rubber grease designed for brakes & safe for rubber seals. I think it’s a Castor Oil base, No-where near me sells silicone based grease but I’ve been assured Rubber grease is fine.
3) Confirmed the caliper guide clips where positioned correctly. These are the spring metal things that are seated between caliper and brake pad.
4) Confirmed that the cable hand brake was not causing the heated rear brakes. Note after short drives around the block I confirmed the heat is definitely being generated on the rotor surface (i.e. the caliper) not inside the drum (i.e. the hand brake).
5) Determined both Rear right and rear left rotors get hot. I took the prado for a drive on the freeway with next to no brake application. After 10km the front rotors were cool enough to touch the flat of the rotor braking surface, where the rear rotors were too hot to touch the rotor at the point where the wheel bolts onto the hub. They don’t smoke, but you can smell hot brakes and there is excessive brake dust after a few days of driving. They get hot enough to creek when they cool down.
6) Re-bled the rear corners. Just to be sure.
7) When removing the genuine Toyota pads I noted they were fitted with a clip that makes a sound when pads run low. Originally I had unclipped this and fitted to my replacement Bendix pads. Although both genuine and Bendix backing plates where exactly the same size I thought perhaps this clip was causing the pads to jam up in the caliper… So as a test I removed the indicator clips and drove the car for another 10km drive. Removing this clip didn’t fix the heating issue.
8) After jacking up both rear corners (hand brake off) I remove wheel and confirmed that I can spin both wheel hubs with minimal force. The caliper might be applying some friction but it’s not much!
This problem is driving me batty. I don’t know what it could be. I’ve done brakes dozens of times on many vehicles although this is the first time I’ve done them on my Prado. After some thought,
THESE ARE THE THINGS I’M NOT SURE ABOUT:
1) Did I bleed it correctly? My method is to syringe out most fluid from the master but leave enough to never suck air through the system. I then refill with new fluid, then bleed from every corner until I get a few good squirts of new fluid from every corner. I use a plastic tube and jar to ensure air doesn’t ever get back into the caliper bleeding nipple. The brake fluid was Genuine Toyota yellow colour, which I completely flushed with Bendix DOT4 Blue colour I like to swap colours so I can see that it’s flushed. I did note that with a helper in the driver seat I could pump through fluid on the front corners when the car was off, yet on the rear I could not do this. Maybe the ABS valve were shut off? So after some tests I found that if the ignition was ON or if the engine was running when I opened the rear bleeders an electric pump started pumping through the fluid. When I closed the bleeder the electric pump stopped after a second. So I figured this must be the way to do the rears. Did I do this right????
2) Did I create an error or screw something with the Engine Management Computer? I don’t know if there was an ABS error during bleeding as my daughter helped me and didn’t look at the dash. But I know there’s never been an error on the dash over the days I’ve driven the vehicle since. After doing some Googling I see some modern cars require a computer module to connect to the diagnostic port to clear errors or cycle ABS valves. Does the Prado need something special to do the brakes?
3) Is there some special way to bleed the corners, and failing to do this might put uneven brake distribution between Front & Rear? Did I screw something up with how I bled the corners?
4) Front Pads I re-used the genuine Toyota Stainless Steel shims, but the rear pads seemed that the Shim was attached to the original and replacement Bendix pads. So I discarded the metal Toyota ones and just used the Bendix ones which were stuck to the pad.
Any help you may have would be greatly appreciated.
Aside from saving me some $$ & a trip to Toyota I really want to understand what the issue might have been. It’s good to learn stuff :>
Whitey
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