[amyhusted]

I was wondering how the brakes are doing on your Sienna. I have a 2006 AWD Sienna that I'm tired of having brake issues with. I don't see carbon ceramic brakes in my area though. I'm from Michigan. I need new rotors, pads, and possible calibers if they can't get them unstuck.

 

[Skulhead4]

THanks for all the info will help when need to replace the brakes.

 

[albertucsb]

There is a huge sale @ autoanything for the CRYO treated (25% off promo code on site) and Amazon has sale on the EBC green 6800. Just ordered!

 

[MailManX]

MailManX back here with another update. It's been 1 year and 3 months since installing the new brakes. My wife found some carpool assistance for our grade-schoolers and it has saved her a lot of driving. We now have 31,000 on the van since the brake change. It still stops with authority and without any shudder. I think the front pads may be ready for a change. I'm starting to hear the wear indicator when my wife drives the van in reverse. I was going to pull a tire today and check but did not get around it. I went ahead and ordered new pads so I'll have them on hand this week when I do check the pad wear. I don't mind going through a set of pads in 31,000 miles because it means they are soft enough not to be damaging the rotors. They put out a medium amount of dust compared to full organic (most dust) vs full ceramic (least dust).

My son just ordered the PowerStop Z23 Brake Kit for his Acura MDX. I had looked at those because they are cheaper than what I bought. I chose not to buy them due to being worried about drilled rotors, but they do get very good reviews. It will be interesting to see how they work for his car. I'll try to remember to report back on those in the future. He found them for $309 from Amazon with free Prime shipping! Wow!

 

[Herb2015SiennaSE]

WoW!
Really impressed with this article!


Regarding down shifting on coming down hills.
Do you have a recommended method as in sliding shifter to manual and go into 3rd?

 

[MailManX]

WoW!
Really impressed with this article!


Regarding down shifting on coming down hills.
Do you have a recommended method as in sliding shifter to manual and go into 3rd?

Basically, yes. Except, for our Sienna - a 2012 with the 3.5L engine, 2nd gear is a better fit for this long grade. The car doesn't hold back well enough in 3rd on this steep grade. That is one reason my wife had trouble warming up to downshifting because 2nd gear runs the engine up to over 4,000 rpm which makes a fair amount of racket. Most Americans, especially soccer moms, don't ever push the limits of their engines so they are uncomfortable with how it sounds. She kept complaining that she thought it would hurt the engine. It took me a while, but I finally won. Downshifting is a habit with her, now.

 

[djmj]

MailMan, I am looking at doing the same brake upgrade on my 08 XLE. I was told the fronts need replacing but the rears look ok. I am concerned about the break in process (extreme pattern of stops) frying my older rear brakes. I really don't want to spend the extra $200 on rears just yet if they are still good. Your thoughts on just doing the fronts?

 

[mdywv]

MailMan, I am looking at doing the same brake upgrade on my 08 XLE. I was told the fronts need replacing but the rears look ok. I am concerned about the break in process (extreme pattern of stops) frying my older rear brakes. I really don't want to spend the extra $200 on rears just yet if they are still good. Your thoughts on just doing the fronts?

I know I'm not MailMan (and thanks, MailMan, for thinking this one through for us), but typically just doing fronts makes good sense if the rears are still in good shape. The break in won't hurt the rear brakes any, for the same reason that they're not worn out when the front ones are: the front brakes do most of the work stopping. If anything, the break in may clean off any accumulated crud on the back rotors or drums.

 

[MailManX]

I know I'm not MailMan (and thanks, MailMan, for thinking this one through for us), but typically just doing fronts makes good sense if the rears are still in good shape. The break in won't hurt the rear brakes any, for the same reason that they're not worn out when the front ones are: the front brakes do most of the work stopping. If anything, the break in may clean off any accumulated crud on the back rotors or drums.

That's odd. I thought I'd left a thoughtful reply the day after djmj wrote the question. Oh well... +1 what mdywv said, but with a bit of extra advice thrown in for free (so you know exactly what it's worth):

If the front rotors feel warped (pulsing when you apply the brakes), THEN it is best to replace front and rear at the same time. That's because the pulsing actually creates pressure waves in the braking system that "can" affect the rear rotors. If you aren't having any pulsing and just want to replace and upgrade brakes, doing just the front is fine and the break-in procedure will not hurt the existing pads/rotors at all. In fact, I recently re-used the break-in procedure on half-worn brakes on a Lexus GS300 to fix the pulsing. Since pulsing is often caused by deposits on the rotors rather than any warpage, I hoped the break-in procedure would scrub the rotors hard enough to both "wipe" them clean and build up enough heat to burn off the final bit of deposit. It worked perfectly. It's been a few thousand miles since then and the brakes feel fine.

 

[VWGTIMK6]

MailManX, Thank you for the detailed review. I'm planning to perform the same rotor/pad upgrade to my Toyota Sienna. I would like to know what brake fluid you use in your Sienna?

 

[MailManX]

My fluid did not need to be replaced yet, so I stuck with the original.

UPDATE: The rotors now have 41,000 on them. This is the "magic number" amount of miles that starts bringing other Sienna rotors to their wobbly knees. So far, mine are still smooth. I did replace the pads at 31,000, but I'm OK with that for the type of driving we do (hills plus around town). If things suddenly change on these rotors, I'll report back to this thread.

 

[Jeff2]

Thanks for the update on this!

The dealer put new brakes on ours when I bought our 2013 used with 40 something thousand miles on it. I'm hoping that the OEM pads and rotors hold up for 40k miles. Here in the Cincinnati area, we have a lot of hills. When I'm driving I'll downshift on a long steep grade (like the hill here at work), so I'm not worried when I drive the minivan. But, while my wife understands the concept (we drove up and down Pike's Peak in a rental SUV 20 years ago), she doesn't use the concept in day to day driving like I do. Luckily, she mostly drives close to home where the hills aren't nearly as steep nor as long as other parts of town.

Still, I'm considering putting a trailer hitch on ours to do things like helping my kids move. That will put more stress on the brakes, even if the rental trailer has "surge brakes", so having better than OEM rotors and pads, especially on the front, would be a good thing the next time they need changed. I plan on keeping this minivan as long as possible. I've already kept three different cars of mine to near 200k miles. I'd like to break 200k miles with this minivan.

 

[MailManX]

Thanks for the update on this!

I'm considering putting a trailer hitch on ours to do things like helping my kids move.

That sounds like a great reason NOT to put a hitch on your Sienna! Unless, of course, you are trying to coax them to move OUT of YOUR house! >

 

[sbihue]

My fluid did not need to be replaced yet, so I stuck with the original.

UPDATE: The rotors now have 41,000 on them. This is the "magic number" amount of miles that starts bringing other Sienna rotors to their wobbly knees. So far, mine are still smooth. I did replace the pads at 31,000, but I'm OK with that for the type of driving we do (hills plus around town). If things suddenly change on these rotors, I'll report back to this thread.

If it matters, the brakes on our Van started pulsating around 57K miles which is driven locally as a daily drive. It is now just shy of 60K miles, on original rotors/pads, which I think is decent for the OEM setup considering this is a heavier vehicle.

I have the exact same rotors/pads as yours on order and will be checking next week on how worn the fronts/rears are. I am planning to replace them regardless.

 

[Jeff2]

That sounds like a great reason NOT to put a hitch on your Sienna! Unless, of course, you are trying to coax them to move OUT of YOUR house! >

Our oldest graduates college this year, so I'm hoping that within the next year or two she'll be moving out. Right now her college is only a 45 minute drive, so multiple trips to move her to and from college haven't been bad. But when she moves farther away, I'd like to do the move in *one* trip, if at all possible.

 

[sbihue]

I just completed the rotor/pad swap on the front and rears and am glad I went with the OP's recommendation and selected the StopTech/Powerstop combo.At 65K+ miles, both the front and rear brake pads were toast with absolutely no meat left on the pads. The rotors looked fine but since I had experienced intermittent vibration/shudder when braking, I replaced both.

My initial experience with the new combo has been great so far. Took a 900 mile trip and drove through some really hard rain and slick roads and the brakes behaved as expected. So far no significant brake dust and absolutely no break squeal or noise.

Will update thread after 5K miles

 

[Tommybo]

I have a 2017 Limited that I have never been happy with the braking and pulsing. 37.5K miles and I am putting on:

EBC dimpled, slotted rotors (probably overkill but since they are undersized I am hoping the dimples help with heat) - got a steal of a deal $170

Z23 Brake pads - $60

Bought from summit racing as they price match pretty much anybody and I have retail store near my house if I have any issues.

 

[livesmith]

I can't remember what brand I went with but a couple years ago I tried a nice set of drilled rotors and pads. They didn't warp, but they made a bit of a rough/grinding noise the entire time and they were toast in like maybe 30K miles.

I've used drilled/slotted rotors on cars in the past many years ago and never had these problems so I'm not sure if these pads were just overly aggressive or what.

This time I just went with my mechanic's recommendation I believe from Advance Auto's brand and I'm SOOO much more happy with it. Everything is butter smooth now as it should be.

 

[dball711]

I can't remember what brand I went with but a couple years ago I tried a nice set of drilled rotors and pads. They didn't warp, but they made a bit of a rough/grinding noise the entire time and they were toast in like maybe 30K miles.

I've used drilled/slotted rotors on cars in the past many years ago and never had these problems so I'm not sure if these pads were just overly aggressive or what.

This time I just went with my mechanic's recommendation I believe from Advance Auto's brand and I'm SOOO much more happy with it. Everything is butter smooth now as it should be.

What exactly was your mechanics suggestion that worked out so well?

 

[livesmith]

What exactly was your mechanics suggestion that worked out so well?

Was just down to see my mechanic to have the entire driveshaft replaced since the rear U joint is not replaceable from Toyota.

I confirmed with him that they are the platinum pads/rotors from Advance which is now owned by Carquest.