Toyota brake help needed

[Scott Douglas]

Trying to help out a friend of mine whose wife has a 2001 Toy Highlander.
They bought it from the original owner who always had Toy dealer do any work on it.
He said his son drove it the other day and the brakes were making a funny noise. He investigated and found a caliper rotated out away from the rotor to the point it was hitting the rim.
When I heard this I told him it sounded like there's a bolt missing from the caliper. He insisted there isn't one missing.
This afternoon he came over with his camera and here is what he showed me.





Personally, I've never seen a caliper that doesn't have two slider pins/bolts holding it to the caliper bracket.
Can someone explain how this works?

[908/930]

That looks like that one has one of each, the top is a pin and the bottom a bolt. Undo the bolt rotate the caliper up remove pads, easy for brake pads. Is the pin missing?

[Scott Douglas]

That's the $64k question, is the pin missing.
I don't know, I was sick when this happened and it was last week when he had the wheel off.
Since he said the caliper was rotated on the bolt, outward from the center of the wheel, I'd say there's a good chance the pin is AWOL.
He never mentioned putting a pin back in place of having a hard time rotating the caliper back into position before re-tightening the bolt.
One video I found using Google showed taking two bolts out to remove the caliper so the pads could be removed. It said it was for 2001-2007 Highlanders.

[908/930]

If it rotated out the pin must be gone. I think the video you looked at was for a front, it uses two bolts.

[Scott Douglas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OmkfaIj0Rc

[pete3799]

I had a 2001 highlander for many years. Mine had two caliper slide pin bolts per caliper.

[Scott Douglas]

I'm beginning to wonder if the dealer may have replaced the calipers at some point with these pin/bolt calipers, rather than the two bolt style.

[Scott Douglas]

Another question I have is, how do you remove the caliper all the way from the bracket?
Do you massacre the rubber boot on the pin to get to it?
How do you move the pin?
Is it spring loaded so it 'stays' in the hole in the bracket?

[syncroid]

The inboard portion (towards the center of the car) of the caliper is floating and has the hydraulic piston in it. The other half of the caliper is bolted to the center bearing carrier. The two halves have pins under the rubber boots. It sounds to me either one is missing or broken. I can see from the pictures that the caliper looks securely bolted to the bearing carrier. I hope this helps.

[Scott Douglas]

Looking at RA, I see they offer a wide selection of caliper replacements, a good number of which come with the bracket attached.
That would answer the question of how do you get the caliper off the bracket. You don't!

[HobieMarty]

Originally Posted by pete3799

I had a 2001 highlander for many years. Mine had two caliper slide pin bolts per caliper.

I have a 2000 Lexus RX300, basically the same as a Highlander and the calipers on my vehicle have two slide pin bolts also.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[908/930]

On the Toy Canada site they show one bolt and one pin. Part 4771532030 Apparently depends where it was built. I'm betting somebody ordered a new caliper without the bracket and mounted it, not noticing there were two types available, one requiring the pin.

[john70t]

Does 2x bolts not matter?

When you are breaking in reverse with a heavy trailer load...replace with a pin.... ?

[hcoles]

That is a correct and stock caliper. RA has this picture for a 2001 Highlander. Could be two types were supplied in that year.

[hcoles]

Don't worry about it. I can't easily see but it looks like there are two sliding locations. Just replace with the type that you find and be done. If there is only one sliding bolt - that's probably good. Fewer things to go wrong/etc. Toyota didn't decide on the design without serious consideration and testing.

[908/930]

Originally Posted by hcoles

Don't worry about it. I can't easily see but it looks like there are two sliding locations. Just replace with the type that you find and be done. If there is only one sliding bolt - that's probably good. Fewer things to go wrong/etc. Toyota didn't decide on the design without serious consideration and testing.

I think you missed reading the first post where he said the caliper could pivot. Likely somebody ordered the caliper without mount plate and did not have the proper missing pin, and had a bolt left over. Hopefully it was not a dealer doing this repair incorrectly. Yes it needs to be fixed.

[hcoles]

Originally Posted by 908/930

I think you missed reading the first post where he said the caliper could pivot. Likely somebody ordered the caliper without mount plate and did not have the proper missing pin, and had a bolt left over. Hopefully it was not a dealer doing this repair incorrectly. Yes it needs to be fixed.

I sort of missed that. My bad. It is interesting that the "pins" don't look the same or very similar. I haven't seen that.

[Scott Douglas]

Yes, my friend found the caliper pivoted to the point it was hitting the rim.
I'll have him check to see if he has any paperwork from the original owner he purchased the car from a number of years ago, to see if he has a receipt for brake work. The original owner told him they only took it to the dealer here in town where they bought it when it would need work done on it.
I can see where the bean counters got into the mix on how these were put together in the later years. Having only one bolt to torque when installing the brake caliper vs two would save a lot of time on the assembly line. Knowing Toyota, these brakes are probably used across various models so saving that time multiplied by thousands of cars adds up.
I strongly suspect it might have been a dealer cutting corners when working on the brakes though.

[911 Rod]

One side is rusty with a new bleeder valve? Maybe it was replaced? My wife's Corolla came with new calipers and i was amazed how quickly they rusted.

[Scott Douglas]

I think they both have been replaced at some point but not positive.
I've asked my friend to check the paperwork he has to see if/who has worked on them.