Brake System Overhaul on 5th Gen Toyota 4Runner

When I purchased the car, most of the brake lines were in pretty miserable condition, along with major brake system components. Damage was beyond repair, so everything had to be removed and replaced with new parts.

Parts

For this rebuild, I decided to go entirely with aftermarket parts. Brake line tubes were readily available on Amazon in various sizes that could be bent to shape of the OEM ones. Brake calipers and hoses were ordered from Rocket Auto, while rotors and brake pads were purchased from AutoZone. It is hard to beat their lifetime warranty on break pads.





Break System Overhaul

Front Brake Lines



The lower part of the front brake system consists of two brake lines that are connected by a brake hose.

The upper portion of front brake lines was in good condition up until the point it came to the level of the frame. All the hard lines along with brake hoses had to be replace immediately. The most challenging part was undoing corroded brake line tube nut fitting that connected to 2-way. To accomplish this, I first had to cut the lower brake line flush with the tube nut fitting. This allowed me to use 6 point standard socket on the nut fitting to undo it. I decided not to use heat, but instead soak the lower connection with PB Blaster for 3 days. It the end I was able to take the tube nut fitting off without causing any further damage to the system.








Rear Brake Hoses

Rear brake hose clips stuck to brake hose brackets. It was impossible to take them out by hand, so I had to come up with a way to cut them off without damaging the brackets. For that I used Dremel rotary tools with a DIY large cut off wheel attachment that I made from a cut off disk.








Rear Brake Lines

Rear brake line tubes were cut off by the dealership mechanic as they were preparing to get the car sold. The proper way to route them is behind the fuel tank and next to the frame, which requires to drop the fuel tank. They knew, for a fact, that to drop a fuel tank on this car would be enormous amount of headache, so they just routed them in front of the tank. Stock lines were cut off, and just left hanging there.



The biggest problem that I faced was not knowing which line is which. The manual just give you this 2D diagram on page 531. To figure out what side the upper line goes to, and what side the lower one goes to, I had to trace the lines down from the master cylinder to the 2-way connectors on the frame.



From what I have discovered, the upper line goes to the rear passenger’s side, while the lower one goes to the driver’s side. Each line is marked at the brake master cylinder.





In my case, brake line tubes were connected wrong at the distal location where they connected to rear hoses. The one that should have been going to the rear passenger’s side was connected to the rear driver’s side. Brake line tubes didn’t have much slack on them, so I couldn’t reroute them correctly. In the end I left them in place as they were. As long as they eventually go to the right caliper, I am okay.



End Result

Front Brakes





Rear Brakes