Originally Posted by McGyver

OK, I'm done. New slotted, drilled and chamfered, directional rotors, zinc plated and a set of ceramic pads are installed. I hit a few surprises along the way:

1. You absolutely cannot bleed this brake system in a conventional manner, without a Toyota Intelligent Tester connected. There are currently 3 of them on eBay, probably hot, that are going for around $3,000.

You can bleed the brake calipers in the conventional manner.

The ABS pumpmotor manifold assembly can be "bled" via lifting both drive wheels off the ground and "driving" forward. TC will activate which will circulate the fluid. If there is no bleed valve at the ABS manifold that use the one at the nearest wheel. And always bleed the ABS manifold FIRST.

2. My brakes were in pretty rough shape with a lot of rust.

3. My pads were at 10.2 -10.6mm versus nominal 12mm (11.6mm actual) when new, so my estimate of 90% life was reasonably accurate.

4. My guide pins and sliders looked like they had 100,000 miles of neglect at only 37,000. The grease was sludgy, black, and the pins were starting to gall in some spots, very surprising/alarming.

I didn't bother miking or dialing the OEM rotors, sunlight was fading and they had to be forced off the hub with forcing screws. There was substantial rust in the hub area. I attribute that to weekly car washings, where I really get the brake dust off the wheels. I can say I have never applied water to a hot rotor...that would be dumb. But I do get plenty of water in and around there and it seems to have taken a toll.

I cleaned the pins and blew out the sliders ans best I could and re-packed all with Volvo silicone brake grease. I wire-brushed the hubs and treated the surface with WD-40 and a thin coat of anti-seize around the hubs and thrust face where the rotors match up.

The pistons retracted without a fight and the seals looked OK, save for some crusty material that I brushed off and removed with solvent.

"....Removed with solvent.."

You cleaned the rubber piston boot/bellows with a solvent. Soap and water would have been a much better choice and you wouldn't now have the worry of rubber disintegration.

Once the mating parts were restored, everything went together beautifully. The rotors look awesome and in my short road test, seemed to perform as expected.

With the pistons both pushed back into their stops, I took the opportunity to drain the MC Reservoir, ghetto-style, with a coil of 1/2" clear tubing, one end in the res, the other end in my mouth. Remember, bleeding is not an option. After 5 or 6 hearty inhalations, I most of the fluid out. It was slightly dark. And it left a foul taste all the way down my trachea. I don't recommend this procedure. With more time, I would have dug out my hand pump.

Never, NEVER use this procedure.

I replaced the fluid with approximately 500ml of Synthetic brake fluid with a wet boil point of near 400F and after gently re-seating the calipers and new pads in a non-powered state, I went for a short road test.

The Hi-Perf Rotors and ceramic pads behaved better than I imagined, albeit with a distinctive grunt as the rotation comes to a stop. I found this to be the case on other cars I have done this upgrade to in the past. It tends to get better as the pads wear in.

But the braking effectiveness is phenomenal!! And there seems to be no conflict with the regen/friction thresholds, it works as well, if not smoother than the OEM set up. No DTC's were set either.

This job would have cost anywhere form $800-$1,000 at the dealer, with inferior OEM parts.

I'm out exactly $135, including the parts, the hi-test fluid, 2 beers, and one professional opinion from a factory-trained technician moonlighting on the Internet, one pinched finger and about 90 minutes of my time.

Originally Posted by wwest

"...drilled and slotted.."

And all that accomplished was a lessening of braking HP due to the lowered CSA of the pad/rotor contact area.

Originally Posted by UWAdventurer

You could have used the gravity method to drain the fluid. Fill a hose with fluid, put one end below the reservoir, the other end in the bottom of the reservoir, release the end lower than the reservoir to drain it.

Did you crack the caliper drains before pushing the pistons back in?

Originally Posted by UWAdventurer

I would be afraid of pushing dirty fluid back through the ABS system. This has not been an issue? Usually that is not acceptable.