cosmosrob

Newbee to this forum and the SC400, but I've been building and racing cars for over 30 years. I just bought a low mileage SC400, but it's been sitting up for almost 5 years in a barn, literally. It has problems with calipers sticking and horrible braking vibration, so I'm replacing all the calipers, lines, pads and rotors. Staying stock.. Purchasing rear calipers, Stop Tech Rotors and pads no-brainer.. BUT, the Front calipers...well it looks like mid-year Lexus went from cast to aluminum or visa versa. I have searched high and low through various forums here and other places and after 8 hours of searching I'm throwing in the towel. What I do know is that Raybestos sells there "rebuilt" caliper for models made after 1/93. Looking closely at Centric they sell both cast and aluminum for '93. They have exactly the same dimensions but they do not advertise which is for earlier or later models. Mine was made 7/93. So, is there an advantage of cast (long term) vs. aluminum? Does anyone know for certain if/when/why they changed from cast to aluminum or visa versa or is it just that the reman vendors are messin' with me?

You may ask why not rebuild them myself.. By the time I buy a real "Lexus" full rebuild kit (including pins and hardware), spend half a day sandblasting rust, honing and painting of coating them, I would have spent almost the same amount of money as a reman'ed caliper (semi-loaded) and I've been able to spend the time on building my race car. Time is more precious than just the few dollars I would save.

Thanks for any help...

Robby

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

The SC calipers are all cast iron. The only OEM direct fit aluminum option is the '95-00 LS400 front calipers.

The SC300 calipers received a size change at one point, which could be throwing off compatibility searches.

cosmosrob

Thanks for the response.
Centric advertises aluminum body as "preferred" both cross reference to the SC400 and Supra (both are two piston)
Mine are definitely cast (simple magnet test).
CENTRIC 14144151 - cast body - cross references to Lexus SC400
CENTRIC 14144225 - aluminum body - cross references to Lexus SC400 Dimensions identical except pad (1/100th diff. 10x.05710 vs 10x.06190)

Robby

Duck05

Upgrading to the LS400 calipers for the front brakes is the easiest decision for our cars. Going from 2 piston steel to 4 piston aluminum along with more braking surface is a vast improvement. The only draw back is having to also select wheels that will clear the larger LS400 caliper.

If you want to remain "stock" then the challenges you have remain along with the limitations of the OEM braking system

Below are some pics for encouragement.....

Golden95SC

iTrader: (21)

Perfectly said. That's all the info you could need