Power6

Hey all, just a PSA on a simple brake upgrade here. I've been driving my ES, not really messing with it. It was time to swap brake pads, so I set off to do just that when I discovered the left front caliper sliders were seized, oh that's why it was not braking very well LOL. So off to the parts store I went to get a set of calipers and what they hey some rotors as well. Upon mounting the new driver's caliper something seemed odd...hmm the pads are off the rotor...hey this is a good fit though....let's test the wheel...it fits hmmmm...

I'll spare the rest of the story, so here is the deal: RX300 brakes fit the ES300. The ES has a 275mm (10.8") rotor. The RX300 has a 296mm (11.6") rotor. Both cars use the same caliper, the RX300 has a different caliper bracket that moves the caliper further out to align with the larger rotor. I believe the Camry guys have known about this for some time, to them it is a Highlander swap. There is also a larger swap to the RX350 328mm (12.9") rotor. Wheel clearance is a consideration, the RX300 brake probably requires a 16" wheel. That was no problem for me as my 01 ES has the 16" wheels. The RX350 rotor would require a 17" wheel. There is no magic to the swap. You need to bend back the heat shield to fit the larger rotor. My heat shields are mostly rust at this point so they bent easily in some places and flaked off in others.

Only had about a day of driving on the swap, it feels good. The larger rotor will increase the leverage of the pads on the axle so the braking force vs pedal travel should be greater, and it feels that way in practice. There is no performance benefit to this aspect but it does feel good. The brake bias will also be moved forward but it doesn't concern me much. The performance benefit is the extra mass of the larger rotor. The stock one is about 15lbs and the RX300 rotor is about 17lbs. Both of those are not a lot of rotor for a car as large as the ES, but it this was never a performance car so the tiny rotors are fine. The extra weight is more mass to absorb heat from repeated stops. I do probably drive my ES harder than the average driver with the AVS on hard sometimes. The extra brake capacity will be nice.

Pictures below
Stock brakes and 16" wheel
Closeup of stock brakes clearance to 16" wheel
Stock size rotor
stock caliper bracket left, RX300 right.
RX300 rotor right, stock size left.
RX300 brakes mounted.
RX300 brakes with stock 16" wheel on.
Closeup of clearance RX300 brakes to stock 16" wheel

nsghtbrwry

Very cool. There're a couple of threads over on Toyota Nation about upgrading 3ES's and gen4 Camrys, I remember reading something about LS calipers, pads and rotors, RX brakes (like you did) and Highlander brakes (that may have been for gen5/6 Camrys). Thanks for the pics, I gotta do this to my '01.