wsrivers

So after ivestigating I found that one of my brake calipers froze. Now it's time to replace it. My question is what caliper brand does anyone suggest? I plan on ordering the caliper (s) from "RockAuto". Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

BDSL

You can take your caliper off, go to a rebuild shop. They will rebuild the caliper for you. Or give you one that is already rebuilt. Cut the middle man...

LeX2K

Centric is generally good. I personally have been burned by reman calipers (not Centric, yet) so I'm leery of them. If you buy a reman caliper check the slide pins for grease. For pads Akebono ProACT is difficult to beat.

Going with a local shop is a good idea, if you know one you can trust.

Oro

Have you removed the caliper and determined the piston is stuck, or what exactly have you done to diagnose this? There are different possibilities here.

wsrivers

Yes I removed the caliper and one of the pistons won't retract. I'm thinking because of the position that it's in is like I'm driving with the brake applied. There was smoke coming from the front passenger caliper.

Oro

Right then, has to be caliper internal. Another option is ti rebuild it. Pop it out with line pressure, then polisg bore and piston and install new seals. Cheap and pretty quick, or install new caliper.

Among the RA choices, none look “bad” from what I see (I am looking at 2001), and some pretty cheap, at least before shipping.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

I’ve used reman calipers for my 4runner, ES330 , RX350, and LX470 and have never had a problem

carid

Hi. We recommend Centric calipers as a replacement for your ES300. Here is a link to the Centric brake caliper:
Centric® - Remanufactured Semi-Loaded Brake Caliper
Though, you can pick either only rotors, or only brake pads if you wish.
And here is the link to the loaded brake caliper by Centric:
Centric® - Posi Quiet™ Loaded Brake Caliper

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

I’ve had two different types on my ES, as the car came with bad front calipers.

1. Raybestos loaded calipers. The finish turned into Rust within a few months. Tried repainting them, but it was too late. The seals started to leak five years later when I went back to replace the front rotors/pads.

2. A year and a half ago went with A-1 Cardone Ultra Premium loaded calipers. Chose them because they came pre-painted. The paint finish is sensitive to chipping, so I had to touch em up before installation. So far the finish has held up over 1.5 winter seasons and you can’t beat the price. If you have the time, buy any one of the options and paint them yourself, you’ll get the same results, I simply didn’t want to deal with that.

Stopping power is really good as well. I chose Lexus pads and aftermarket rotors.