Can anyone recommend a reasonable priced front rotor and pads for the 2009 ES350? My wife has complained for months about them, but I recently drove the car from SoCal to Montana (2500 miles in 4 days) and nearly traded it when I got there. I'd like a drilled, grooved rotor and ceramic pads, I'm thinking. Recommendations???

 

What is the problem and how do you know it is pads and rotors that is the cause. There are many options here so if you want to see reputable aftermarket just look on Tirerack.com

 

Dealer supplied Toyota front rotors and Lexus front brake pads to my local garage 2 years ago for my previous 2007. No issues at all. Have tried the Auto Zone supplied rotors / pads with okay results too.

 

Problem is trying to slow down to 45-50 from 85-90 after passing a line of slowpokes. Only aggresive downshifting does the job. Brakes fade, and rattle and shake the whole car. Not fun. Dealer says drive slower and live with it. I'd like some aftermarket brakes that will brake from 100+ without breaking a sweat. Drilling and slotting should help. So should some some good ceramic pads. The wife says fix it, so that's my job. :-)

 

Maybe a parachute and use of the parking brake?

 

Powerslotnmakes good rotors. I would stay away from drilled
Rotors unless your buying high end brembos or something.

There's lots of pads that offer better bite then stock. Hawk makes awesome pads, ebc makes awesome pads too. They all have different types of pads . There's pads that dont bite hard till there hot. Then there's street pads that bite hard but can't take as much heat. And then there's an inbeteween.

I use the hawk blacks on my rice rocket but they don't bite real hard till there hot. I'd go with the street pads they will bite alot harder then the stockers. They will be fine for the 100 to 30.

I think they are called hawk street and ebc is called the greens. It's been awhile. Pretty much anything at autozone will work but your not going to get the performance over stock pads your might as well buy stock pads if your not gonna get hp pads.

Also flush the fluid out with synthetic. It has water in it by now and is boiling when you stomp on them.

Warped rotors dont help for Stopping either.

Also the higher friction pads you buy the shorter your rotors are going to last .

 

Drilled and slotted rotors won't help. For a daily driver car, drilled just reduces the amount of braking surface available and is prone to cracks. Slotted rotors eat pads quicker too. Best set it up is a good blank rotor and either OEM pads or a set of performance ceramics like those from Hawk. Like frankbcnt said, probably a good time to get the brake fluid done too.

For a good set of blank rotors, I recommend Centric rotors.

 

I would go through the whole front end to make sure there isn't some other problem. Check your hubs and high velocity joints , drive shafts as well as wheels. If everything checks out then pull the rotors and check them for run out and flatness. Look at the pads and hardware to see if you have a binding caliper or uneven wear. If you find a problem there then replace with either OEM or aftermarket. This is the 1st I've heard on this site of this problem. Maybe someone else can chip in if they had this problem but it sounds like something bigger then pads and rotors. Do the diagnostics first and then replace the problem parts. Just my suggestion.

 

Toyota Avalon, Camry and ES350 use the same brakes and it's no secret they are prone to warping. Just had the front end gone thru and tires balanced and rotated and had no problem repored except leaking r/f strut. Dealer looked at it and ordered a replacement under warranty but said rotors are my problem. I will have a friend who works in the industry look into pads and rotors for replacement ASAP.

 

Our ES350's front end exhibited similar shaking when braking firmly from 70 to 55'ish. I could have taken the rotors to have them "turned" (about $15 each at Pep Boys) but I assumed the rotors, at 80K (on second set of OEM rotors, replaced under warranty) would be worn down too far to turn them.

I replaced them myself with Raybestos rotors and pads: and . Turns out the OEM rotors had plenty of material left to turn them. I've kept them as back-up. These Raybestos rotors carry a No Turn Guarantee. We have about 35K on them and they still brake smoothly.

 

Thanks. I'm thinking the slotted rotors and ceramic pads are in my future. Local parts store will be my source. Brand will be TBD. :-)

 

drilled and slotted is for cooling to help reduce rotor warping. they also tend to crack. stick with the blanks, and upgrade pads if you can. for better pedal feel switch to stainless steel braided brake lines. i feel a pretty good difference with just changing out to steel brake lines.

 

Does anybody know if there is any difference in the rotors and pads on a 2010+ and a 2007-2009? I had a lot of warping problems on my old '03, but none on the 2010. I'm hard on brakes too.

 

Interestingly Lexus appears to have added another P/N 4351233140 rotor (for about another 20 bucks) for the 2011, which is shown here: http://lexus.sewellparts.com/parts-c...S350-2011.html The pads are shown as being the same for 2007 thru 2011. I suspect that they added some meat (more mass) to this new rotor, but it would be interesting to compare both rotors. The old, original P/N is also shown. The new P/N rotor should fit the pre 2011 cars as the hubs are all the same P/Ns. (The 2012 illustration and reference numbers are the same as the 2011, but the part numbers are not yet listed but are probably the same).

 

Mine is a late manufacture 2010 so I wonder if maybe I have the new rotors...