GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

Have a look here:
http://www.irontoad.com/Merchant2/me...Code=2004ls430

and here:

www.lexus-parts.com

Frank T

My 03 LS now has 43,000+ miles. When I changed from winter to summer tires last spring I checked brake wear and ordered a set of pads from one of the Club Sponsors (about $120)but had not installed them yet. Last week I had the car in for oil and filter and got a call from service that it needed brakes. I was also having some warranty work done and the tech wanted me to drive while he checked something out. I asked him what the pads measured and he said they were just about to the sensers (5mm..new are 10mm). I said that was just about the same as they were last spring and I had been watching the wear, and thought they could go a LONG way yet.

His answer..."you didn't hear it from me, but if it were my car I'd pull the sensers out of the pads and zip tie them out of the way, and run the pads another 20,000 miles". He thought Lexus was changing pads WAY to early. There is still 50% of the pads left when you start to wear into the sensers(the sensers come on at about 3mm).

I agree and have pulled the sensersout of the pads. Plus since the pads are champhered the surface area increases with wear till they are worn to 50% and then remains constant till they are gone. Also the rotors are still just like new and no way would I turn them if I changed the pads today.

Frank

EIO

I noticed the same thing on my IS 250. The brake pad wear on the front was minimal, at least 40% left with over 40K miles on the car which was pretty impressive. I'd be a little nervouse about pulling the sensors back though as the metal under the pads would be the only next warning noise you heard to let you know your brakes were done. I have pushed the brakes too far on previous cars with nasty results, and at the worst possible times...but I hear you.

On a seperate but related note, I began to get a jerky response when stopping, so I pulled the rotors on the front wheels and had them resurfaced and went ahead and replaced the pads (even though they still had meat on them) which solved the problem. I go over a few steep hills in and out of my neighborhood and figured the added heat might have warped the disks. Seemed strange though, is this common with Lexus has anyone else had this problem?

2004TOYO

Only you know your mechanical abilility, but watching my friend do brakes on my other vehicles and reading how easy it is on from this forum, Im going to try to do them myself when the time comes. Seach CL for the step by step pad replacement thread. (very good)

tkbalt

I bought OEM pads from irontoad - have yet to put them on. There is a great DIY on replacing pads on this site - or you could have a local INDY do the job. My dealer wants 800 for F&R (which I am sure includes cutting rotors). I have 55K on my 03 and am at 6mm.

froboy272

Just did mine front and back. Dealer quoted $600 for front and rear including rotor resurfacing. I got pads from irontoad for $120 delivered the next day and paid a friend $100 to put them in. He said the rotors were fine. I have an 04 LS430 with 59k.

jimbosr1

if you are able to remove your wheel,you can change your pads.10 minutes each after you remove your wheels.

V8_Fan

I never let the dealer touch my brakes. I've done my own brakes for years, including replacing master cylinders, flushing, etc. The pads on the LS are as easy as it gets, as the fronts are identical to the rears. You only need the OEM pad kits for front/rear (paid about $110 for both axles at irontoad), plus $6x2 for the front right and rear right pad wear sensor clips. After you remove the wheels, you only need needle-nose pliers and a tiny screwdriver (to remove the clip) and a small C-clamp to push in the piston (you may have to remove some brake fluid from the resevoir to prevent overflow). As long as your rotors are sufficiently thick (you can measure the thickness and compare to the spec) and not grabbing, you can just change the pads, apply new disc brake grease to the anti-squeal shims after cleaning them, and use a new clip for a pad wear indicator. My vehicle only had 25K mi when I did mine (pads were down to 1mm), so I reused the shims. As long as you can clean them and they retain their "spring," you can reuse them. Otherwise, it's like $45 per axle for new shims. Now that you've replaced the pads, it's time to bed them in properly. Find a road with no traffic, accelerate 0-60mph fast, hit the brakes hard but not so hard that the ABS activates until the vehicle slows down to about 10mph, accelerate again. Do this 3x. Then drive for about 10 min, then repeat 3 more times. Now drive home w/o using your brakes (if you must stop, put the tranny in N), park the car overnight. The pads are now ready. The OEM ones can be conservatively broken in over time by easy braking for, say, the first 100-200 miles of driving (no hard braking to a stop and holding the brake pedal down!). Aftermarket pads, especially performance pads, will often smoke after bedding them in.

I would NOT get the rotors turned. This merely causes the rotor to lose its heat sinking ability faster, causing them to "warp" sooner. BTW, rotors really don't warp. Rather, it's from the uneven depositing of brake compound on the rotor surface that creates the grabbing feeling. This is why you bed rotors/pads...to deposit the pad material evenly from the start. On my sister's BMW 330, the rotors are pretty thin when new, so you can't turn them. You must replace them.

Ten years ago, before I worked on my own brakes, I had Toyota replace my front rotors on my SUV, repack the bearings ,etc. ...cost me $1k. They didn't even use OEM rotors. The rotors "warped" after only one year. After that, I figured I'd learn how to do my own brakes and installed slotted performance rotors and pads, torqued everything according to spec, bedded the pads in. I had 75K mi on the pads/rotors (about 60% worn) when I sold the car 8 yrs later, and the rotors were still true (no grabbing). On my LX, i installed cryo slotted rotors w/ performance pads 4 yrs and 40K mi ago...rotors are still perfectly true, no grabbing, maybe 20% wear on the pads. I forget to mention that when I bought the LX CPO, the dealer had installed new pads w/o bedding them. Within a year, the rotors were grabbing, which is why I replaced them. I don't know if improper rotor torque has anything to do with it, but when the dealer torques the wheels/rotors, they use the impact wrench, which is not torque sensing. This applies uneven pressure on the rotor. I always torque my lugnuts by hand (dealer tends to overtighten them, which stretches the lug bolts, causing the metal to lose elasticity).

AlexusAnja

The LS430 is the easiest brakes I've worked on. You're almost literally pulling a pin out, replacing the pads, and putting the pin back. You could easily train a monkey to do it. It should not cost $600 to replace all four. $120 parts + $480 labor? About 5 hours in labor???? A shop mechanic can do all four within 30 min. I did the front set of my LS in 30 min. with floor jack and regular T-iron.

JRBTN

AMEN. I did the same this past fall on my '04 LS and was amazed at how easy it was compared to anything I have driven over 40 years! It isn't worth the time to train the monkey......

Kansas

I've come to the conclusion that it more cost effective to let the brake wear sensors hit and trigger the warning noise or light/message on the dash of cars - at least that is what I've been doing on the mostly Mercedes and Lexus cars that have had wear sensors.

Why? Because I maximize the miles I get out of brake pads and minimize the number of brake jobs needed over the life of a car.

For example, I had the first front brake job on my 00 LS done at 73,000 miles when the sensor hit. I'm at 133,000 miles or so and will replace the front pads again (and for the last time) when the sensors hit -- probably at around 146,000 miles, assuming the OEM front pads installed at 73,000 miles last as long as the front pads installed at the factory.

The rear brake pads were replaced for the first time at the 120,000 mile maintenance before the sensors hit although the sensor probably would not have hit until over 130,000 miles. Why did I replace the rear pads "early"?

My reasoning? It's because I keep cars about 200,000 miles (plus or minus 15,000 miles or so) which is what I did on the 79 Mercedes I drove through the 1980's (bought new, sold at 210,000 miles) and the 90 LS I drove through the 1990's (bought new, sold at 183,500 miles).

The second replacement set of front brake pads that will be installed on my 00 LS at around 146,000 miles and the rear pads that were installed at 120,000 miles will easily take me to 200,000 at about which time I will "jettison" (i.e. sell or donate) the car.

I will need only three brake jobs during the entire "life" of this car - two front, one rear. The cost of the sensors are pretty low and less than the cost of additional and premature brake jobs and less than the cost of my time to have premature brake jobs done.

A contributing reason for this method is that I have a mechanic do the work and I always have the rotors turned. The few times I have not had the rotors turned, I've regretted it and at least once that led to having brake pads replaced very prematurely due to poor brake performance.

Of course my method doesn't work for people who "churn" through cars. We keep cars a very long time and plan car purchases far in advance.