Is there a site that sells them cheap, rather than $8 a piece? Or maybe Lowe's or Home Depot sells that size.

 

The best I could find was eBay....I searched high and low to try to get free shipping, but to no avail.

I know that replacing them is the correct thing to do. But when I did my rear brakes, I forgot to release the parking brake, and so I pulled the springs off the left side when forcing the rotor off. Because I was not 100% sure that after putting things back, the parking brake would be fine, I reused the old bolts (thinking that I might have to take the caliper right back off). Since the parking brakes were fine, I simply reused both sides. Nothing has happened. Did I cheat? Yes. But, the write up here shows front brakes being done without removing the caliper, which is what I did. That is cheating as well. You would never do that on a Porsche 911. My uncle said it's a good way to bend a piston or tear a dust seal, you always remove the calipers even for pads only....I paid $45 for 8 bolts, I did a quick search and now I see $53 or so. Seems like everything has gone up in price. I would say try all the usual suspects and see who has the best deal with shipping. Even 35% off today is going to be $6 each (almost positive the list price has soared)

I use this website to price check

https://www.discountpartsmonster.com...nge-9010514151

90105-14151 front list $9.18

90105-14152 rear list $9.18



edit prices have most certainly soared. I paid $39 for the OE rear shims, and from memory $5 more for the fronts

even at 31% off list they are now $52. From my research, the OE shims are only used when using OE pads, something to consider as this jacks the cost of a brake job...(or if they are still there reuse and no extra cost)

https://www.discountpartsmonster.com...eal-0494650040

 

They are expensive. Either pay up or just reuse them. I don't think you're going to find a bargain on these...

 

yeah, i've been searching around also. i just try to pick some up when i can. there were a couple on amazon that seemed pretty inexpensive. i figure i can always use them, so i plan on keeping a couple sets in my garage just in case.

 

Or you simply bite the bullet and pay $53 plus shipping and you've got all 8, knowing that you couldn't do any better. $60 isn't even lunch for a family out on Sunday. I wanted a specialized part for a ruggedized laptop. It's something that I would think would cost maybe $2? But people were selling it online from $22 to $30. Because it's specific. So when I found it for $15 shipped, I got it. My buddy said boy are you loosey goosey with the money. When it came I said it should probably cost 40 to 50 cents. $9 a bolt? I love this one. LS430 front brake sensor, $137 list. That's truly a joke when a OEM for BMW (not bmw branded but the mfg. who makes it for bmw) is $14. Or the original BMW part is about $32 list. $32 v. $137, what's the rhyme/reason with Toyota?

Again, you can do what I did with the laptop part, know that you got the best price you could find and call it a day...(I got 8 bolts in my basement as I reused lol)

 

​​​​​​I get what you're saying. I come from a very frugal family and I'm only 18 years old with one job, I'm just trying to make the best of what I can afford, especially with a car that requires a lot of care, and upcoming maintenance considering it's 14 years old (struts are giving out as well).

But I am also the person to just replace it and have a safe thought in my mind that there would be less risk associated rather than reusing the bolts.

I was the same way with my steering rack leaking fluid, I didn't want to fork over $800-1000 for an OE quality rack when I can pay $400 for a quality third party one. But I guess everyone's luck is different and a steering rack is more serious than some $8 bolts.

 

As mentioned I reused mine in the rears. The dealer that sold me the car redid the brakes with Lexus OE, and returned all the old parts, so I have 4 fronts as well used. I really wonder sometimes if an indie or muffler shop would even replace them. I do think $9 is unreasonable, but even at 50% off they'd be $4.50+, so hard to win on this one...

 

Do you reuse them more than once or just the one time?

 

Just the one time. Again the real reason was I had the springs come off the parking brake shoes, and I figured if I put them back together and it wasn't right (I was not sure at the time), I didn't want to burn 2 bolts in the process....but then I decided just to leave them alone. I did not use a torque wrench, rather I used a 1/2" ratchet and tightened it up as much as I could without potentially stripping, by feel....see not wanting to waste bolts was why I replaced the front pads without removing the calipers. I think that is the wrong way to do things (per my uncle). You should probably change them and do it right, and I should not advise you to do things wrongly, just admitting that I did...

 

I see what you're saying. The only reason I took off the calipers was because I had to replace the rotors as they we're pretty jacked up.

 

You are not supposed to reuse the caliper bolt, as they are a stretch bolt and could be unsafe if reused. I would follow Lexus suggestion as they are the designers and their engineers should definitely know what they were doing.

 

I might be the exception and also a fanatic, so of course I always replace my caliper bolts for brake work as well as with wheel bearings etc. I remember paying about $10 for a pair through Lexus which is not a big deal. I'm not needing them every day and the price for the other parts is more of a concern to me. Regardless, I'll always replace the bolts as I always replace the oil plug washer during every oil change. On top of it all, I'm still buying OEM parts for my 18 year old car.

 

lol I never replace the washer for the drain plug, even though I have a pack of 10 OE blue Toyota ones. If they were crush washers I would. But I always make sure I have a spare drain plug and washer for any car that I change the oil on. The BMW I do replace all washers and gaskets as they come with the new oil filter (3 pieces)...

I just don't like to waste, I pretend that resources are scarce. But look at me contradict myself as I threw away OE brake pads at maybe 60% to 70% worn. I just wanted to do it when I was changing my snow tires. I'm like a hybrid between a shade tree and a fleet manager. My buddy's co. gets $180k new tractors, and they get their first oil change at 60k, which is the high end of the range, and they "own" them, not leases. That's fleet maintenance. They also use Baldwin filters which they told me are junk (well then why are you using them? we have a national contract)...but I digress. I think everybody has some sense of waste not, want not, just varying degrees...