When I was checking out a rear upgrade from a '12 Highlander, as you mentioned 12.16'' vs 11.3'' & the pads are bigger as well.....I grabbed both rotors out of the box & find the hat section a tad bit tall for the gen2 rotors, not a big deal....But then looking at the hat diameters, You can actually put the earlier hat section into the later one....One look at the two different parking shoes shows the gen3 shoes are longer. You'll need the gen3 backing plate for the parking shoes or possibly fab the oem one for the different hold down studs for the shoes, but then you'll have a gap between the smaller diameter backing plate & the hat of the gen3 rotor. And then the shorter hat will narrow the track width some. Really the main gain I see is the longer pads......Yea the rotors are 'bout a little less then .05'' bigger diameter as well as the calipers are a wash as well.....So yea you could do a rear brake swap, But to me its not really cost effective for the gain as the front upgrade is....Goodridge SS brake hose kit, brake fluid flush w/ good pads/rotors as well as the gen3/ Highlander front brakes work great for me, as I found thats the biggest gain for the money.....

 

It’s definitely not anywhere near as effective as the front, but a nice touch if it were a direct swap. My 3rd gen has pathetic rear brakes. The pads & swept area is tiny despite being 310x10mm due to the larger 220mm hat, the parking brake is significantly larger than my Highlander one, which has the 285mm rotors but still more pad surface. The rear knuckles for my 3rd gen are significantly different from a 2nd gen as well due to the addition of double wishbone suspension.

I was looking underneath a 2008-2009 Highlander hybrid in a parking lot today and the setup was practically identical to my 1st gen Highlander or a 2nd gen RX. Same hub, ABS sensor mounting, as well as locations for mounting the trailing arm & other control arms. Too bad trying to find these for a cheap price is near impossible. No 2nd gen Highlanders in the junkyards near me unfortunately.



2004-2007 Highlander & 2nd gen RX AWD rear knuckle (will fit an 01-03 Highlander and an RX300)



2008-2013 Highlander AWD & 2009-2015 Venza AWD rear knuckle

 

[QUOTE=MattRX;11040696]It’s definitely not anywhere near as effective as the front, but a nice touch if it were a direct swap. My 3rd gen has pathetic rear brakes. The pads & swept area is tiny despite being 310x10mm due to the larger 220mm hat, the parking brake is significantly larger than my Highlander one, which has the 285mm rotors but still more pad surface. The rear knuckles for my 3rd gen are significantly different from a 2nd gen as well due to the addition of double wishbone suspension.
>>>>Yeah thats true as far as the diameter being bigger as well as the parking hat being bigger as well, like I mentioned in a above post, the gen2 rotor hat will fit inside a gen3 rotor hat. Yeah the pad width is a tad bit bigger then a gen2, but the length of the pad is longer, but its also the height via the bigger diameter which gives it more torque/leverage, whether the pad width is the same.....So with that, to me its not really worth the time to do......
I was looking underneath a 2008-2009 Highlander hybrid in a parking lot today and the setup was practically identical to my 1st gen Highlander or a 2nd gen RX. Same hub, ABS sensor mounting, as well as locations for mounting the trailing arm & other control arms. Too bad trying to find these for a cheap price is near impossible. No 2nd gen Highlanders in the junkyards near me unfortunately.
That very well could be.....as far as the early gen2 Highlanders...IDK if a early gen2 Highlander would use the bigger diameter rotor, but use the smaller hat/parking brake as a gen2.....If thats the case, then that'd mean it'd be pretty much the same as the front, rotors/pads & a pr of reman calipers & not having to deal w/ parking brake shoes, backing plates, ect....& you wouldn't need to swap spindles, I'd do that when this rx needs rear brakes.... I just punch in a '13 Highlander for research/look ups...

 

Surprisingly, it actually has the bigger rotor like on my 3rd gen, but with the 2nd gen RX parking brake. Rockauto has some fantastic pictures and info there that I scrounged through. Too bad this upgrade won't work with 1st gen RX owners because they have an even smaller parking brake and the spacing between the rear calipers is 140mm instead of ~100mm for the 2nd gen RX. Unfortunately, since my Highlander is a 01-03 model, it has the complete rear setup from an RX300 so I have the tiny parking brake as well. I'd have to swap the knuckle over to get the bigger brakes, but it very well may be a direct swap on the 2nd gen RX.

 

Thanx Matt, I'll have to checkout the early gen2 Highlander rotors/calipers then.....

 

I pulled off some 2014 Toyota Venza AWD knuckles yesterday for my 2002 Highlander. Upon searching up the part number, I discovered they share it with the 2007-2009 Lexus RX350 and 2008-2013 Highlander. This would work on a 2004-2006 RX as well because they share the same brake calipers and overall setup front & rear.

I will be attempting to install these and then updating everyone on how the rear 2008 Highlander brakes go. I already ordered them as well as the fronts so I have committed to getting these on no matter what it takes. Wish me luck!

 

The fronts should bolt right on......

 

It has been confirmed! Fits 17” rims no problem! Brakes a lot better now! Great replacement for crusty calipers and she BITES! Rears going on soon!



Stock tiny brakes

08+ Highlander brakes

Pretty close, but no rubbing whatsoever!

 

Some fantastic leads on the brake upgrade today. Still remains one of my favourite mods to the car. This is an update for the IS350 rear rotors! I picked up some cheapies used today strictly for testing purposes. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well they fit the knuckles!



Stock rotor



IS350 vented rear rotor


The IS rotor slips right on without any issues at all! No interference with a single thing, hat size is the same AND you can still adjust the parking brake! What a fantastic outcome! Now I’m going to source out a caliper and update this post when I find one. The spacing appears identical, apart from the M10 mounting holes, vs our M12 ones. Apparently some 2011-2013 IS350s have M12 so I’ll try to grab those. If the caliper fits, the final concern will be if the stock wheel will clear it due to it sticking out by an extra 4mm (vented rotor).

 

Matt, What'd you find as far as calipers go?

 

Unfortunately the IS350 calipers have spacing that is just BARELY too short to fit the 2004-2009 knuckles. Then there was the M10 holes which are smaller (already knew that). However, the GOOD news is that the 2nd gen rear brakes are a direct fit on all 2nd gen RXs. I think I’m going to get a machine shop to modify the IS calipers to fit on the rear in the future, for now I’m gonna run 2nd gen rears. 2nd gen rears will also fit 16” wheels! Anyone who wants to downgrade to 16” wheels can use ES330 fronts (calipers, rotors) and 2008-2013 Highlander rears (calipers, rotors).

 

Just got the 3rd gen Calipers today and going to try and do this tomorrow on the RX. Never knew the 3rd gen calipers were dual pistons. nice!

 

I purchased Raybestos coated rotors and Cardone coated reman calipers for a 2010.

About half way done now, had to stop due to a stuck rotor and heavy rain. I got the rotor off eventually and got the new caliper and rotor seated on one side, just need to bleed it. I put the stock 18" wheel back on as a test fit and looks to fit perfectly! reusing the old banjo bolt from the brake line w/ new copper washers. Wondering if i should use the new one? I Noticed the variance in banjo bolt hole size. the newer bolt has a bigger hole size for fluid to flow through vs the old one. as i didnt bleed the brakes yet it would be easy for me to swap to the new bolt. I just kept the old one as i did the caliper swap quickly in the rain and wanted to get inside.

edit:
I ended up replacing the banjo bolt as it ended up leaking even w/ the new washers. Bled the brakes and took it for a quick test drive. Looking forward to really taking it for a ride soon! I also will upload a video sometime soon of what I did. Weather has been brutal with nonstop rain. I didnt want to do this in my garage because I didn't want to get my new epoxy floors dirty, LOL

Bottom line, 3rd gen front brakes are a drop in replacement for our 2nd gen vehicles and seems to be worthwhile, going from a single piston from the 2nd gen to a dual piston from the 3rd gen

 

[QUOTE=evident;11194073]I purchased Raybestos coated rotors and Cardone coated reman calipers for a 2010.

About half way done now, had to stop due to a stuck rotor and heavy rain. I got the rotor off eventually and got the new caliper and rotor seated on one side, just need to bleed it. I put the stock 18" wheel back on as a test fit and looks to fit perfectly! reusing the old banjo bolt from the brake line w/ new copper washers. Wondering if i should use the new one? I Noticed the variance in banjo bolt hole size. the newer bolt has a bigger hole size for fluid to flow through vs the old one. as i didnt bleed the brakes yet it would be easy for me to swap to the new bolt. I just kept the old one as i did the caliper swap quickly in the rain and wanted to get inside.
edit:
I ended up replacing the banjo bolt as it ended up leaking even w/ the new washers. Bled the brakes and took it for a quick test drive. Looking forward to really taking it for a ride soon! I also will upload a video sometime soon of what I did.

I just used the banjo bolts that came w/ the reman calipers, I just gave them back the oem banjo bolts w/ the calipers. I'd think that possibly the two piston calipers possibly need more flow. I also replace the oem brake hoses w/ SS ones as well as flushed the old brake fluid w/ new dot3. BTW, what calipers did you use? The ones for the Japanese or Candian made vehicle?

 

I kept the existing brake lines but flushed them. I did my TSX brakes not long ago and the bolts that connected the brake line to the metal hoses were so stripped and rusted i didnt even bother for this car. bought 2010 Calipers for vehicles built in Japan. My vehicle was built in Canada. Does it make a huge difference?