Drive Line   ·   March 2010
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Brake Upgrade with Frozen Rotors – Front

Bytomas
As part of my re-gear and tire size upgrade I wanted to improve brake performance on My Toyota FJ Cruiser. To this end I chose to upgrade the rotors and pads on the FJ to slotted rotors and better pads. I chose to go with cryogenically treated slotted rotors from Frozen Rotors combined with Hawk Performance pads. Cryogenically treated rotors have been shown to have more resistance to warping and cracking, an increases rotor and pad life, as wells as reduced brake fade. The “freezing” of the rotors changes the crystal structure of the metal.
Wrenching on the FJ

The rotors are not cheap but the extended life and improvement in brake performance should justify the cost.

The installation of the front rotors and pads is an easy process. With the rear tires chalked I lifted the front of the FJ with my floor jack and placed jack stand under the a-arms to keep the FJ from falling if the jack failed.

First the front wheels need to be removed to expose the calipers and rotors. The calipers must be spread to allow the new pads to be fitted. I did this with channel locks and some screw drivers. I was not concerned about damage to the rotors or pads so the screw drivers worked well.

Calipers spread

Once I had the calipers spread I removed the old pads and inserted the new ones to check the fit.  The fit was good so I then proceeded to remove the caliper. With the caliper removed the rotor came free of the hub with a couple of hits with a rubber mallet.

Checking the fit on the new pads

I installed the new rotor and reinstalled the caliper. Once the caliper was installed I then installed the new pads using brake lube to help prevent any problems with noise.

Job Complete

The front tires were remounted and the nuts torqued to the correct value and it was off for a test drive.

All said this was about a 1 hour job and not that difficult.

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6 Comments

  1. Thomas,
    I just pulled my stock pads to check for replacement, and both front and rear pads have ore than a third left on them. That’s with 38,000 miles. I was both shocked and pleased. How much more than that are you estimating that you will get with this new set up? Is it mainly the rotors you are expecting an extended life from?

    thanks,
    Don

    Reply

    1. The rotors should last longer. I was at 50,000 and was close to needing the front pads replaced. If I was not looking for better brake performance I would have let the pads wear all the way and then just replaced the pads.

      Reply

    2. The rotors should last longer. I was at 50,000 and was close to needing the front pads replaced. If I was not looking for better brake performance I would have let the pads wear all the way and then just replaced the pads.

      Reply

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