Brakes really Poor

[grahamo]

I guess I should qualify "just plain suck". My experience has been that an 80 will stop as quickly as comparably sized vehicles, it just takes a lot more muscle. Not a fair comparison but I just purchased a 2002 Tacoma recently and on the test drive I bout put myself and the poor guy who was selling it through the windshield when I hit the brakes the first time i was so used to my lc.

Certainly do what all the others suggest; change fluid, bleed it properly, use good hardware, rotors, pads, calipers, lines, etc... but in the end the only option might be to go to the gym and build that right leg... or left leg maybe in you're case

I feel like a nerd for immediately recognizing dopamine...

 

[atomicshawn]

ah yes, dopamine, the key neurotransmitter involved in all addictions... and yeah you're a nerd.

 

[Ozdunc]

Change your brake lines as well, after 15 years on the truck they're probably a bit spongy.

 

[crooozer]

Ok, been a few days now since I lowered the LSPV and I can now say that it has made a difference for the better.

The truck feels more balanced when braking whereas before it felt like just the fronts were doing most of the work.

I'm quite happy with where were at now
Cheers.

 

[Ozdunc]

Cool.
Just bear in mind the lines for the next fluid flush. Made a huge difference on mine.

 

[jonheld]

All of your soft lines are now 15 years old. They should be changed. I'm not a fan of the braided SS stuff that folks like. I use OEM parts. It made a difference on mine.

Your calipers are probably in need of rebuilding by now. The OEM kit is $26 and takes about 2 hours to do for the fronts.

Since brake fluid in the system is static, regular flushes once a year will keep it fresh and clean and prevent corrosion.

Rotors should never be cut IMO. If they're in bad shape, replace them. Braking power is directly related to heat dissipation. The more heat the rotors can sink, the better your brakes will be.

Brakes should be thought of as a system and not just a bunch of parts.

 

[Flank]

Are they all this bad, or could something be a bit out of whack?

Something is out of whack

something is out of whack. with oem pads and oem rotors it should put you in the windshield if you hit the brakes hard enough.

X2

Yea mate I've had the 80 for about 2 years now, they have always been crap. So are you saying that all 80's just have crappy brakes like I suspect? It's just that that one guy above said otherwise is what got me thinking something must be wrong.

I'm with the guys above. I have been astonished at how well my brakes can stop this 6K lb truck. Perhaps your expectations may have been skewed based on lighter vehicles. Keep in mind, tires will also affect braking.

I could be wrong but my understanding is that the 100 series pads are for longevity more than performance.

This is true in my experience. Larger surface area adds longevity, but I have not noticed better braking performance by adding them.

 

[Funner]

Mine was really bad when I bought it. I didn't get around to them at first because of so many other things that needed attention and the pads were decent. After a couple of necessary hard braking stops that ended with my leg mashing the pedal as hard as I could and my truck gradually coming to a reluctant stop I decided to move them up the priority list
The first thing I did was to pump out the brake fluid in the reservoir under the hood using the hand soap pump from the guest bathroom, the couldn't figure out where it could have gone
I refilled and then bled all the brakes, refilling and bleeding until the fluid came out clean at each bleeder.
This improved my braking about 80%
I then replaced the front rotors and put on 100 series front pads. The front rotors were already good, but chucked them anyway.
This improved the braking about 10%
I then replaced the rear rotors and pads. The rear rotors were trashed, the pads were fair.
This improved braking another 10%

My truck does now stop well and does so in a balanced controlled and predictable way. I got the most bang out of the bleed job. If the front rotors and pads were in bad shape, they may have had a bigger impact when being replaced, but they were not trashed at the time of replacement.

 

[jvazquez53]

Bleeding:
Right rear, Left Rear, Right Front, Left Front, LSPV last IIRC from the FSM.

What it says above is all you have to do. I did my 92 3FE (small disks and drums) using one of those small plastic bottles and they even lock. New pads will require a few miles of driving to get the full stopping power. BTW, I use $18.00 pads that work as good as OEM and last longer.