New TRD owner, few questions

[LordBug]

Hey guys, I recently became the owner of the '07 TRD Aurion #293, and absolutely loving it.

At some point I'll pop the wheels off to judge how long I've got before I need to do the pads & rotors, but I'll put the question out here now - To any TRD owners, have you found that over the years that aftermarket pads & rotors are better, or that genuine ones are the go? I spoke to a mate of mine a bit back who's a mech for Toyota, and he was really insistent that aftermarket gear isn't as good as genuine. Seeing as how the threads about brake upgrades are a few years old now, I trust there should be some good solid experiences to compare against his belief.

Now, a smidge of a problem with the car. I'm getting steering wheel shakes only when accelerating, but not all of the time, and it happens with varying styles (Easy/moderate accel, hard accel), typically over 30kph. I've just gotten home from having a wheel balance & alignment done, and it doesn't feel as though there's been much of an improvement.

I'm curious if anyone else gets this (Aforementioned mechanic mate has said that it's common, because of the suspension system for a high powered FWD), because my very bad memory of hiring an Aurion five years back remembers nothing of the sort.

Cruising, no shakes. Deaccel, no shakes.

Did a search, and nothing I've found really seems to relate, so hopefully someone has had experience before I have to start worry about mystery troubleshooting.

Cheers

~B

[VIPZR6]

Does it have the factory rims?

[DJKOR]

Stock TRD rotors and pads especially are good at what they are designed to do. The pads however end up being really hard wearing and wear down your rotors much quicker than certain aftermarket pads. I suggest you look here first:

TRD Aurion brake options

I am currently using the Hawk ceramic pads as suggested in the thread there. They have good stopping power and a recent day at the track showed they held up really well with no fade during the heavy braking at the end of the straights. The biggest positive I have to say about them though is that they really are low dust. Compared to the stock pads and even worse... Remsa pads, these produce less than a quarter of the dust.

Rotors... personally all I can say is stay away from RDA. They are rather "soft" in my opinion. They do the job, but I personally believe that you get what you pay for and spending a little more on DBA will get you a higher quality rotor with better life.

[LordBug]

VIPZR6, they are indeed the factory rims.

A few more days driving, and another little oddity that I'd noticed every now and again is still there. Sometimes it feels like a wheel is out of shape/has something stuck on it, because as you drive you can feel the bump each time it goes around.

Guess I'll go to a tyre place to see if they can check the rubber, at least that'd be one thing to clear up. Wish I'd been a bit more with it when I had the balance and alignment done, and thought to ask then.

DJKOR, very glad to hear from you, from my searching since purchasing this beauty, the results have shown you to be a veritable tome of information :)

I'll note down the Hawk pads, and do a bit of thinking about genuine vs DBA rotors come the time.

Another question whilst I'm here. A crazy thought, but does anyone know if you can swap sections of interior from other models/years? There are some interior touches on other models that I personally really like the look of, and if I could customise my girl to be very much mine, then I'd make plans for it. Exhaust and sway bars are the main things to be done in the near future though.