I am a new member here as I am working my way towards buying a Land Cruiser, if risk of theft decreases (already a downtrend). the posts here made me laugh a bit because they are not indicative of a technical defect. Having once ordered to spec aerospace grade strand woven ceramic brakes for my German car (non resin), it looks I might get 1,000,000 kms out of them, I know quite a bit about brakes.
The picture above make me smile into nearly telling it out loud! BED YOUR BRAKES. The sound is nothing but resonance caused by imbedded rotors, new pads, and other climate factors. The rotors look neglected - unused and so on. usually for any rental car, airport or danger zone, bedding rotors to remove squealing is the first thing I do. It is easy to do on a LC as it is a heavy vehicle so you do not need to pull 1G or so as I do on sports cars with big brake kits.
The rear rotors are the hardest to bed in, but will be the first to squeal in reverse because the rear brake bias kicks in. yes, morning moisture will result in the sensor commanding brake pressure to prepare the rear rotor for braking in reverse (drying). As for moisture causing rotor discolouration- very rare especially on high grade rotors. Brembo OEM steel rotors will discolour with rain contact, water but not moisture- not for one or several nights. Low corrosion rate.
Once the bedding in occurs, the rotors will have changed colour evenly as the rotor changes properties with heat - the fronts will show it the most. The crystalline bond between unworn materials is broken, and the pad transfers to the rotor. In addition, varying other surface transformations on the rotor steel/iron ensure judder and squeal free operation. Alternatively, unbedded rotors and pads will resonate at their worse when new, unused, and partially contacting each other. Squeeeall!
The REAL truth about warped brake rotors... The typical situation: New pads are fitted to a new pair of brake discs. A week later there’s a vibration or “judder” when the brakes are applied. A call to a mechanically inclined friend and an online search offers the diagnosis—the brake rotors are...
alconkits.com
Keep in mind for the link that a heavy vehicle requires smaller velocity to achieve the same bed in effects as a much lighter car.
But, basically once your rotors develop that blue grey tint, and that original machining is gone, so should the squealing be done. The surfaces, moist or not, will not squeal.
In Canada, there was a point where I would have to re-bed in my rotors each spring (winter salts stripping the brembos) as we could not brake sufficiently in winter, too cold etc. but with climate change we now get -25C days followed up by 5C so I brake harder the warmer days to retransfer the pad material. I usually do a a few harder presses on any courtesy cars just to get the unglazed, (and slippery) which saved me two months ago as my foot went to the floor- the courtesy car had a ruptured brake line and luckily I brake checked right before taking the highway…
Big brake kit owners- most new cars today, are constantly returning to service centers with such issues. have seen 4 months old 1500$ brembo fronts on German cars ruined as first time owners babied their braking for whatever Toyota reasons (usually Toyota owners moving to sports cars are the most frugal gentle breakers). Or to cite Shelby, , use it to get it working and it so; never work well nor last if unused.
That aside, I cannot speak as to the quality of Toyota LC rotors, Japanese brands have been atrocious for brake parts quality- excluding Lexus. Searching for the parts, they appear a low range offering disc rotors. not all rotors are created equal, a good rotor should last (at 12% winter salinity for 5 months), 100 000 kms front and 140,000 kms rear with bedding in. I had cheap rotors rot, develop Sagittal plane rust, fail me catastrophically, but never a brembo, never a high quality one. ceramics aside, quality rotors bed in easily, last a long time, may rust surface only but not internally, and so on. If rotors issues persist, I would get custom high grade rotors for the LC. And why not? It is a beautiful; big vehicle and it should have superb noise free braking as well.