Weird rear brakes

[SleeperSolara]

I was wondering if the rear brake pads of the 2000 Solara changed. Cause i bought these carbon metalic pads, and they didn't fit on my Solara. The notches on the brakes were slightly bigger than the stock pads i had on. So i had to go back to AutoZone, and the guy told me that the Solara pads in the rear changed to a little bigger. Is that true, cause i had to buy some cheap Albany pads for the rear brakes. Did they change the rear brake notch sizes for 2001????

[bfl62581]

The problem with the 2000 Toyota Solara brakes is that the calipers made in the USA use one size, and the JSPEC use a slightly smaller size. The best part? Completely undocumented.

This discovery took me about two years to make after harassing enough Toyota employee's. Also, the month your vehicle was built makes all the difference in the world. For example, I have a 2001 2000. 9/2000 baby. What does this mean? This means for stupid little parts, like bolts etc, I buy parts for a 2001. Anything body related, 2000.

[Mole]

there is no "jspec" for the solara. it was made in North America.

i think the dude just gave you the wrong brake pad.

[bfl62581]

This was not just one dude. This was pepboys, autozone, toyota (three different dealerships), auto track, super track, midas, uhmm, who else, carquest....

This was not just one person telling me this. This was literally an ongoing, 2 year research project. Like I said, some calipers were fabricated in japan, some were here in the USA. if your car has a jspec caliper, you're screwed.

Eventually, carquest came through with the correct size, that's when he showed me the info about it being jspec.

[impactX]

You can only buy OEM rear pads.

I've bought several wrong pads which are intended for 2000 Solara but they didn't fit.