Big steering shake during braking

I was wondering if anyone could help me with an issue I'm having. My vehicle steering wheel shakes whilst braking. The steeper the hill and more speed increases this to the point that it can get very violent. I had it balanced and there is not steering wheel shake whilst cruising around, only whilst braking. 2019 tundra 23k milles. Any thoughts/ideas? Could it possibly be warped brake discs?

 

Rotors. People tend to call them warped, but what's really happened is the pads have not transferred material to the rotor evenly, thus giving you a spot that grabs more. You can try to fix it yourself by sanding it and re-bedding the pads properly (look online for procedure). Sometimes it's necessary to have the rotors resurfaced. I don't know of sanding is the recommended way, but I've had luck doing it before. I went 400, 800, 2000.

 

Is it also in the brake pedal as well? From my experience if it’s steering wheel only it’s likely front brakes but if you’re getting it in the pedal as well it is the rears. Resurfacing on a heavy truck like ours isn’t the best idea... they heat up quickly after resurfacing or turning the rotors.

 

Does anyone know the cause? Possibly balanced or defective wheel.

 

anything is possible, but two people already guessed rotors. Count me as a 3rd.

 

In my experience as a brake mechanic (in a prior life) you most likely have "hot spots" on your front rotors. You can try turning (resurfacing) them, but it's only a short term solution. The hot spots will return. The rotors overheated at some point and over tempered the steel.

 

4th On the brakes. If it was fire/wheel related it would shake all the time. Not only during braking.

new rotors and pads should fix er up. Resurfacing on these big old trucks is a bandaid and the problem will return

 

I had bad rotors and replaced them with Stoptech Sport cryo treated rotors.

 

100% warped front rotors if it’s felt in the steering wheel.

 

Yep. Mine were so bad the steering wheel shook without even touching the brakes.

 

It’s called non-parallel rotor faces. The rotor has a thicker surface on the Faces of the rotor. If they aren’t too bad you can resurface them. Mic the rotors to check the parallelism.

 

4th.. rotors.

 

^^ this ^^

i will NEVER replace another set of rotors with anything other than cryo treated. after burnish and taking it easy on them for a few hundred miles, i never had to replace them.

i used to go through stock rotors every time i replaced the pads.

below was a post i made a year ago.


consider frozen rotors; will be installing these on the tundra as soon as factory brakes are done.

had an '05 titan with rotors that belonged on a sentra... warped... warped again... replaced with frozen rotors. they are cryogenically frozen and this is no gimmick. mixed those with some green box hawk pads. i drove the pickup like i stole it, and those rotors would NOT warp.

currently own a '19 cm limited tundra. these are the best factory brakes i've ever had on a 1/2 ton pickup.

when these pads go, the whole setup will be replaced with power slot frozen rotors and green box hawks.

 

Warped rotors/uneven pad bedding is a very common problem for these trucks iirc. I had to change mine a month ago for the same reason. Truck was vibrating like it was going to explode. One set of rotors and pads and it brakes like new.

 

Just as an update. When I had my truck go in for the fuel pump recall I asked them to look at the brakes to see what's going on. Yep warped discs. Sucks that this probably started at around 5k miles. Dealership said they spoke to Toyota and said it would not be covered by warranty. Spoke to Toyota over the phone and they are looking into it to see if we can work something out. So far really great customer service from Toyota but let's see what they can do. I feel that it's unacceptable that the rotors were having issues at 5k miles. At least I have a free 2020 Tacoma to drive around in for a few days.

 

Did you have a sudden stop while the brakes were hot, like coming down a mountain road and had to slam on the brakes?

 

My husband’s 1st gen warped from towing, another possibility. Brakes on the camper were just about gone. Felt like the controller was working and it was grabbing but was pushing still. New full set for the truck and camper and no issues since.

 

Had my Rotors resurfaced this last week and when I talked to the Service Manager he said this is common on Tundras especially when going over the Mountain passes a lot, (which I do) and recommended downshifting to keep the speeds down.

 

There's been no single thought about when it could of happened. No towing, so there hasn't been weight behind the truck. Either way I want a better rotor for sure if it's this bad after such little amount of miles.

 

I replaced my front rotors at around 30k because of extreme shaking. Resurfacing them isn't really worth the time IMO. They're cheap enough, just slap new ones on and be done with it

 

I switched to Centric rotors because i wasn't about to blow through another set of Toyota rotors. They're pricey and its a wear item. I always had good luck with Centric on other vehicles.

 

Make sure you torque your wheels to spec. This is the main reason for rotor warping. Also check for bent wheels.