Steering wheel shaking during braking

Hey Guys. Looking into finally taking care of the steering wheel shaking problem during braking on my 2003. I've done some research and it seems warped rotors are fairly common. I was all set to buy new rotors and pads today (Stoptech brake kit), but decided to go through the previous owners records. Looks like he reported the same issue at 236k miles so new rotors and pads on the fronts and new shoes on the back were installed. Looks like they used Duralast parts. The truck has 245k miles now. That's only 9k miles ago. So, thought I'd look into some other possibilities.

- A rebuilt rack and pinion was put on 20k miles ago.

- The brake fluid needs to be flushed for sure. I'll try to do that this weekend.

- The truck does NOT shake when engaging the e-brake only, so I think that can rule out the back brake drums.

- I havent jacked the front end up to check for play in the wheel bearings, which I read could be the cause.

- The shaking is worse with over-drive engaged.


Anything else I should check? TIA

 

There are threads about this. It seems to be a common problem among 2nd gen Tundras. My 2011 DC had this problem and everytime I brought my truck in for 5000 mile maintenance they would inspect and clean the brakes and the problem would go away for a while and then come back. Last time I had the rear brake pads replaced and new rotors installed on the REAR (due to being too thin) the problem went away permanently although it was the steering wheel that was shaking.

 

One thing to look at is wheel bearings with that many miles. My son's Tacoma was doing the same thing, so I bought rotors, pads etc, didn't resolve the issue. I pulled the wheels back off and threw a dial indicator on the rotor and low and behold the entire hub was wobbling just a smidge, threw on new bearings and all fixed.

 

Got it. I'll have a look this weekend. Thanks!

 

Tires Quality is another possiblity. Cheap, crappy, out of round tires can do this. Long time ago, I had Dunlops installed after the OEM wore out. Wobbles city. Then, went to BF G’s. Wobble city. Those 2 brand tires only lasted 20k miles anyway.

Then, 3 sets of Michelins (MS, MS2 then now Defenders) and no problems ever on 285/75/r16’s all these 12-13 years.

BTW, I’ve had warped rotors since 2003 up until this past summer when I had my entire front end built.

 

I never thought about the tires. But the wobble was there before I installed the FJ wheels with KO2s. Boy I'll be pissed if its the tires. I've spent more on those than I have on anything else on the truck including the shell. LOL.

 

Here is a link for auto repair nerds. This Shop Owners philosophy of repairs is from W. Edwards Deming, an American who post WWII, helped Toyota get back on their feet. Eventually, and history shows, Toyota went on to surpass the big 3 in quality.

Anyway, the link should direct you to out of round tires. Check out the rest of the search engine for other answers to just about any question under the sun pertaining repairs/problems.

http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/112

 

Awesome. Thank you for the link.

 

Turned out to be the rotors. Had them machined and all is well for now.

 

Won’t last. Turning rotors is a waste of money and just a band aid. Just buy new rotors.

 

Its on the list.

 

I just did mine. Not bad at all. If you have the 13we calipers, you can just get the whole kit and do it all.