Howdy all,
I've had my 4Runner for about 4 months now, and I'm trying to fix a few problems during the school break.
The truck shimmies when hitting the brakes. It's definitely the front brakes. Braking at high speeds or low, the shimmy can be felt both through the brake pedal and through the car. I took off the front wheels and spun them, but there's no visible warpage of the rotors; I might be able to borrow a depth gauge from someone for further testing.
There's also a slight wobble at high speed (60 MPH); I don't see how the brakes could cause this, but maybe someone will think it's relevant.
A last problem is the pedal travels a little farther than I'm comfortable with before the braking starts. The problem here is that you have to have some finesse on the brake pedal over that travel distance (think: trigger creep) or it's easy to accidentally mash the brakes pretty hard. I sort of suspect the rear drums are out of adjustment, but it's surprising, since there's the automatic adjustment mechanism (boy I'd sure like to swap those for disc brakes).
Any thoughts are highly appreciated. I have a pair of rotors in the trunk, but if they're not the problem, I can take them back; also, the job's a little harder than my previous vehicles, since you have to pull the hub apart, from the looks of it.
I've had my 4Runner for about 4 months now, and I'm trying to fix a few problems during the school break.
The truck shimmies when hitting the brakes. It's definitely the front brakes. Braking at high speeds or low, the shimmy can be felt both through the brake pedal and through the car. I took off the front wheels and spun them, but there's no visible warpage of the rotors; I might be able to borrow a depth gauge from someone for further testing.
There's also a slight wobble at high speed (60 MPH); I don't see how the brakes could cause this, but maybe someone will think it's relevant.
A last problem is the pedal travels a little farther than I'm comfortable with before the braking starts. The problem here is that you have to have some finesse on the brake pedal over that travel distance (think: trigger creep) or it's easy to accidentally mash the brakes pretty hard. I sort of suspect the rear drums are out of adjustment, but it's surprising, since there's the automatic adjustment mechanism (boy I'd sure like to swap those for disc brakes).
Any thoughts are highly appreciated. I have a pair of rotors in the trunk, but if they're not the problem, I can take them back; also, the job's a little harder than my previous vehicles, since you have to pull the hub apart, from the looks of it.
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