Car shudders when braking, before coming to a stop

[doomylein]

Hello.

I happily joined the 4Runner clan 1 week ago by buying a 2007 Sport Edition (30000 miles on it).
Everything is great and above expectations with the car except one thing: when braking, before coming to a stop (going 1-3mph), the car shudders for an instant. It feels pretty faint but it's there. It does not happen all the time (I'd say 25% of the times I'm braking to bring the car to a stop). It also happens after I brought the car to a stop and immediately after I lift my foot from the gas. The feeling of it is like something is disengaging or engaging...
I'm coming from a 93 Chrysler Concorde that had all possible transmission issues in the World so my mind goes towards potential transmission issues.... I hope it's not the case.
Has anybody experienced this on their 4Runners? Any suggestions on what it could be?
All the best,
Serban

 

[Patrick Cox]

My "new" 2007 Sport Edition does the same thing. I have just started searching for info on this symptom and I found one thread with similar comments so my guess is that this is normal. I hope someone who knows what is actually going on with this will post here though.

Pat

 

[toto]

You might be describing the driveshaft "clunk". There's an incredibly long thread about it here. To make the story real short, the driveshaft is binding up. Good lubrication of the driveshaft makes the problem go away for a while - not as long as it should, but it does help. It's an annoying feature of many Toyota 4WD trucks, but it's not causing any damage or causing anything to malfunction.

 

[doomylein]

Thanks toto. Reading through that huge post I think that's what my issue is about too. I'll raise it to the Toyota dealership too but I feel much better now... Thank you!
Serban

You might be describing the driveshaft "clunk". There's an incredibly long thread about it here. To make the story real short, the driveshaft is binding up. Good lubrication of the driveshaft makes the problem go away for a while - not as long as it should, but it does help. It's an annoying feature of many Toyota 4WD trucks, but it's not causing any damage or causing anything to malfunction.