Intermittent steering wheel vibration when braking

[drallan]

I did the front pads and rear rotor/pads on my mother-in-laws 04 v8 a few weekends ago. In talking with her the other day she mentioned that every now and then she will get a shaking in the steering wheel when braking, but only when slowing from like 60 to 40. Below that it goes away, and isn't consistent. It may happen just once a day. I gave it a test drive but was unable to recreate the issue. Any thoughts?

I've done some research and because there were no noticeable issues prior to brake job I don't suspect it is due to bushings, ball-joints or cvs, but it could be. Everything felt tight but I didn't do a super thorough inspection. Also, besides rear pads being worn to the metal and starting to gouge rear drivers rotor, i didn't see any indication of stuck caliper or uneven pad wear.

The one thing I am leaning towards is that I think the pads we put on the front were ceramic (carquest wearever platinum ceramic) and I would assume the rotors were standard steel rotors.

Could putting new ceramic pads on old steel rotors cause a problem? I've done some searching and it looks like there could be some sort of temperature related uneven distribution of the ceramic coating that occurred during break-in (no real break-in process was followed) which might explain the intermittent nature of the vibration.

If this is in fact the case. Is there anyway to re-coat or redistribute the ceramic coating?
Will the problem eventually go away?
Should I just replace the rotors with new ones?
Do I need new pads as well?
Should I put semi-metallic pads back on?

I'd like to do the job just once more.

Any suggestions?

 

[T4Rmiller]

does the pedal vibrate also or just the wheel? I just replaced both front axles for a similar vibration (wheel only)

 

[CarlosV]

My experience, not much help.

A few months back I changed my front OEM pads (no shaking, but thin) with locally available "American Black" metallic pads ( I suppose somebody is going to set on fire a couple of buildings because of the name) and resurfaced the original OEM rotors (they looked like new after).
Did poor break-in. Couple of weeks later same problem as yours, steering shake (not brake pedal) when breaking down from around 40mph.
Shaking didn’t go away so after 2-3 months, new Brembo rotors and Akebono ceramic pads with proper break-in (empty streets due to COVID).
Since, now 2 months later there hasn’t been any shaking. Improved breaking.
Got the feeling proper break-in made the difference.
Maybe having resurfaced again the original rotors and proper break-in would have fix the problem.

 

[himeeto69]

I did the front pads and rear rotor/pads on my mother-in-laws 04 v8 a few weekends ago. In talking with her the other day she mentioned that every now and then she will get a shaking in the steering wheel when braking, but only when slowing from like 60 to 40. Below that it goes away, and isn't consistent. It may happen just once a day. I gave it a test drive but was unable to recreate the issue. Any thoughts?

I've done some research and because there were no noticeable issues prior to brake job I don't suspect it is due to bushings, ball-joints or cvs, but it could be. Everything felt tight but I didn't do a super thorough inspection. Also, besides rear pads being worn to the metal and starting to gouge rear drivers rotor, i didn't see any indication of stuck caliper or uneven pad wear.

The one thing I am leaning towards is that I think the pads we put on the front were ceramic (carquest wearever platinum ceramic) and I would assume the rotors were standard steel rotors.

Could putting new ceramic pads on old steel rotors cause a problem? I've done some searching and it looks like there could be some sort of temperature related uneven distribution of the ceramic coating that occurred during break-in (no real break-in process was followed) which might explain the intermittent nature of the vibration.

If this is in fact the case. Is there anyway to re-coat or redistribute the ceramic coating?
Will the problem eventually go away?
Should I just replace the rotors with new ones?
Do I need new pads as well?
Should I put semi-metallic pads back on?

I'd like to do the job just once more.

Any suggestions?

I have a similar vibration when braking. Thought maybe it is worn rotors. Hopefully it isn't too involved.

 

[knarfwhite]

Sounds like front rotors are bad. If it happens only sometimes it may be only after the rotors have heated up. I changed my front rotors and pads and a few months later developed intermittent vibration. The difference is mine was vibrating without braking. Sure enough it was a sticking caliper. The calipers are a real common 4Runner problem. I've changed 3 out of 4 in past year.

 

[riverwolf]

FWIW, I'm like 99% certain that the 4th Gen OEM pads are ceramic, so that's not likely your problem. It's a simple bad interface between new pads and old rotors...unless the intermittent vibration was there before and your M-I-L hadn't noticed because she wasn't paying special attention until you touched her truck. Without putting them on a dial indicator, you'll never know for sure. Same work plus a few bucks just to go ahead and swap the rotors before the new pads get mated to the bad rotors.

I went Akebono Ceramics (possibly the OEM for Toyota) with Centric rotors, myself when I got tired of a brake vibration that showed up before I even hit 80k. I think my "warped" front rotors were caused by letting the dealership do a few tire rotations where they likely applied uneven and/or too much torque to the lug nuts. I hate letting anyone touch my vehicles for service...

Good luck.