Odd braking issue

thegipper

thegipper

New member
So for the last year or so my truck will randomly "lock up" the brakes when coming to a stop at low speeds. It only does it when you are almost to a complete stop then all of a sudden, its a jolting stop. Not enough to make your seat belt lock up or anything but definitely noticeable. It used to do it every once in a blue moon but now it happens more often.

I'm 99% sure it is the rear brakes. It almost feels like something is catching or hanging up.

I had the drums off this last summer and everything is still bone dry. Last time I checked the abs tone ring, there was a tiny amount of gear oil on it.

I do not believe the problem is with gear oil getting into the drums but I haven't 100% ruled that recently. I'm assuming if that was the case, the shoes would swell up and be binding up all the time.

Here's the really weird part, it only does it for the first couple stops. After you drive it for a little bit, it completely goes away!

I have not replaced a single rear brake component since I've owned it but again, the last time I had the drums off, everything was bone dry and it all looked to be in good working order.

Do these symptoms scream "you need to replace this" or will I need to do some more investigating? Rear cylinder(s) sticking maybe??

Parking brake works fine, releases fine.

Maybe the rear brakes need to be manually adjusted or something?
 
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thegipper said:
So for the last year or so my truck will randomly "lock up" the brakes when coming to a stop at low speeds. It only does it when you are almost to a complete stop then all of a sudden, its a jolting stop. Not enough to make your seat belt lock up or anything but definitely noticeable. It used to do it every once in a blue moon but now it happens more often.

Maybe the rear brakes need to be manually adjusted or something?
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I had to remove the rear ABS sensors one time. when I put them back I did not get one of them 100% seated all the way into the hole. it was just cocked a tiny bit. My truck had the stutters like that just before stopping.... like you said at very low speed.

so... if the one of the sensors or both? are not 100% where they should be you can get this behavior. Maybe a bad ABS sensor? since it has always done it? mine would do it warm or cold but was also intermittent.

it could be something else but... this seems like a very likely candidate to me.
 
Had a similar issue with a hilux LN 106. When driving at slow speeds and coming to a complete stop, the whole rear end locks up and shakes the entire truck. Got rear drums resurfaced and problem solved.
 
Riceye said:
I know it's cold and wet, but it may be time to check them again. And your diff vent.
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Is the brake hose original? My brother had a Tacoma where the rear brake hose would fail initially, acting as a check valve, until he got at least ten minutes down the road. Then he was fine. A new hose cured his ills. When he bought the Tacoma the brake fluid was darker than used Dino oil.

I would take a cursory look at everything and see if something is binding. Maybe lube the threads of the star adjuster as well as making sure the “ears” of the shoes aren’t binding or even rusted to the backing plate. I have never experienced a failing cylinder causing lock up, usually the pedal goes to the floor when they leak.

Bell cranks ok?
 
LittleCaesar said:
Is the brake hose original? My brother had a Tacoma where the rear brake hose would fail initially, acting as a check valve, until he got at least ten minutes down the road. Then he was fine. A new hose cured his ills. When he bought the Tacoma the brake fluid was darker than used Dino oil.

I would take a cursory look at everything and see if something is binding. Maybe lube the threads of the star adjuster as well as making sure the “ears” of the shoes aren’t binding or even rusted to the backing plate. I have never experienced a failing cylinder causing lock up, usually the pedal goes to the floor when they leak.

Bell cranks ok?
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Brake lines are all original. The fluid is fresh from when I swapped third members (had to pull the axles) and had to bleed the system.

I had the drums off last fall if I remember correctly, not summer. The issue then was my parking brake was sticking so I took the drums off, inspected everything, and lubed up all of the necessary components. After I cleaned everything up and lubed it up, the parking brake hasn't stuck since. I believe I backed off the adjuster too.

What's weird is shortly after that is when this binding started happening when coming to a stop. It's like I fixed one problem but created another.

It looks like I need to pull the drums back off again and see what's up. Maybe there is gear oil in there now? I would think if that was the issue, it would be binding up more often than just when I'm coasting to a stop and it wouldn't go away after the brakes "warmed" up.

I did the rear diff breather mod shortly after I got the truck. The original one was definitely plugged up and I believe the cause of the little bit of oil I had on the ABS tone ring. Every time I have checked the ABS tone ring since (usually do it twice a year) it always has the same little bit of oil on it, it's never been much. Who knows, maybe it gave up the ghost finally?
 
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thegipper said:
Brake lines are all original. The fluid is fresh from when I swapped third members (had to pull the axles) and had to bleed the system.

I had the drums off last fall if I remember correctly, not summer. The issue then was my parking brake was sticking so I took the drums off, inspected everything, and lubed up all of the necessary components. After I cleaned everything up and lubed it up, the parking brake hasn't stuck since. I believe I backed off the adjuster too.

What's weird is shortly after that is when this binding started happening when coming to a stop. It's like I fixed one problem but created another.

It looks like I need to pull the drums back off again and see what's up. Maybe there is gear oil in there now? I would think if that was the issue, it would be binding up more often than just when I'm coasting to a stop and it wouldn't go away after the brakes "warmed" up.

I did the rear diff breather mod shortly after I got the truck. The original one was definitely plugged up and I believe the cause of the little bit of oil I had on the ABS tone ring. Every time I have checked the ABS tone ring since (usually do it twice a year) it always has the same little bit of oil on it, it's never been much. Who knows, maybe it gave up the ghost finally?
Click to expand...

That is what I would do first. But also check the bellcranks, and adjust them if need be. I believe one will see gear oil first behind the backing plate before it makes it to the shoes but it may be a case by case basis.

In correcting one thing you more than likely caused something else to get out of whack. It happens with older autos. It is robbing Peter to pay Paul and vise versa.

Good luck Mike. Keep us abreast.
 
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