Shaky steering wheel when braking

[GmuasRunner]

Hi all, my wife's 2004 4runner V6 SR5 has recently been dealing with the shaking of the steering wheel when she is braking to a complete stop. It will occur from 40mph to stop. I asked a garage mechanic friend to take a look at the runner and he wasn't sure himself. He checked out the rotors and pads all around and confirms they are all smooth with no warpage. The only other thing he can think of that may be causing the shake/vibration is a bad wheel bearing. Can he be right? Thank you all in advance!

 

[chmura]

Warped rotors.

Hard for the human eye to see if the rotors are good or not. Hard to measure this too. I would resurface them or get a new set as new sets aren't that expensive IMO.

 

[GmuasRunner]

Thanks for the quick reply! Should I get rotors all around or should the 2 front suffice?

 

[sonerick]

May also be a sticking piston in one of your calipers, brake shimmy is a common symptom. Easy to check though, just compress the pistons like you would doing a pad change, if they don't easily press back in you know you have an issue.

 

[having fun]

Rotors, brake calipers, tire balance, bearings. Check in that order usually.

 

[Papparover]

Steering wheel shimmy

Had the same problem. I tried all kinds of fixes. I finally fixed it after changing the front rotors.

 

[GmuasRunner]

Okay I'll definitely have them checked! Thanks!