NOW THAT'S SERVICE!!!!!!:thumb3:
So I almost got raped by the Dealer today....brakes brakes brakes.
- Thread starter DizzyV6P
- Start date
NOW THAT'S SERVICE!!!!!!:thumb3:
Whiplash Willy
New member
I have the same "warped rotor" issues as you. Four times a day, I drive down very long and steep hills, as the back roads I take go over hills. When coasting down these hills, the 4runner automatically downshifts but I still have to ride the brakes constantly during the 1-mileish stretch.
At 15k miles, I took my 4runner in for warranty work on the warped rotors. My friend is a tech there, so he sighted some other kind of brake issue, so it would get covered by warranty. He stated the issue as "Poor composition of Brake Pad Material". He ended up using an on-car lathe to resurface the rotors, and installed new pads. After that, the shaking during breaking went away.
Now that I am at 35k miles, the shaking is back. For me, and I am guessing you, the issue is the long periods of constant braking during the downhill sections of our drive that we hit every day. The 4runner is just heavy, and the heat generated from how I coast down these hills every day will probley warp most Pad or Rotor combinations.
Once it gets bad enough, I just plan to get new OEM pads and rotors for the front. I will have to adjust my driving habits to keep the new ones from warping. It will be kind of a pain, but if shift down to S3, and only apply short pulses of the breaks, I think I will keep the new ones from warping.
flyinhawaiian01
New member
The biggest reason for warped rotors is having some numbnut use an impact wrench to re-mount your wheels back on the vehicle! If they were the last people who had the wheels off, I'd be suspect of them having used an impact gun to re-mount the tires! Of course, this could also have been a local tire shop if you had them rotated at one of them instead of the dealer (not that I'm saying you should go to the dealer for rotation!).
The only other main cause of warped rotors is riding the brakes a lot, so next question would be, do you live or drive in an area where you are on the brakes going downhill a lot?
I rotate my own tires, its a small hassle to spend a half hour pulling them all off and rotating them in my shop, but worth it to know that the wheels are torqued properly with a torque wrench and not hercules' 850ft/lb. impact gun!
As for turning rotors, unless they look absolutely perfect, why not just take them down to your local machine shop or parts store and have them turned? Its like $20-30 bucks a rotor!!! Cheap piece of mind to know that they're turned, flat and ready for a nice new set of pads. If the rotors have grooves in them (even slight grooves), your pads get to conform to that to make full contact and get the vehicle to stop. It may only take a few miles to get it there, but that few miles could also heat the rotors up enough to warp them too, depending on just how many/how deep those grooves are.
For a hundred bucks or so, plus 60 bucks for pads (IIRC, that's the cost of stock pads which supposedly are just as good as higher-end non-oem brands according to many here), you could have a full brake job done! Its not much more work than pulling wheels off, pulling calipers off and hanging them with string/bungee cord inside fenderwell, popping pads out by pulling the slide pins/whatever clips the 4r uses, slide rotors off and drop off at parts store. Return an hour or two later to retrieve turned rotors, reassemble in opposite order as removal, making sure to use anti squeal paste (or moly grease) on back of pads and all sliding/moving clips/pins/guides.
Seat pad according to whatever the paperwork says and enjoy another 60 or so thousand miles before you have to do it again!
Disc brakes are one of the easiest jobs to do on a car, hell, it might be easier than changing oil on our 4r's according to what I've read!!!
:wink2:
Well, Shitz. I just got new tires put on by Just Tires in December and the shuddering first began about a month or so ago. I'll have to check if the dealer rotated the tires in February. But I think this might be the cause of it.
The tires (Alenza Plus) are great BTW and did well in snow this past winter.
:driving:
Scott@Hightech
New member
I think you should bring it to a Competent shop and have them check it out for you and advise you on the best course of action. I know where one is that is very close to you...........
flyinhawaiian01
New member
I dunno, unless they do a free brake inspection for him, I think that would just be a waste of money. After all, its pretty evident that the rotors are warped if he's getting the pulsating brakes.
And there's really no sense in not replacing the pads. If you're gonna have it all apart to get the rotors turned, it just makes sense to throw new pads in. For the low amount of cash for pads it seems kinda silly not to just do it and not have to worry about it for another xx,xxx amount of miles. That's just me though, I really hate re-doing jobs because I tried to save a couple bucks. Seems this has happened more often than not as a younger broke-ass guy!!!
:biggrin2:
And there's really no sense in not replacing the pads. If you're gonna have it all apart to get the rotors turned, it just makes sense to throw new pads in. For the low amount of cash for pads it seems kinda silly not to just do it and not have to worry about it for another xx,xxx amount of miles. That's just me though, I really hate re-doing jobs because I tried to save a couple bucks. Seems this has happened more often than not as a younger broke-ass guy!!!
:biggrin2:
Mooney
New member
Dizzy's driveline better be getting a lot of lube for a $1,200 brake job!
stir_fry_boy
New member
Brakes on cars are one of the simplest, easiest things to do on 4runners. It is straightforward. Pads and Rotors are cheap, however Toyota seems to be very proud of their rotors for some cars (high $). I usually use dealership pads, and replace the rotors with high grade Centric every time. This is because by the time I take the original rotors off the car, jump in my other car to have them turned, then drive back to the shop at least 2 hours later, then put them back on, it's not worth it to me. I get all the parts before I start, and finish the job. If you turn your rotors, you have less material for heat dissipation, and therefore will warp sooner.
Pads are ~$60
Rotors are about $75 each.
The most important thing to do is to clean the hardware very good if you reuse it, the pins especially. If the pins are not shiny when you are done, the pads won't move as they should, and you will end up with warped rotors. You can get the hardware kit at the dealer I believe.
Pads are ~$60
Rotors are about $75 each.
The most important thing to do is to clean the hardware very good if you reuse it, the pins especially. If the pins are not shiny when you are done, the pads won't move as they should, and you will end up with warped rotors. You can get the hardware kit at the dealer I believe.
You should manually select a lower gear. The automatic downshifting is nice, but it doesn't always downshift enough. I don't think I've ever seen it go down more than one gear. The transmission is smart so it won't let you accidentally go too low and over-rev the engine. Shift as low as you need, even if it's 2 or 1.
Ron4RNevada
New member
Shift the tranny into manual mode and downshift. You will never have to "ride" the brakes downhill again.
Jetboy
New member
Steel that is not properly heat treated will warp - fail to return to its original shape - when overheated. Cheap rotors tend to warp easily because they are low quality steel and improperly heat treated. If you buy cheap rotors, you'll be buying more rotors again soon.
It seems unlikely to me that overtorqing the lug nuts on modern brake setups will cause any change at all to your rotors. Unless you believe that either the wheel mounting surface is not machined flat and torquing the lug nuts too tight will cause the top of the rotor hat to bend to conform to the wheel mounting surface or cause the hub to deflect somewhow, I do not understand how this could physically cause rotor warp. There are very good reasons to torque your wheels properly, but this isn't one of them that I'm aware of.
The brakes on the 5th gen 4runners are huge by traditional standards. They are larger than most 1/2 ton and many 1 ton trucks sold in the last 20 years. If you are warping factory rotors, it's probably time for something like race type brakes.
It seems unlikely to me that overtorqing the lug nuts on modern brake setups will cause any change at all to your rotors. Unless you believe that either the wheel mounting surface is not machined flat and torquing the lug nuts too tight will cause the top of the rotor hat to bend to conform to the wheel mounting surface or cause the hub to deflect somewhow, I do not understand how this could physically cause rotor warp. There are very good reasons to torque your wheels properly, but this isn't one of them that I'm aware of.
The brakes on the 5th gen 4runners are huge by traditional standards. They are larger than most 1/2 ton and many 1 ton trucks sold in the last 20 years. If you are warping factory rotors, it's probably time for something like race type brakes.
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stir_fry_boy
New member
Agree. I can't make sense of over torquing lug nuts = warped / damaged rotors.
BlackWorksInc
New member
I do want to point out one critical thing here, disc brake systems do NOT use steel; all non-Ceramic Disc Brake Rotors are Cast Iron. The thermal conductivity is far better than steel and the strength of cast iron is plenty for disc brake applications; I have not seen steel brake rotors for an OEM automotive application available.
StopTech actually has a fairly good explanation of warped rotors:
-Warped- Brake Disc and Other Myths
The main take away here is that "warped rotors" are a misnomer perpetuated in the industry. The reality is that the "warping" is actually vitrified pad material causing the rotor to exceed runout specifications combined with a vitrified pad surface.
BrianSD_42
New member
wow ... this thread is back to life again ...
It's simple, take it someone honest but affordable and have them resurface the rotors which is just grinding off the composits which have bonded to the metal and insist that they use OEM Toyota pads. Better yet buy the OEM parts online at a much better price and bring them with you.
Done. That is all.
It's simple, take it someone honest but affordable and have them resurface the rotors which is just grinding off the composits which have bonded to the metal and insist that they use OEM Toyota pads. Better yet buy the OEM parts online at a much better price and bring them with you.
Done. That is all.
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