rigtec
New member
Hey team...
I was heading southbound on I-95 (NJ Turnpike) last week doing about 80 to 85 mph on average. At some point traffic was starting to cluster so I had my wit about me; just in case anything stupid takes place! The traffic was starting to slow down some so I began to put some distance between myself and the cars in front of me. But as I was beginning to touch the brake pedal I started to notice just the slightest shimmy about the steering wheel. I'd never noticed that before but today it had my undivided attention!
Before too long I had arrived at my 50 mile destination (Middlesex County NJ) and so I knew on my trip back home, that I would attempt to recreate the same conditions that revealed that vague, nebulous tremor that I had observed on my way going southbound. So now going back home I increased my speed from 65 to 70. Then from 70 to 80; touching the brake pedal ever so gently every now and again. By the time I got back to Bergen County (my home) I was starting to notice that mysterious, intermittent shaking in the steering wheel again, and this time there was no doubt that something wasn't right!
I scheduled an appointment with a friend of mine, a mechanic who works at the Good*Year service center near my house, who had worked there when I did some 34 years ago! When I made the appointment over the phone I asked the store mgr to turn the rotors and to rotate the tires because it would be about 4,500 miles (a bit early but I wouldn't have the time to go back just for that). I happened to ask him for the price of the resurfacing of the rotors... to which he replied: "That'll be $80 dollars sir!" My next question: "Is that for all four or just the two fronts?" But his next comment was the one that floored me! He said: "That's $80 dollars each!"; with somewhat 'condescending' tone in his voice... as if he had just informed someone that their team had just lost the Super bowl to his team!
So I told him that I could get brand new rotors for half that online... and continued to say: "Just do the rotation!" When I went in I asked my friend if he could he could do anything about the outrageous cost of a simple resurface, but he said that the prices were generated at Akron Ohio via their networked computer system; which I knew was true because they were doing it that way back in 1982 when I worked there! So I said "Okay, Just grease anything that can be greased because the truck sits in the driveway a lot and doesn't get used that much; that's why a 2012 4Runner only has 13,500 miles on it and sometimes it likes to creak when I first pull out of the parking lot"... this truck is a second vehicle as I also drive an A/C service truck!
So I went the customer lounge area to have another coffee and spend a little time with my wife; she's a High school teacher and this was the very first day of the summer for her which we had planned to celebrate! After a short time Chet (my friend) came to me and said "Greg... you need front brakes!" After I got up off the floor, I inquired: "Hows that possible, this truck's only got 13.5 on the clock???...I'd like to see this for myself!" And we walked out into the shop and I looked at it. It turned that he was right (I felt like a pregnant victum with baby carriage in tow!) As I studied the situation more closely, it was crystal clear!
Because of the lack of use, the floating caliper and carriage pin hardware had rusted just enough that the brake pads weren't retracting and so the brake pads were always squeezing the rotors; which explains just why the rotors were warping, causing the shimmy that I was feeling in the steering wheel at higher speeds! I snapped a couple of shots of the brake pads just to show how thin these pads (both sides-front only) had become... enjoy the show lol!:
The purpose of this (humiliating) thread is you inform, to bring awareness, and to prevent other members from making this mistake. I should've been lubricating the hardware which would have prevented this unexpected expense. So perhaps some of you may travel for a living and so, your 4Runner is spending it's time just sitting in your driveway waiting for you to come home and take it for long drives. If you're not driving it on a regular schedule, don't forget to do the maintenance on the brake hardware! One more thing that took place; as if I needed something else to deal with on that day!
The tire guy was assigned to the task of removing my wheels; which he did. But when my truck was all done, I looked at the hub covers and realized that the tire guy was unaware that he needed to remove the hub covers BEFORE hitting those lugnuts with the impact gun! As a result the impact socket removed the paint from the plastic covers near the lugnuts. I mentioned it to my friend just so he might inform "Said tire guy" of the proper procedure! I failed to snap photos of the damaged hub covers; guess I was so disturbed at the sight of the only scratches on the mall crawler that i didn't want any memory of it.
I showed my wife the messed up caps and she said... oh honey, you can hardly see that at all! And she was right, but that's all I could see as if the front end had been torn off of the truck cuz I had just painted the small long horn Toyota emblems bronze to match the Limited underline accent last week:
My wife understood how much my prized 4Runner means to me and most of you do too! So when I got home (just so this wouldn't bug me all night long) I remembered that I repaired the center console trim panel about two years ago. I had a can of Dupli-color "Met Gunmetal" silver in the cabinet. So I removed the caps and the bronze emblems from the caps and repainted the caps. They were going to be a little darker; which I was concerned about, but I could always repaint them if I didn't like the color and it only takes about 30 to 45 minutes to do all four of them so here's what they looked like when I was done:
BEFORE
AFTER
I actually liked it better than the original silver with the gold/bronze emblems and matching Limited underlining accents, so the kid (tire-guy) actually did me a favor with his negligent, uninformed workmanship
imp: So whenever you go to a non dealership shop for wheel service be sure to tell the tire guy to remove the hub covers before he uses the impact on he wheels!
:usa2: Best to you!:usa2:
I was heading southbound on I-95 (NJ Turnpike) last week doing about 80 to 85 mph on average. At some point traffic was starting to cluster so I had my wit about me; just in case anything stupid takes place! The traffic was starting to slow down some so I began to put some distance between myself and the cars in front of me. But as I was beginning to touch the brake pedal I started to notice just the slightest shimmy about the steering wheel. I'd never noticed that before but today it had my undivided attention!
Before too long I had arrived at my 50 mile destination (Middlesex County NJ) and so I knew on my trip back home, that I would attempt to recreate the same conditions that revealed that vague, nebulous tremor that I had observed on my way going southbound. So now going back home I increased my speed from 65 to 70. Then from 70 to 80; touching the brake pedal ever so gently every now and again. By the time I got back to Bergen County (my home) I was starting to notice that mysterious, intermittent shaking in the steering wheel again, and this time there was no doubt that something wasn't right!
I scheduled an appointment with a friend of mine, a mechanic who works at the Good*Year service center near my house, who had worked there when I did some 34 years ago! When I made the appointment over the phone I asked the store mgr to turn the rotors and to rotate the tires because it would be about 4,500 miles (a bit early but I wouldn't have the time to go back just for that). I happened to ask him for the price of the resurfacing of the rotors... to which he replied: "That'll be $80 dollars sir!" My next question: "Is that for all four or just the two fronts?" But his next comment was the one that floored me! He said: "That's $80 dollars each!"; with somewhat 'condescending' tone in his voice... as if he had just informed someone that their team had just lost the Super bowl to his team!
So I told him that I could get brand new rotors for half that online... and continued to say: "Just do the rotation!" When I went in I asked my friend if he could he could do anything about the outrageous cost of a simple resurface, but he said that the prices were generated at Akron Ohio via their networked computer system; which I knew was true because they were doing it that way back in 1982 when I worked there! So I said "Okay, Just grease anything that can be greased because the truck sits in the driveway a lot and doesn't get used that much; that's why a 2012 4Runner only has 13,500 miles on it and sometimes it likes to creak when I first pull out of the parking lot"... this truck is a second vehicle as I also drive an A/C service truck!
So I went the customer lounge area to have another coffee and spend a little time with my wife; she's a High school teacher and this was the very first day of the summer for her which we had planned to celebrate! After a short time Chet (my friend) came to me and said "Greg... you need front brakes!" After I got up off the floor, I inquired: "Hows that possible, this truck's only got 13.5 on the clock???...I'd like to see this for myself!" And we walked out into the shop and I looked at it. It turned that he was right (I felt like a pregnant victum with baby carriage in tow!) As I studied the situation more closely, it was crystal clear!
Because of the lack of use, the floating caliper and carriage pin hardware had rusted just enough that the brake pads weren't retracting and so the brake pads were always squeezing the rotors; which explains just why the rotors were warping, causing the shimmy that I was feeling in the steering wheel at higher speeds! I snapped a couple of shots of the brake pads just to show how thin these pads (both sides-front only) had become... enjoy the show lol!:
The purpose of this (humiliating) thread is you inform, to bring awareness, and to prevent other members from making this mistake. I should've been lubricating the hardware which would have prevented this unexpected expense. So perhaps some of you may travel for a living and so, your 4Runner is spending it's time just sitting in your driveway waiting for you to come home and take it for long drives. If you're not driving it on a regular schedule, don't forget to do the maintenance on the brake hardware! One more thing that took place; as if I needed something else to deal with on that day!
The tire guy was assigned to the task of removing my wheels; which he did. But when my truck was all done, I looked at the hub covers and realized that the tire guy was unaware that he needed to remove the hub covers BEFORE hitting those lugnuts with the impact gun! As a result the impact socket removed the paint from the plastic covers near the lugnuts. I mentioned it to my friend just so he might inform "Said tire guy" of the proper procedure! I failed to snap photos of the damaged hub covers; guess I was so disturbed at the sight of the only scratches on the mall crawler that i didn't want any memory of it.
I showed my wife the messed up caps and she said... oh honey, you can hardly see that at all! And she was right, but that's all I could see as if the front end had been torn off of the truck cuz I had just painted the small long horn Toyota emblems bronze to match the Limited underline accent last week:
My wife understood how much my prized 4Runner means to me and most of you do too! So when I got home (just so this wouldn't bug me all night long) I remembered that I repaired the center console trim panel about two years ago. I had a can of Dupli-color "Met Gunmetal" silver in the cabinet. So I removed the caps and the bronze emblems from the caps and repainted the caps. They were going to be a little darker; which I was concerned about, but I could always repaint them if I didn't like the color and it only takes about 30 to 45 minutes to do all four of them so here's what they looked like when I was done:
BEFORE
AFTER
I actually liked it better than the original silver with the gold/bronze emblems and matching Limited underlining accents, so the kid (tire-guy) actually did me a favor with his negligent, uninformed workmanship
imp: So whenever you go to a non dealership shop for wheel service be sure to tell the tire guy to remove the hub covers before he uses the impact on he wheels!:usa2: Best to you!:usa2:
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