Weird 'popping' sound when braking

[matthewm]

Hi all,
Hopefully I can do this justice.

2000 4Runner
SR5
4x4

149000 miles as of this morning

When I start the truck and get going, everything seems fine. After a while on the road (20 mins or so), and everything starts to get nice and warmed up, when i hit the brakes, I hear:
'pop..pop.....pop..pop' or 'tick..tick' whichever you prefer

I hear the sound when i slow down to around 20 MPH but it could be happening when i'm going faster than that; the tire and traffic noise overpowers the suspicious sound

Anyways, as i'm slowing down, the distance between the 'pop..pop' or 'tick..tick' gets longer. So when i'm going 20 MPG and apply the brakes, the sound is like this:

'pop..pop'.'pop..pop'.'pop..pop'

As I get closer to a stop, it's more like this:

'pop..pop'........'pop..pop'........'pop..pop'

I've read that it could be warped rotors or some kind of pin in the brake pad system that may have come loose or broke.

Any advice/comments are greatly appreciated-

MM

 

[tre9er]

if it's pins, it's these (that he's pressing out here):

another pic:

Look to make sure there are two of them holding the pads in.

 

[matthewm]

Thanks tre9er for the quick reply.

Based on the pictures, I'm guessing I should do the following:
Take off front tires
Inspect pins
If pins are in bad shape, replace
If pins are in good shape, continue to next potential problem

Plz confirm

 

[sn0wrunner]

How much time in between pop sounds?

When my lower control arm bushings were bad I'd get a popping sound when I was braking. But that wasn't continuous popping as the brake pedal was applied. That's something you could look at too depending.

 

[matthewm]

All-thanks for the replies again. Turns out the mechanic over-tightened the drum. They took it apart, cleaned it, and re-tightened secured it. So far no popping.