Wheel shimmy followed by electrical Burning smell?

[H20skier70]

To start off, I bought my 4Runner about a month and a half ago. It is an 03 limited with the 4.7l V8 and roughly 138000 miles. I have had no real issues with the truck since I bought and I even had the dealer put a new timing belt on it included in the purchase price.

So yesterday I was driving down the road with my wife and our 8month old. Everything was fine driving 55-60, I hit a stop light and once I returned to 55-60 the wheel started to shake pretty violently. A moment later I started to smell burning. I know the smell of wires burning and that is what it smelled like. So I pulled off the side of the road and shut the truck off. The burning smell went away. I called a tow truck and had it towed to the repair shop my father-in-law works at. I looked around to try and find where it was coming from and found nothing.

I was thinking that maybe since the vehicle has electronic braking maybe that is where the problem is, since the shaking of the wheel and the smell happened at the same time? I may be wrong. I'm looking to see if anyone else has had this problem before or maybe someone could tell me what it could be.

Any help would be great!! Thanks!

 

[WillK]

Can you give a bit more info....

2WD or 4WD

Other than timing belt, any recent repairs?
When you say electric brakes, what are those?
Did you look under the car to make sure you didn't hit something,
get a wire caught around the wheel?

These cars are sometimes known to have calipers seize, but I haven't experienced it so I don't know what it acts like, but that sounds extreme to me.

 

[H20skier70]

-4WD its the V8.
-timing belt was done by the dealer at 137k (no other repairs since I have had it)
- VSC electronicly (assuming electric) controls the brakes to reduce sliding
- Did not check under the vehicle, but I am pretty sure that I didn't hit anything.
- I can look on monday when it gets put on a lift if there is a wire wrapped around the wheel.
- not sure about the cailper seize. but wont rule it out.

 

[Bossman]

+1 to what WillK suggests ... front brake caliper seized.

The V8 is plenty powerful to keep driving even when it does seize. I had a similar experience (no wheel shimmy as I was not driving at high speed), but the tell-tale burning smell was from the front brake pads being closed on the rotor. Check out this link:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/57869-frozen-calipers-how-many-others-had-problem.html

 

[H20skier70]

Well, sounds like the majority is the caliper seize. I got the same response from the guys over at TW. I'll take replacing a calipers over faulty wiring (like i initially assumed) any day! Thanks for the help guys!

 

[aronataka]

Burning smell

Hello! Did you find where burning smell come from?

 

[aronataka]

Well, sounds like the majority is the caliper seize. I got the same response from the guys over at TW. I'll take replacing a calipers over faulty wiring (like i initially assumed) any day! Thanks for the help guys!

Did you find a problem smell finally?

 

[Slowgoat]

Caliper probably.

 

[Bluesky 07]

Hello! Did you find where burning smell come from?

Perhaps you noticed but this thread is from 2013. The OP may respond but may also be long gone.

 

[AuSeeker]

Did you find a problem smell finally?

Caliper probably.

Perhaps you noticed but this thread is from 2013. The OP may respond but may also be long gone.

I agree with Bluesky that you will not get a reply from the OP, I visited the OP's profile page and he hasn't been on the forum since 06/16, so I'm pretty sure the smell is gone as well.

That being said I agree with Slowgoat and most who responded to the OP that it's most likely the calipers.