Hello all, I have a problem that recently came about. I've had warped rotors for awhile now, but its gotten worse. Upon cold start up and driving I feel a vibration that is noticeable around 25 and gets worse to about unbearable at 50, worse when I brake. If I look out my window the tire has a noticeable wobble (around 55) as I drive it gets less and less and less noticeable.

I though it was the brakes, I noticed after a short drive is i spray some water on the rotor cover it streams and evaporates, which leads me to believe I have a frozen caliper.

My question is can a warped rotor and frozen caliper cause the car to shake that much? Or is there something else that im not realizing?

 

Wheel out of balance. Alignment off.

 

Front or rear?

Could be a ball joint or tie rod if it's a front wheel or bad wheel bearing - need to get it figured out before driving any more! Depending on what it is, you could lose the wheel off the truck!

 

Hey guys I am having this same problum, and some one said to check the wheel bearings to jack the truck up and grab top and bottom and see if there is any play and that will tell you if the bearings are bad. When I drive I feel and here a bad steady viberation like if I had mud tires on (but I don't), and the truck is mostly smooth up tel I get to 50 miles per hour and then it's bad. I have only had the 4runner for two months, so I don't know the past on it.

My question is, I jacked it up and no play so does that mean its not the bearings or can they be bad and have no play?

 

Oh yea and I have to fix the truck this weekend so if it's the bearings then I have to go order them now from napa so they will be here by tomorrow. Thanks guys.

 

Bump. Come on guys I'm short on time.

 

See post #2

 

I put the tires on when I got this truck. So I know it's not the wheels or tires. And I had them rebalanced too. So can the bearings be bad without there beening play in the wheel? And I really don't have any wobble in the steering.

 

If it's only at one speed like 50 mph it's a wheel out of balance.

Slung a wheel weight, hit a curb, low tire pressure, etc all numbers of reasons

Wouldn't start doing wheel bearings on a guess and with no play.

 

No it starts at 50 and does it from 50 and up. And it's not like a wabble it's a viberation were my spare lug nuts in my glove box rattle, and my rear view mirror shakes. And after I bought this truck I went thru three sets of tires and wheel because of differnt looks and they all did the same viberation. And I put new brakes on it when I got it. And I have tried three times to start my own thread and was told to reserch it, it they were deleted.

 

Sorry, but you're going to have to jack up the wheels again. This time, spin them by hand, and see if you can get 1 1/2 turns out of the wheel, from the time you let go of it. If they don't spin easily by hand, you either have a seized caliper, misadjusted brakes, or bad bearings.

Sometimes you just can't rush vehicle repairs. Seems they have a mind of their own, and like to work on their schedule. Also, this isn't your thread, but that's ok.

 

I just went out and jack it and it only spun half a turn.

 

Back to 24runna's problem: I would look for a separated tire. This will be very noticeable by visual inspection, as it will have a big bulge on the tire tread, like an orange was trying to push out of the tire.

You can easily check to see if the brake caliper is seized by jacking up that wheel, and see if it will spin by hand. It should spin easily, and you should be able to get a turn to a turn and a half of freewheeling.

I doubt it is seized though. The warped rotor is going to force the pads to come in contact repeatedly while driving. My guess is this is the cause for them to be excessively hot. Brakes of course will get hot with normal use, but not from a short drive with minimal braking.

Check the tire for separation and let us know what you find.

 

jerbou, did it feel like it had quite a bit of resistance when spinning it? Also, when you apply the brakes, do you feel any pulsing in the pedal? That would indicate warped rotors.

Even though the tires are only 2 months old, I would still check them for separation. It's unlikely, but possible. Were the tires new or used? And how recently were they rebalanced?

 

Well I check and there is some resistance when I rotate the tire and it's not the brakes and I don't feel any pulse thru the pedal. And the tires are not the problum because I have put three sets of tires on this truck and no change in the ride.

 

Your ride is 4WD isn't it? Have you checked the CV joints? Have you looked at the driveshaft? I would make sure it isn't warped or anything.

 

Yea it's 4wd and is cv's look alright but I did find that the idler arm is shot. So that is at least part of the problum.

 

Yeah, it will likely need to be replaced or rebuilt, but that won't cause anything to vibrate, it just makes your steering loose. Although, now that I think about it, if your alignment was off, with a worn out idler arm + other worn steering linkages, that might cause it to vibrate.

Driveshaft all straight?

 

So you think the viberation is from the bearnings?

 

24Runna, sounds like a tire out of balance. Most tire shops will check the balance without charging you, so it doesn't hurt to check it out.

Jerbou, could be a u-joint going out.