Ok, I’m taking this in a different direction so I started a new thread. Thanks to everyone for your help and ideas so far, I sincerely appreciate it. Here’s the Reader’s Digest version:

- I put all new rotors, pads and flushed the brake fluid about a week ago. Used Wearever rotors and Wearever Ceramic pads from Advance Auto parts. I bed the pads in correctly and had no problems. Ran well and stopped fine.

- A few days later, when I had the window down I noticed a slight rhythmic scraping when moving forward coming from the rear driver’s side wheel. More importantly when I would back up there was a loud, deep metallic “clunk” from the same rear driver’s wheel and I could hear it almost feel it binding up and releasing. To be clear it’s not driveline clunk from putting it in Reverse, it doesn’t start clunking until I actually start backing up. I keep the driveline pretty well lubed.

- Put the 4Runner up on a life and pulled the left, rear wheel and caliper. Ran it in reverse on the lift and didn’t notice any binding but did see the run-out on the “new” rotor was way out. Replaced the rotor under warranty and the scraping going forward was gone (it was the rotor scraping against the caliper bracket). Put the caliper & wheel back on and the loud, deep metallic “clunk” from the same rear driver’s wheel was still there when in reverse.

- I’m starting to think it’s nothing to do with the brakes on that wheel because I changed out the rotor, have absolutely no problems going forward and don’t see any scrapes, scratches or wear spots where something could be in contact with the moving rotor/wheel. I never touched the parking brake when doing the brake job and only backed it off a bit when I was experiencing this clunking problem.

- QUESTION: I’m starting to think it’s something in the driveline. Could something be screwed up in the driveline and masking itself as something else at the wheel? Maybe I beat the rotor too hard when removing it for the brake job? If I have something wrong in the diff or a bad u-joint wouldn’t I hear that going forward as well as reverse?


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Just throwing this out there, I am no expert when it comes to working on vehicles. But, I had a 1986 Ford (I know, completely different vehicle) that had similar symptoms right before the rear end went out on it. Not saying that is it, just giving you a possibility.

 

Thanks for the info. Yea, that's kinda what I'm afraid of. And the 5yr/60k mile powertrain warranty just expired! (I'm at 61.5k miles). What's odd is it's smooth as silk going forward, just clunks or binds in reverse.

 

Thats what my Ford did, and if I locked it in 4x4 it would bind also. It did get worse and start binding in forward gears before it went out.

 

Exactly what model rig u got? How may miles? My 1st thought would be wheel bearing...

 

'08 SR5, 4.0L with 61k miles on it.

 

Oh yeah, the rear end shouldn't be going out that quick unless you've seriously abused it, shoot for a wheel bearing.

 

Yea, it's not beat on...I have a YJ for that! Would a wheel bearing be worse in one direction than the other?

 

We're going beyond my knowledge level as far as your truck issues... but you're brave admitting to owning a J**p, as a recovering Jeeper myself, I respect that lol

 

LOL! I’ve always owned a CJ, YJ or TJ in one form or another and keep my 4Runner as my DD!

I’m starting to think it’s the parking brake again. When I back up the metallic clunk seems to come from the top of the rotor at the same spot on every wheel rotation. I popped the wheel & rotor off, start it up and the hubs turns perfectly, forward and reverse. What I’m thinking is since the rotor has a slight play or slop where the lugs poke through the rotor when I back up the rotor may shift ever so slightly where it comes through the lug holes and perhaps because the inside of the rotors, not being 100% concentric, the top of the parking brake shoes are hitting the inside of the rotor? The parking brake assy looks perfect on the backing plate but I’ll look at it. If I could get the parking brake hardware back on the backing place without swearing I’d rip it all off and reassemble the wheel and see what happens.