Hello every. I am new to yotatech and i have been reading constantly every day since i joined. I have a 97 4runner 2wd sr5 auto with 169xxx on it. I just recently purchased it. The other day i was driving, in a hurry. I was driving fast and of course when drivng fast you have to break hard. well about after 10 mins of navagating through back street short cuts (lots of speed bums and stop signs) i could smell my breaks and even see them smoking with i came to a complete stop. Now i understand that when drving hard you are using your breaks harshly, but i do not think i was abusing them that way, and not to mention that it was a cold rainy day. And even now that i am paying more attention to them i notice that even everyday driving will result in a break oder. everything appears to be okay, i am not sure where to go from here. Any advice would be a big help! Thanks!

 

Smoke/smell was definitely coming from brakes? Smoke from all 4 brakes??? Front(s)? Rear(s)? If rears is there any sign stuff has been leaking out of the drum (look on insides of tires for splattered oily stuff)?

 

Smoke and smell def coming from the FRONT breaks. the truck was not under load, my E break was not on. and like i said, there really was no reason for them to be getting smoking hot. even today when i got out of the truck i bent down and i could feel the extreme heat coming off the breaks and i could kinda see what looks to be metal chippings, but i dont know for sure.

 

What kind of MPG are you getting?

 

currently getting about 15 mpg

 

Not too bad. Put the front on jack stands now, turn the engine on, and press the brake pedal a few times. Then go and spin the front wheels with your hands. They should make several revolutions from a push.

 

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlHVkb27RGw[/YOUTUBE]
Here's a video of what I did, what do you guys think?

 

evidently from reading this forum it seems toyotas are unrepairable
just sell it and buy a new ford

 

Looks like really warped rotors.

Hard to tell from the pictures . I would pull the caliper up out of the way and check with a dial indicator to check run out. Which is .15mm

Another thing it could be but both sides is that the for some reason a washer got underneath the rotor when installed but both sides.

I will be curious how this plays out.

 

thanks for taking up space on my thread

 

not too sure what you are saying in the last part, but i will pull the caliper off and check....if i was going to replace them, where is a place to find good replacements?

 

Try pushing the pistons back into the calipers. All 4 in each caliper. If they all push in relatively easily, your calipers are probably OK. Now make sure the pads aren't binding. i.e. stuck on rusty guide rods or rusty caliper body like mine were. ( Chances are, if you've never flushed your brake fluid, your calipers are probably shot) Brake fluid absorbs moisture from the air and lowers the boiling point of the fluid which can cause the pads to drag. If the calipers check out ok, and there are no kinked or crushed brake lines, try flushing the brake system... hopefully you,ll be lucky. Watch the fluid level in the res. when you,re pushing the pistons into the calipers so you don't overflow it.

 

When you say 'it sounds like the brake is still engaged' that's normal. It's not bicycle rim brakes, it doesn't have to float on air. The side where it grabs the caliper, that's certainly a warped disk, but it's not that bad. Your hands pushing those disks around is about 25 watts of energy. Briskly stopping a car is over 100,000 watts of energy. In other words, that drag isn't going to matter much.

I didn't hear the engine running though. You should start it up and pump the brake pedal a few times. That will simulate real driving conditions as best as you can.

I'd drive around and confirm the brakes are indeed getting hot. An infrared thermometer is best, but just putting the back of your hand near them should be enough, if you say they are hot enough to smell.

 

I went back and put it back up on jacks and started it, pumped the breaks, and spun each wheel. passenger side rotated about 4.5 to 5 times, and the drivers side was about 2.5 to 3.5..i dont have a infared thermometer to be able to check the temp...p.s. i appreciate all the trouble shooting and ideas!

 

be sure the disk is not loose when you test it with the wheel off .
you can run a few lugnuts down to be sure

if the calipers are seizing you will see that the inboard pad has significantly more wear than the outward pad

also be sure that the pads are floating on the pins and that there are no grooves on the pins

 

you are welcome for the free bump to top

( I am jealous because I have got no help with mine )

 

I just purchased this vehicle about 3 weeks ago, and the prev owner said that her dad had the breaks done..so when checking out the pads they both look like they still have plenty of pad left and neither of them look like they are wearing faster than the other....so maybe just a rotor issue or i haven't giving it enough time to "break in"? i just have never had a vehicle do this before. i was up late reading about how Toyota rotors are not the best things ever made....but i am going to check the calipers like "Rich's Toy" explained.

 

well there ya go , bingo

if I was going to throw down a bet it would be that whoever did the brakes installed new rotors and did not clean off the shipping grease coating , some people arent aware that the disks would be rust coated if it wasnt there and it should be cleaned off before use
it takes a while to burn it off

it could explain the smoke and is probably burned off by now judging by the rust colored look in the video

also , cheap pads will sometimes stink a lot
premium ceramic metalic pads seem to burn cleaner


hard to tell which it is without having my nose there

you can wash the disks down with brake cleaner spray and/or get some high dollar pads


or drive drive it hard till it burns off,( if its the disk coating)

 

okay well over thanksgiving, btw hope you all had a good one, i checked the calipers and they checked out, for two days i really concentrated on braking hard and i couldnt seem to reproduce the same smell and smoke...which leaves me to believe, one the rotor is slightly warped, and two there was some sort of coating on the rotor as dustrider suggested...thanks again to everyone for their help!