Well I am by no means a brake expert and they are one of my least favorite things to work on. Here's what I have going on. My brakes are great at slow speed and have plenty of pedal, but when braking hard they seem pretty weak compared to other cars I have driven. They also want to pull to the left. The pull get's worse as you slow down. For instance if I am going 5 mph and take my hand off the wheel and hit the brakes it will leave the pavement. It actually turns the steering wheel. There's no pedal pulsing or vibrating in the steering wheel. Where should I start to remedy the pulling? Turn the rotors? Replace the pads?(checked em about 4000 miles ago and they seemed fine) Flush the brake system?? All of this is timely stuff and I would love it if one of you guys could provide me a place to start. Thanks in advance
Joey

 

Anyone?

 

I've never been really impressed by the 2nd gen 4runner brakes. My parents big ole tuna boat mercedes will stop on a dime by comparison. But then again, compared to my new corolla, the 4runner seems to grab better. Who knows? I think it's normal.

I'm no expert, but for the pulling, it sounds like there is grease or oil on your rotors, the passenger side to be exact. I'd say wipe/spray down your rotors to degrease them. Might want to do the same to the pads since what ever is on your rotors is probably on the pads. Probably want to do that to both sides, just to be symetric.

Steve

 

I don't know much about diagnosing your specific problem, but there is a Brake Maint. article on 4X4wire that may help.

 

Hey Jayson thanks for that link. I am planning to put my truck on a lift this weekend on base and rotate my tires. Looks like that will be a good time to clean and inspect my brakes. I know I am having to pull my Ebrake quite a ways to get it to work good so I am thinking the rear brakes are ready for a manual adjustment.

 

Sounds to me like you have "glazed" brakes, as I like to refer to them Seems to be caused by extreme hard braking on new pads, and sometimes can be caused from hard braking on wet brakes. You can tell if they are "glazed" because they (rotors) will look extremely shiny and usually have lines in them. Rotors are supposed to look very dull grey and uniform in color.

What I would do....
Have your rotors turned, replace your pads and bleed the system. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to check the rears also.

 

Meyers, I have the exact problem. I was assuming my right front brake was weaker than the left one.

 

OK, a wild theory, but here goes:

You mentioned you have to pull the e-brake out a long way which means that your rear brakes are out of alignment. I know that when I went in for a brake check earlier on this year, they told me that my rear's were so out of alignment that they weren't even working. Therefore, my fronts were taking all of the burden upon them to stop the truck which caused them to pull and stick as you are describing. This in turn causes them to overheat, which causes the pads to crystallize, which makes the pads bore into the rotors.

I would take your truck in to a respectable brake place and get it looked at. I would avoid the dealer, others can do the job just as well for a hell of a lot cheaper.

BTW- Check and make sure the tire pressure is the same all around.

 

Hey thanks guys I was kinda thinking along the lines of replacing the pads and turning the rotors. At least now I have a direction go. The theory about the backs not working doenst seem all that farfetched. My buddy I know with a 94 had that happen. He went through 2 sets of front pads and the backs were barely worn. I think I'll order some pads here in the near future.
I checked this.. This was happening to me a while back and it seemed to be getting worse. I finally checked all my tire pressures and the left front had like 13 lbs.. It's hard to tell when the BFG's are low. Turns out I had gotten some dirt in the bead on my last wheeling trip and it was causing a real slow leak.