Alright, for the last 2 months or so I have had a brake problem, and its gotten worse in the last few weeks (I know I should have gotten it taken care of earlier, but I didn't know where my wheel key was, and all the shops said they would probably damage my wheels without it).

When I first start driving everything is fine. It brakes strong and true. As I drive around town though, when I come to a stop from 35mph or more the steering wheel shakes left to right pretty badly, and sometimes it will pull to the right. The other odd thing is when slowing down usually from those speeds I will get a very loud screech/squeak from my front brakes, but only between about 5mph to 0mph.

I just got back from Big O, the people who originally did the brakes (had them serviced in october) and they said they found nothing. Had them rotate the tires but it still does the same thing. (heck I was barely out of their parking lot before it started to squeak again).

I know my alignment is slightly off, but it is very miniscule, it pulls to the right, but I wouldn't think alignment would make the steering wheel shake. Also, unless all 4 of my tires are unbalanced, I wouldn't imagine an improperly balanced wheel is to blame (also considering I was driving 70mph the other day with no vibrations).

So what can I check myself? They offered to turn the rotors again... (took them multiple tries and 5 hours last time), but I have work and other things to take care of and no ride back from the shop, so that can't happen till friday. Is there anything I can check myself? Should I get that alignment and see if it cures the problem? Can a bad slave cylinder cause any of these things? Thank you as always!

 

Sounds like rotors to me. I think what happens is when they are cold they are strait, as when they turn them. After they get hot the metal slightly warps causing the problems. I don't know if this is the correct assumption, but it sounds good. I have had the same problem before and the only thing that fixed the problem was new rotors.

 

Your front wheel bearings might be loose.

 

Mine just squeal/squeak at the very end of braking, maybe between 10-0mph...I'm gettin an oil change done today so I might have them look at the brakes and see if they can figure out if thats just the regular old annoying brake squeak or some sort of wear indicator.

Good luck in figurin out your problem man!

Fink

 

That could be the case. Like I said, they had to turn them multiple times the first time around so I wouldn't be surprised if they screwed something up or shortened the life significantly. They might have been warped ever since, causing my first problem with the brakes (back in november, grinding noise/felt through the pedal), they blamed it on loose hardware, but it might've had something to do with the rotors, and because it was never fixed, it's gotten worse.

Marc, I believe they repacked the bearings when they did the brakes, so I would imagine they would have secured it properly... Then again... I will probably see if they will replace the rotors, or do them myself, if it doesn't solve the problem its atleast some good maintenance.

 

I've experienced the same symptoms and it ended up be calipers.

 

Sounds to me like warped front rotors. Getting warped rotors turned may not do any good, just get some rew ones. I had the same problem, and it fixed it.

 

New Rotors....the way to go. Had the same thing happen on my "T". The new rotors fixed it....just a month or so after having the original rotors turned for their first time and getting new pads. Also...I went back to OEM pads as the aftermarkets the local shop put on might have added to the problem by building a higher temperature during breaking than the OEMs...so I was told.

 

If your rotors have been turned multiple times, god only knows what kind of shape (physically) they are in.

Jack the truck up and wiggle the wheels looking for suspension play. Worn bushings, ball joints, tie rods, etc can all have the vehicle shaking when the brakes are applied. Spin the tires and see if you feel odd drag and release of the brakes when they are spinning. Losen your lug nuts and retighten them by hand in the correct sequence, to the correct values.

 

If it only shakes while braking (usually @ 65 & 35 mph) it's rotor run-out.
If it shakes while not braking it could be balance,rim damage,wheel brg.loose,steering component play or ?.That's not to say you could have more than one problem.
As for turning the rotors multiple times.......i suggest you find a more competent mechanic/shop.

 

Well last night something new happened. I noticed even just driving above 45mph that the steering wheel wobbled, like my tires were off balance. So I will be taking it in to have the tires balanced in 15 minutes. Hopefully its unrelated, but while I was driving something either flew up and hit my hood or inside a fender, because I heard a loud clunk and when I looked behind me, a small, flat maybe 3 inch by 2 inch piece of light colored plastic or metal was tumbling on the road. I didn't notice anything too different there after, but I am going to drive again today and see if anything feels different. I just hope it was road debris.

 

The shaking during braking is most likely warped rotors, as others have mentioned. I would be suspect of them if they have been turned so many times. You may want to just get new ones.

The pulling to the right during braking could be stuck calipers on your left side. You didn't mention this, but did they rebuild the calipers when they did your service?

 

I'm not sure if they rebuilt the calipers or not. It was their disc brake standard service, for $135 or something. I know they changed the pads, repacked the bearings and turned the rotors.


Will a loose wheel bearing cause wobbling in the steering wheel? When I just went driving it seemed intermittent the strength of the wobble. Sometimes it would wobble really bad at 43mph, and then others I could go to 47, 48mph before it started.

I have the truck at the tire shop at the moment, and they are balancing the wheels, so I shall see what they have to say.

 

I just realized... maybe the clunk I heard was my throwing a weight, which would explain the wobbling... Why I didn't think of it sooner...

 

It would have to be a very loose bearing. Usually the symptom for a loose bearing is that the first time you hit the brakes (after not having been on the brakes for a bit) is the brake pedal goes down too far. This is because the loose bearing allows the rotor to tilt and spreads the pads in the caliper. I would suspect the shaking and pulling might be more from worn joints - check the ball joint, idler arm bushings and joint, steering arm joint, and tie rod ends. But it does sound like your rotors aren't true. Hard spots may have developed, which can explain why they were hard to true and why they didn't stay that way. Rusting slide pins causing the pads to drag can build heat fast and warp them again too. Check everything.

 

when that happened to me it was the rotors. they were warpped. cold stopping was ok but when they heated up then it would shake and sometimes pull.

 

I am going to go ahead and replace the rotors on friday. What brand should I go with? Should I have a shop do this, or do it myself? I haven't worked on brakes besides bleeding them, but I've been told brakes are relatively easy to do.

I really hope this cures the problem... Its pretty sad but the fact the truck is nickel and diming me so much has driven me to the point of now I am looking at buying a new(er) car... and its not likely to be a toyota pickup (this experience hasn't turned me from toyotas, but I have always been a car guy).

 

It seems that when a rig reaches a certain age this happens, but compared to the payment on a new one, the repair bills are cheap... After a bit you get all the worn out stuff fixed and go another long time with few bills. (unless it's a Jeep....)

 

Well, its at 100K miles, which means that I have a few more to look forward to, like a new timing chain and gaskets, and I thought there were a few others... something like bushings and things of that nature... After repairing the rust on the truck bed, my neighbor offered to buy it back from me. He won't drive it as much, so it'll take him a while to have to do these maintenance things, which is good, but as a daily driver and me about to go into college and at this point only having a $250 a month paycheck, I can't deal with problems... And when I say new car, I mean something like a 93-96, for somewhere around 5000, hopefully from a dealer with a limited warranty thing.

 

Your not going to get much of a "new" car for 5 G's.The crap we sell where i work for that much is either pretty thrashed or a hunday (?) or saturn,kia.Besides dont you need a 4 by in Colo.
A timing kit for your truck is about 100 bucks if you do it your self.