I have a 2002 Double Cab Taco V6 auto non-abs 4x4 w/ 125k. I performed the tundra brake upgrade about 6 months ago using the S13WE calipers and stock rotors. I fully rebuilt the calipers when I first installed and bought drilled and slotted rotors recently. I've noticed that when I apply pressure to the brakes, it feels as though the rotors are warped and or are vibrating but it doesn't do this all the time and varies with the amount of brake pressure I apply. This occured with the brand new drilled and slotted rotors as well as with the stock rotors. I've checked my wheel bearings by grabbing the wheel and trying to feel for play; there was no noticeable play at all! I use stock non-ceramic brake pads up front so I don't think thats the problem either. Does anybody have any suggestions? It really sucks when you feel like you can't use your brakes because they vibrate/jerk all the time.

 

sounds like warped rotors. If they're drilled and slotted they shouldn't warp that soon unless you really put a hard load on them. What brand are the rotors?

 

They are Centric StopTech purchased from RockAuto. I should have checked them before I put them on but you wouldn't think a performance rotor would be warped out of the box. Even still, the stock rotors from the donor tundra were perfectly straight (less than 0.001" face runout and less than 0.002" difference in thickness around circumference) when I installed them and they did the exact same thing. I purchased the performance rotors thinking it would stop this madness but it hasn't. Also, I haven't even braked hard with the new performance rotors on. Just normal stopping...

 

Did you ever break the new pads into the new rotors?

 

I did a few semi-hard stops from 30-40 MPH with them right away and gave the rotor time to cool in-between.

 

So the vibration started as soon as you put the new rotors on? And you swapped back to the old rotors and the vibration continued? Or the stock rotors slowly started to do it, and swapping to new rotors made no change?

 

Yes, correct. I started out with the stock tundra rotors and from the get-go, they seemed to have a slight vibration to them but it slowly got worse as they warped over several "hard" stops (they were especially bad slowing down on off-ramps from 70 MPH). I then switched to the performance rotors hoping for a miracle but they are exhibiting the same behavior as the stock rotors. This sounds weird but under semi-hard to hard stops, the stock rotors would start to vibrate initially but as I applied more brake pressure, they would stop vibrating (excluding the short off-ramp stopping from 70 MPH to 0). I even checked the wheel hub for face runout and I couldn't even measure 0.0005".

 

these have treated me well since upgrading my 3rd Gen 4Runner to Big Tundra's: ATE PremiumOne CW28705 rotors and Akebono pads.