I noticed a clank noise when I pressed on the brake.

This happened 3 times already. twice on Saturday and once yesterday. Its not happening all the time. Today I was driving and listening carefully each time I braked. but I didn't seem to hear anything.
At first I thought I drove over some metal on the road. and the other time I thought a piece of metal was hanging from the bottom of the truck. has anyone experience this?

 

Floating pads..... Wouldn't worry.

Toyota fix is grease iirc

 

It's just the anchor hitting the road

 

Try adjusting the rear brakes.

 

Most likely this^ As the pads wear, and you stop the truck, to reverse direction and apply brakes, the pads will shift in space and make an audible noise. I changed my pads out at 55K miles, (had 4mm) left on pads, and the noise is gone.

 

Yep I had the same noise around 30k miles IIRC. It's becoming more frequent, but I was told by the dealer it's just the brakes adjusting.

It's a really loud clank and I've never heard of such a thing prior to my tacoma.

 

I have the same problem, but I don't know if these are actually two separate problems or related issues. Here's my shot at diagnosis.

1. (backing out from my garage, driving below 5mph) When I'm shifting from reverse to forward gear while having my foot lightly on the brakes, it makes that clunking noise. So I know it's just from the brakes shifting directions, cause if I go from reverse to forward , and let go of the brakes immediately, no clunking sound is heard.

2. (driving 40 mph to a complete stop) This also happens when I drive and come to a complete stop. In this case a thumping noise is heard 1 to 3 seconds after I already stopped. Confused by this, cause the pads are not shifting directions cause the rotors are only moving forward.

Just had a thought, maybe when I come to a complete stop, the nose of the truck dips down , and comes back up, causing the whole truck to move backwards slightly ,making the rotors and pads move the opposite direction?

Anyways I've had this problem for about four months after I bought the truck, it bugs me sometimes.

 

1= floating pads

2= axle wrap

 

Same thing for me. As the pads wore down, the noise started. Once I replaced, the noise went away. It doesn't harm anything, just annoying.

 

all the things you guys are talking here is exactly what I am hearing. I have about 45k on the truck and never changed the pads. I guess its time. should I change both pads. normally the front pads wear out faster than the rear.

 

front pads and rotors...............yes

rear SHOES, no

 

any recommendations anyone for a pads and rotors?

 

Are u hard on em?

If so, I like ebc stage 5

If not....... Brembo blanks and hawks are nice

 

The noise is not indicative of a problem. If you don't mind it, you can probably easily get 15K more miles from your pads...

Here is a pic of my old pad @ 55K miles with 4mm of meat left on it. It looks like shit but it's actually still good. You can safely wear them down to 2 mm. They have a wear indicator and will start to squeal when you wear them down. The new pad on the left is brand new and measures out to 10mm if I remember right. When I swapped in new pads I measured the rotor face and I think it was 21mm and therefore still good, and surface inspected good as well. So for me it was a simple pad swap. These are the pads I have. They work great!

 

If you look at the above pad on the right you can see the area on the backing plate where it's starting to polish up. This is where the clicking comes from as the pad shifts up and down and contacts the brake caliper housing. If you grease this area it'll silence the noise at least for a while. I currently have 127,000 miles on the original pads and I greased mine about 19,000 miles ago, and reshaped the spring in between the pads and its been silent so far.

 

Check your LCA bolts. One of mine was not torqued down enough and I got an awful clunk every time I hit the brakes.

The pads shifting is higher pitched on mine, more like a click--much less annoying.

 

whats the LCA bolts?

 

Lower control arm bolts. #36 is the front the back one is not displayed in this diagram but its there.

 

Here you go

 

thank you sir. I will check it out this weekend.