Pulsating Brake

Sometimes when braking I get a pulsating feel under the pedal. It's worse at higher speeds but sometimes it doesn't happen at all. Should I replace the drums or would I have to replace the shoes as well? I'm not sure when the rear brakes have been changed. Currently at 60k miles.

 

Probably your front rotors, get them serviced.

 

It's not ABS or traction control engaging is it?
Strong pulse or very slight?
Does it vary by speed at all or always feel the same?

 

Sounds like it may be warped rotors

 

Sounds like rotors need to be serviced. Drums should be checked nonetheless, they only give your roughly 20% of your braking power.

 

It's a light pulsating under the pedal but more vibration in the rear. I can feel it in my seat. Varies by speed.

 

Poor front brake pad wear from excessive braking.

Change out your front brakes and rotors, seat them properly and then don’t brake so aggressively lol

 

Just get it checked out to see what could be the cause, might just need to be cleaned out and what not. After that, if it still continues then there's concern.

 

I was thinking about changing pads, rotors, and drums. But I'm not too comofortable with rear drum brakes and changing the shoes may be a challenge for me.

 

I've done a few jobs in past and can say they are not fun to do at all haha

 

More than likely you do not need to change anything except the way you use the brakes.

What you have is uneven deposits of brake material on the rotors.

https://www.zeckhausen.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=6446_6443

http://www.stoptech.com/technical-s...ions-and-procedures/stock-brake-system-bed-in

 

The rear drum brakes are not that difficult to work on. Believe me, if I can do it, you can. There are a number of little pieces and springs that are under tension and can be lost if you’re not careful. Once you get the dust cover off, take a picture of everything to assist you when reassembling everything. I also used the service manual to help me, as well as numerous threads here on TW.

Whatever you do, buy the right tools for the job:

$86 OTC 6516 Brake Tool Set - 8 Piece , Black , 11 in

OTC Rear Drum Brake Kit

If you don’t buy anything else, buy this spring plier:

$21 OTC 4590 Brake Spring Plier and Claw

OTC Brake Spring Plier & Claw

And last but not least...

A good pair of mechanic’s gloves and safety glasses. IMHO, the potential of your hands and fingers getting torn up, stabbed, mashed, amputated dissolved in acid working on drum brakes is significantly higher than working on most other aspects of your truck. I have worked on my Tacoma’s drum brakes twice; I did not use the tools listed above in the first instance and I successfully mashed and stabbed my hands. Second go around was much quicker and without pain as I used the rear drum brake kit I listed above.

 

Would the bed in process work on brakes that aren't new? I'm going to pull the wheels off and spray them down real good with brake cleaner.

 

I think drum brakes are easy even with a couple of pairs of Pliers and a screwdriver. Of course I grew up when disc brakes didn't exist yet and all four corners had drum brakes.

Why does everybody use gloves these days to work on the car/truck. I hate those damn things, they just get in my way.

 

It should. Worst case, use fine steel wool on the rotors first.

 

Also, for what it’s worth, I have significant pulsating at low speeds when coming to a stop. I only have 30k mi on my 2014, so the cause could be from rotor fouling, but should I decide to replace both pads and rotors, my current intention is to use @crashnburn80 ’s recommendation found here. I have found his reasoning to be sound and I honestly don’t think that, for the money, there is a significantly better brake setup than his, unless upgrading the entire front brake system, e.g. StopTech big brake kit.

 

You had better fortune than I did or maybe you’re just more capable. Which is fine. Lol. Regardless, I was infuriated during my first go at servicing the drum brakes.

I use gloves because they’re mandatory for field duties at work, so I’ve just gotten used to wearing them. There are times that I’ll take the work gloves off, but then I’ll wear nitrile gloves for fine work.

Good to know. Thank you!

 

Causes:

• Unevenly worn tires, typically to bad alignment or other worn parts
• "warped rotors"
• Worn tie-rods
• Worn ball joints

 

You would need to shave both the pad and the rotor in order to reseat.

You can’t clean the uneven pad material off the rotors. It basically needs to be aggressively buffed off.

 

If front & rear pads are good then it's uneven pad deposits on the rotors and/or drums (what people think are warped rotors). If that's the case then do an aggressive re-bedding of the pads/shoes & it should fix the issue.