Brakes Locking Up When Backing Down Steep Slope

Hello,

1st time poster here! I own a 2014 Tacoma 4WD with the PreRunner package and have experienced zero issues since driving it off the dealer's lot.

I just purchased a home with a 36' concrete driveway that is at roughly a 40 degree slope. As one might imagine, getting the Tacoma up the driveway is quite fun. The problem is that when backing down the driveway the brakes lock up then release causing my tires to squeal and the brakes to make an awful mechanical noise.

Since the truck has 95,000 miles on it with original brakes I figured there were in need of replacement. I took it to my local Toyota dealer and had them replace the front and back brakes and flush/replace the brake fluid. Guess what? The problem is still present when backing down my driveway.

Does anyone have a recommendation as to what I should do next? And no, I'm not selling the new house.

 

Welcome.

As I understand it, the prerunner has the 4wd stance, but it's not actually 4wd...

As for the brakes: I did my factory brakes over at 100k. The rears still had lots of life left on them, so I just cleaned and adjusted those.

You should at least pull the drums off and have a looksee.

For that, hehehe, you need; choose your penetrant poison, 2- 8x1.25mm bolts with an appropriate wrench, a pick, and a BFH.

The drum has 2 threaded holes in them. Find and clean them out. I used a pick to scrape everything I could out the threads and PB blaster to rinse.

With the bolts, snug each down alternately to push the drum off of the hub.

Apply both the BFH to the drum, and the penetrant liberally to the hub, and around the studs. Be careful not to drive a stud into the brakes. Yes, that is the, "Voice of experience." lol

Be patient, and it'll pop off.

Good luck

 

I put the Tacoma in 4L (4WD Low) backed down the 40 degree driveway and it performed perfectly...no ABS jerking or weird screeching sounds. A bit of a hassle to do daily but whatever.

Thanks for the advice though, it is definitely appreciated.

 

If you pull the drums. Back the adjusters off.
Other wise you risk damaging the shoe material when removing the drum.
The drum will get a lip worn into it with age/wear. The shoe can catch on this lip and tear the shoe up.

 

In addition to this, if you have an angle grinder with a flap wheel, grind the lip off the inside edge. This will make future removal a breeze. Make sure you put the drums back on the side they came off. I accidentally swapped mine a few months back and my truck smelled hot when I got home from work. It went on a couple of nights before I figured it out. I swapped them back which was easy because I'd removed the 'lip' and all was well again. I had done exactly the same thing, cleaned everything, regreased the contact points, painted the drums and reinstalled. I'm at 114,000 miles and my rears still have pretty good meat left on them.

 

It can’t be both a prerunner and 4WD. Unrelated to your braking issue but just wanted to clarify.

 

Makes sense. Front tires have better brakes and will lock up easier, weight of the truck drags them down your steep driveway and the rear drums dont work well in revese.

When switching into 4wd (4hi or 4lo) you link the front and rear axles, so by nature your front brakes will help out the rears. All of what you describe in your OP is normal operation.