Shimmy when braking that went away....

2017 TRD OR with bilstein 5100's up front on #3 setting, pretty new tires, 147k miles.

Had a shimmy show up a couple days ago while braking heading down a long hill. Felt like warped rotors. Fine I thought, probably getting time for new brakes (originals haven't been touched).

Shimmy went away and hasn't been back since, at least another 100 miles.

Any ideas what I might be up against?

 

Common. There is a tsb for deceleration vibration while braking under 30 mph.

 

Mine does this too when the brakes get hot. Goes away after they cool down. I’m assuming they’ll come back when they heat up again. Probably your rear drums, that’s what gives me the shimmies, the rear.

 

Agree with the others. I'll experience it when I get heated brakes in certain scenarios. A good example that comes to mind for me is when I have to do repetitive braking every couple hundred yards between stop lights in the city and I've been getting up to speed between each one.

 

Sounds like drivetrain vibrations. I had the same deceleration braking issues at 20-30 mph with 6112/5160 at 4/3 setting, 1" block lift in the rear. Almost completely eliminated it with a 1° pinion shim. Also have ECGS bushing upgrade.

 

Had same problem changed front rotors solved the problem .

 

Same when i had my gen1 tundra.

 

Had this shimmy problem with several Toyota trucks over the years--it comes & goes. Our 2006 Tacoma was the worst. Interestingly, our 2018 Lexus RX350 also shimmies when the brakes get hot, like coming down the high mountain passes on I-70 on the way to Denver.

 

What rotors did you go with (OEM or what brand)? It is about time for me to do brakes and I am trying to get an idea of what rotors TW members like. Thanks

 

I recently changed my warped rotors with Powerstop ones and I like them. I left the OEM pads on.

 

I know if i ever run into an issue with the stock brake rotors, it'll be EBC again. They make some outstanding slotted and drilled rotors.

 

I have a shimmy right around 55mph when braking. Seems fine when going faster or slower. It will actually disappear when speed drops below 50. I originally thought rotors, but this just started and seems rotors would produce a shimmy at any speed. Any ideas?

 

the brakes just need to bed-in sometimes.

 

Quite often it’s the when installation. If not seated evenly and torqued properly, this will happen.