Thought I needed to replace brakes

Thought I needed to replace my brakes since I was at 83K and felt a slight clunk sound when barely pressing on the brake pedal. So go to the auto parts and get pads for the front and rear. Come home and remove both front wheels, look at the pads and they have plenty of meat left. Clean the calipers with brake cleaner and then paint them with high temp BBQ paint. Reinstall wheels and on to the back wheels. Remove wheels and drums, also plenty of meat on rear shoes as well. Cleaned drums with brake cleaner and painted them also. Reinstalled everything and took it for a drive. No more clunk sound at all. Got to thinking about it and this all started when I took the truck to Discount Tire for tire rotation and balance about two weeks ago. Noticed that when I broke the lug nuts loose with the small lug wrench that came with the truck, that they came loose very easy. Starting to wonder if Discount Tire did not torque my lug nuts to the right spec. You guys have any other ideas what might be causing the clunk sound?

 

One thing I would check is your wheel weights.

I just had this happen too, where I would back out of a parking spot and turn my front wheels and it would make a clunking sound. Then took it into the dealer for a routine oil change (warranty work) and watched the guy driving my truck out of the lift spot to pull it outside get out and pick up tiny pieces of the wheel weights.

Took it to Discount and they put new weights on there. Supposedly they had stacked weights on the inside of the wheel and it was hitting the caliper.

 

Happyjack87 the clunk sound is no longer there. I did look at the wheel weights when I had the wheels off and everything looks good.

 

I never assume any tire shop properly sets the torque, typically by going way over the specification. If you don't have one, get yourself a 1/2" drive torque wrench and a 21mm deep socket. 85 ft/lbs is the spec for the 6 lug.

 

I had the steer tires rebalanced last week at a local shop . When I asked , they used an honest torque wrench and set the torque on the lugs per my specs - was absolutely floored . Checked it when I got home , dead on correct .
THAT is how you earn business ...
Sarge

 

This is way out in left field but here goes. I am new to Tacoma but I had the same problem with F150 and the drive shaft is very similar. There is no provision to lubricate the slip spline without removing the shaft and the boot. As the miles add up the slip spline will bind and cause a thunk clunk when stopping or starting out. Solution is grease the spline. In my case I chose to drill and tap a hole in the outer sleeve of the spline at a point beyond where the inner spline travels and install a zerk fitting. I would just give it a couple of pumps of grease every 20k or so problem solved. Disclaimer do so at your own risk .

 

This is way out in left field but here goes. I am new to Tacoma but I had the same problem with F150 and the drive shaft is very similar. There is no provision to lubricate the slip spline without removing the shaft and the boot. As the miles add up the slip spline will bind and cause a thunk clunk when stopping or starting out. Solution is grease the spline. In my case I chose to drill and tap a hole in the outer sleeve of the spline at a point beyond where the inner spline travels and install a zerk fitting. I would just give it a couple of pumps of grease every 20k or so problem solved. Disclaimer do so at your own risk .

 

That is what I did and no more clunk sound.