Shudder when braking

My 2005 that is new to me is experiencing a pretty bad shudder when braking. Doesn’t seem to matter what speed I’m braking from, it will make the shudder. You can feel it transmit through the truck and steering wheel somewhat. Seems to be the faster or harder the brakes are applied, the worse it is. Could this be anything other than bad rotors? They only have 35k on them, all from the previous owner though, and I don’t know his driving habits. They are TRD pro rotors and pads if it matters.

 

Is there such a thing as trd pro rotors/pads?

 

Sorry, Toyota rotors, TRD pads.

 

It sounds like the rotors have uneven brake material deposits which can be corrected by redoing a proper brake bedding procedure. OR the rotors have burned spots due to overheating.

Try re bedding the brake pads...

 

Get the front up on jack stands. Take the front wheels off. You might need to put a couple lug nuts back on, maybe with a stack of washers, so the rotors stay firm against the hub. Ideal would be to use a dial indicator with a magnet base. I aint got one so I used a sharpie on a wood block held just off the rotor surface. Spin the rotor, slowly move the sharpie closer until it just touches, spin 360 degrees. Now you can see how off it is. Worked for me to figure out how badly warped they were.

Age or mileage doesn’t matter. All you have to do is get them hot, then get them wet, they’ll warp on you.

 

I had a bad shudder to on my 2012 (bought new) about a year after I bought it. I Re-bedded the brake pads on the front and no more shudder.

Not saying it doesn't happen, but I've never seen a warped rotor...

 

Is it uniform on the front or can you tell if it's one side? I'd pull the rotors and check for rust or crud on the hub or back of the rotor. Even a little bit of crud can affect the geometry/runout on our rotors since they're not captive by anything other than the wheel.

 

I can’t tell if it’s biased to one side or not. I’m going to pull things apart this weekend to see what I find. Maybe the hub just needs a good cleaning.

Is re-bedding stopping as fast as possible without activating ABS from say 60 mph down to a crawl, and doing that repeatedly?

 

Rotors are cheap and so are pads. Break change on the fronts is as easy as it get too. One bolt really.

Just buy new ones. Who knows if the guy was blowing smoke up your bobo or not. If they do only have 35k miles on them and are oem, I’d really like to think they should not shudder.

 

My 2nd Gen did this. No amount of brake work helped. Finally had to replace the suspension and ball joints and the shudder was gone.

 

I'll get this coming off the interstate ramp slowing down. Ive had everything on the front end replaced so I'm going to assume its the brakes - I'm sure mine need it

I had a similar issue at cruise speed which the new rack and ties sorted out

 

First you want to isolate the problem. Could be loose suspension components like ballpoints. If you have someone to help, jack up the front and spin the wheel and have someone just barely apply the brakes while you are there at the wheel rotating it. When the pad pressure is right you'll easily be able to spin the wheel by hand and feel if it's not braking evenly, it will get harder and easier as the wheel is rotated. Dial indicator is best but that requires special tools, this is an option if you don't have one.

 

Sounds like you have original spec undersized rotor size that has been known for years to be warp prone and why there is a 100 page thread on people putting Stoptech cryo slotted and 4runner size…