Last Tuesday I was driving on I-17 south from Flagstaff down to Phoenix. I had my cruise control on. At some point felt that brakes started to shaking. Turned off cruise control and verify manually pressing the pedal, indeed the brakes felt like disks got warped, possibly to excessive heat perhaps. However when we got to lower elevation and the breaks cooled some ( tried not to brake as much) the brakes feel fine normal i guess. Few days later drove back to San Diego and they seem normal as before. what could be a cause it, heat, dust, combination of both?
Hot brakes, but....
- Thread starter dudek7
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Markuson
SILVER Star
That happened to my original rotors once. Got wobbly after I was distracted and over-used them years ago. But after they cooled, they were fine for two more years.
94.78% of the time brake judder (especially felt at higher speed) is from uneven pad deposition on the rotor. This most often happens when the pad gets past it's intended temp range or sometimes in new applications where brakes are not bedded well or new pads are not compatible with previous pad's material that is already bedded into the rotor.
Sounds like you were on a steep downhill run? CC using the brakes? Good way to get a bunch of heat I guess but in 14 years of driving Tundra's with the generally same setup I have never had an overheating issue in Southeastern driving. Are they old rotors? New pads? Really heavy wheel/tire setup?
If you think the juddering has stopped I would confirm by light application at 60+ mph to confirm. I have found that once a rotor has uneven pad deposition it is waaay more likely to suffer it again the next time they get hot. Sometimes I have bedded brakes again (10+ applications from freeway speed to 10 mph to get them nice and hot then drive around a while to let them cool....google it and pick your poison on method) with limited success to get juddering to stop for a while.
Sounds like you were on a steep downhill run? CC using the brakes? Good way to get a bunch of heat I guess but in 14 years of driving Tundra's with the generally same setup I have never had an overheating issue in Southeastern driving. Are they old rotors? New pads? Really heavy wheel/tire setup?
If you think the juddering has stopped I would confirm by light application at 60+ mph to confirm. I have found that once a rotor has uneven pad deposition it is waaay more likely to suffer it again the next time they get hot. Sometimes I have bedded brakes again (10+ applications from freeway speed to 10 mph to get them nice and hot then drive around a while to let them cool....google it and pick your poison on method) with limited success to get juddering to stop for a while.
I had a similar situation. During a long day on Colorado mountain passes I overcooked the brakes and got the juddering. The next day after the brakes cooled and driving on flatter roads I no longer had the issue. However, as soon as I was back on steeper inclines the brakes were quick to heat and back to juddering, especially under heavy braking.
I have a very heavy truck with lots of armor, drawers & roof top tent. I'm very mindful to downshifting, but it no longer mattered. Anytime the brakes heated up the warp was back. Living in the mountains of Colorado it was often. I ended up changing front rotors and pads to the Aussie brand, DBA. It was a SLEE recommendation /installation and the brakes now work great.
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Brand new rotors and brake pads from Power Stop, maybe I had 2k on the at that point. stock vehicle, no additional weight or armor. OEM size tires and rims. Possibly the quality of the rotors are not like they used to be. I had that brand or my other LC80 and no issues. 2016 LC has adaptive CC, so it will use brakes, especially when people up front are slowing down.
That's a bummer. To racer02 points it might just be a bedding issue and will self correct. The 60mph test is a good indicator.
