What are your brakes like ?

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Make sure to check your hub! If the spindle nuts get loose, the brake rotor can move laterally inside the caliper. The symptom to the driver is a mushy brake pedal that firms up after 2-3 pumps but goes soft again very quickly. The firmness also can be random and change the way it feels.

To check, just jack up a front wheel, grab at 3 and 9 o'clock positions and try to move it. It should be very solid.

The hub will not come off if the nuts get loose because the drive flange won't allow them to back all the way off.


bamachem said:
I thought i had Master Cylinder issues.

I posted about it in this thread: https://forum.ih8mud.com/100-series-cruisers/511581-2004-cruiser-complete-loss-brakes.html

Symptoms were unpredictable braking pressure and the occasional grinding noise during a turn. The brakes would present with a soft pedal with little resistance and a very long pedal stroke combined with very poor stopping performance on the initial press of the pedal, but a release and re-press would present full braking pressure, pedal resistance, and stopping performance.

I thought it was the Master Cylinder going bad.

A loose front passenger wheel bearing was the culprit. The wobbling rotor was contacting the caliper, causing the noise. It was bad enough that it popped the c-clip off the splined shaft which allowed the shaft to retract in the drive flange enough to strip off the retaining groove on the splined shaft. I hit the rotor with sandpaper, cleaned and repacked the bearings, replaced everything an then put 5 tack-welds on the tip of the shaft to retain the c-clip. The driver side was marginally OK on preload. I cleaned and repacked those bearings as well. Three hour job overall, but I went thru 12 nitrile gloves! Pics attached. You can see how bad the retaining ring is eroded, how deep the shaft was when I took the dust cap off, the grinding marks on the caliper, and the inner gap on the cv axle (the thing that tipped me off to the problem).

This all started in 2008 with a CV shaft replacement by the PO at a tire/lube shop and NOT by the dealership that they took the truck to for everything else... The star washer wasn't bent to retain the lock nut, which allowed both the lock nut and the spindle nut to work themselves loose over time. It took nearly 4 years to eventually work its way loose (no previous bearing repack like I thought). However, the truck was at World Toyota in Atlanta in Feb 2011 for a HUGE service at 88k miles that included Timing Belt, Serpentine Belt, Water Pump, Top End Cleaning, Rear Brake Pads, Front Brake Inspection, and 4 new Michelin Tires. Not a single mention anywhere in the service report of a loose wheel bearing then. There was no noise when we bought the truck a few months back, so I have to assume that once the nuts "broke loose", they backed off pretty quickly, making the problem much more evident.

THANK GOD for the drive flange design. The drive flange not only is the point or torque transfer from the CV axle to the wheel hub, but it also retains the spindle nuts so that they cannot back off completely, allowing you to lose a wheel. These nuts had backed all the way out until they were contacting the inner face of the drive flange - i.e. as worse as it can get with the Land Cruiser IFS system as it is designed.

Now that it's back together, all is fine with the brakes and the truck drives like new! The truck has always had a ever-so-slight looseness about it on the highway that I thought was due to an alignment (caster or toe) issue. Everything checked out fine on the machine, so I wasn't sure what could be causing it. It was tolerable, but it just didn't drive as good as either the 2000 UZJ or the 2007 UZJ that I owned previously.

Well, this fixed the road feel as well. Truck is now rock-solid at all speeds, and feels awesome!
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bamachem said:
Make sure to check your hub! If the spindle nuts get loose, the brake rotor can move laterally inside the caliper. The symptom to the driver is a mushy brake pedal that firms up after 2-3 pumps but goes soft again very quickly. The firmness also can be random and change the way it feels. To check, just jack up a front wheel, grab at 3 and 9 o'clock positions and try to move it. It should be very solid. The hub will not come off if the nuts get loose because the drive flange won't allow them to back all the way off.
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I just experienced that yesterday.
We decided to go on a short weekend trip and a couple of miles before reaching our destination I started experiencing the exact same symptoms you are describing. We got here late so I decided to park the car and try to fix it in the morning. It took me by surprise because just two weeks ago I had the front brake pads replaced at the dealer.
But whit this it should be easy to get it sort out.
My big question is how far can I drive the LC like this? We are in Taos NM and from research last night there is only one shop that can help me with this on the south part of town about a 6 mile drive.
I imagine trying to get it to Santa fe is too much of a risk which is a 60 mile drive?
Thanks in advanced form the feedback.
 
RobRed said:
Use DOT 3. Also you should be actuating the ABS pump to bleed... you'll need tech stream or dealer to do it.
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Thanks for the reply i found yesterday a shop in town that is sorting things out with my Lc.
I hope to get it up and running tomorrow.
 
Gonna bump this old thread to ask about my brakes.

Just picked up an '07 LX with 76k miles. The brakes work great but I have to press the pedal a bit before they start to catch. I don't know exactly how far they have to go, its not super far either, but maybe an inch? My dads '10 Tundra with 35k miles is the same way. It doesn't seem like that would be brake lines to me but I don't know. I'm used to brakes engaging as soon as I start to put pressure on the pedal and if my setup isn't normal would like to get it there.

Any ideas on this?
 
nnnnnate said:
Gonna bump this old thread to ask about my brakes.

Just picked up an '07 LX with 76k miles. The brakes work great but I have to press the pedal a bit before they start to catch. I don't know exactly how far they have to go, its not super far either, but maybe an inch? My dads '10 Tundra with 35k miles is the same way. It doesn't seem like that would be brake lines to me but I don't know. I'm used to brakes engaging as soon as I start to put pressure on the pedal and if my setup isn't normal would like to get it there.

Any ideas on this?
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Flush the brake fluid. Mine are always very firm. Don't go more then 2 years.
 
@nnnnnate
FWIW My '06 @95k is probably the best braking vehicle I've ever owned. Very little pedal movement before they engage and stopping power is fantastic. Don't see why your shouldn't be able to be similar considering the year. Like SWutah said give it a full flush and see where you are at.
 
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Thanks for chiming in guys. I'll do the flush hopefully in the next little bit and hope that does the trick.
 
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