My son’s buddy owns an 05 Corolla, says when he hits the brakes when traveling more than 45-50 mph, the steering wheel shakes. He replaced the front pads and rotors w new ones from Advanced Auto. Made sure he cleaned and lubed the caliper pins (he borrowed my tube of SIL glide), he sanded down all the surfaces of the hub, rotor, and back side of the wheel making sure there’s no debris, rust, etc Torqued the lug nuts appropriately. (He borrowed my torque wrench). He followed the bedding process perfectly. Yesterday he was traveling 60-65 mph and hit the brakes and steering wheel shakes. When driving around town or stop and go traffic, no steering wheel shake, stops like normal. The tires are hankook all seasons w 15k miles on them, looks normal. Alignment was done when getting the tires. The car doesn’t pull left or right. No brake squeak. From struts were replaced Over a year ago and No issues after the install. Rear drums and shoes are no more than 2 years old look normal. I checked the suspension the best I could and can’t find a thing wrong. Looks good. I doubt it’s warped rotors. The pads are basic ceramics. Bleed the brakes w new dot 3. What could be the issue?
Steering wheel shake when braking
- Thread starter barkingspider
- Start date
Tie rods are tight?
Shakes a little or a lot? In any case, you've checked the wheels aren't going to come off or anything in the suspension is broken, so I would just run it for a while, drag the brakes lightly at high speed once in a while, see what happens.
We had some pretty violent brake shaking for a while, from rotor rust when our cars sat for 4 months, it when away in a couple weeks.
We had some pretty violent brake shaking for a while, from rotor rust when our cars sat for 4 months, it when away in a couple weeks.
Check suspension. My guess is outer tie rods.
Sometimes rotors aren’t seated perfectly flat. Turning one 90 degrees and trying again can index it. Or there’s a tiny piece of debris keeping it not quite flat. If they didn’t shake before, I’d pull a front, make double sure it’s clean at the seating surfaces, and install it 90-180 degrees off. Test drive. No change? Other side.
Could also be the steering intermediate shaft. The U-joints get wear, had this on an HHR but Toyotas aren't great either.
He should rock the steering wheel back and forth when parked to see if there's any "clicking" or slop. That said could also be tie rod ends or ball joints.
He should rock the steering wheel back and forth when parked to see if there's any "clicking" or slop. That said could also be tie rod ends or ball joints.
I will check again. If they were no good, wouldn’t it shake even at slow speed?
That's what my BMW was doing until I had the brakes done recently. The front rotors were warped, but didn't cause shaking at low speeds. New rotors and pads, no more shaking. I bet either the new rotors aren't perfect or he didn't bed the brakes in.
JHZR2
Staff member
Ball joint…
Check the rear brakes. Drums are probably out-of-round.
No, if the speed is low enough the caliper has time to follow the runout on the disc (even more so with sliding calipers). If it was thickness variation in the disc, you'd feel it at all speeds but in the brake pedal.
Sticky caliper will overheat and warp a new rotor.
Worn hub bearing will warp one also, I had a Sable with a loose hub bearing that warped a new rotor and bearing wasn't making noise either.
I pay attention now to bearing looseness and any resistance in a caliper when retracting the piston. Caliper pistons like to hang up when being fully retracted with new pads after running many miles extended while pads are wearing down.
Veteran of the plastic caliper piston days.
Worn hub bearing will warp one also, I had a Sable with a loose hub bearing that warped a new rotor and bearing wasn't making noise either.
I pay attention now to bearing looseness and any resistance in a caliper when retracting the piston. Caliper pistons like to hang up when being fully retracted with new pads after running many miles extended while pads are wearing down.
Veteran of the plastic caliper piston days.
Use dial indicator to ensure new rotors are running true on hubs.
Check for suspension play. Sounds like death wobble which has a resonance aspect, tending to occur at certain speeds.
Check for suspension play. Sounds like death wobble which has a resonance aspect, tending to occur at certain speeds.
Or the front wheel bearings (as my Legend).
Odd that the Highlander has the steering wheel shake, but only when the adaptive cruise control is applying the brakes to slow the vehicle when descending a grade.
Balance the front tires, if those check out and you're sure the hubs are clean the hubs themselves could be bent. I've seen this several times where someone has been chasing a shake and they've replaced the entire front end basically and I determined the hubs to be the problem based on lateral runout measured via a dial indicator but thickness variations in rotors being in spec. Sadly the proper fix is both hubs and wheel bearings. Theoretically you could try to have them machined using an on car lathe but very few shops even do that now and I wouldn't trust your average goober to do it right.
My wife has the exact same generation Corolla, 03 that we finally sent to vehicle heaven. The car exhibited the exact same symptoms with steering wheel shake when braking under mid to highway speed. Repeatable and can recreate issue like 90% of the time. I thought wheel bearing and brought to Toyota dealer. Dealer said your tires have bad cords and shot. I thought no way and car just had a state inspection like 3 months earlier. But now II think of it, MA inspectors don’t test drive so they would not have known. Dealer replaced all four tires with OE Goodyear assurance with questionable tires having maybe 40k miles and plenty of tread remaining but recalled 8-10 years old. Problem gone. If you want to experiment and have the motivation, swap fronts to back and vice versa to see if condition still exists to give more evidence that it isn’t tires/low pressure etc. related.
Update: he did the process of elimination and figured it out
1. Checked front suspension, all good and tight
2. Checked front hubs for play, all good and tight
3. Replaced the rear drum since they were rusted and needed replacement anyway, shake still present
4. Replaced the front rotors w raybestos rotors he got on sale, pads have plenty of meat on them so he reused, cleaned and lubed everything, shake still present
5. He bought the tires from DT 2 years 25k miles ago with the maint package so he had them rebalance the tires at no cost, no no more shake.
Perhaps one or more wheel weights may have fallen off? Oh well, he’s happy and it didn’t cost much to figure out.
1. Checked front suspension, all good and tight
2. Checked front hubs for play, all good and tight
3. Replaced the rear drum since they were rusted and needed replacement anyway, shake still present
4. Replaced the front rotors w raybestos rotors he got on sale, pads have plenty of meat on them so he reused, cleaned and lubed everything, shake still present
5. He bought the tires from DT 2 years 25k miles ago with the maint package so he had them rebalance the tires at no cost, no no more shake.
Perhaps one or more wheel weights may have fallen off? Oh well, he’s happy and it didn’t cost much to figure out.
