Toyota ... warped rotors

[TiGeo]

Wrong , actually you can have both
Over tighten a wheel with a impact and see if you,don't get warped rotors , it happens either that way or with hard and heavy braking

I disagree. So why aren't my brakes warped to high heaven when I track my car? My wife's vehicle gets new rotors every 2 years because of deposits causing pulsing. I can assure you she isn't "hard/heavy" braking...and since I hand-torque the wheels...not part of the equation. I can re-bed them and get rid of it...how does that work with bent metal?

 

[maduroman]

In my time as a Toyota tech at a dealership I’ve seen numerous Toyota with warped rotors. My mom’s Camry recently started doing it too and the brakes aren’t that old and nobody is hard on them. I’ve had to do lots of warranty brake jobs for either brake vibrations or squeaking. Just seems to happen on most Toyota but the RAV4 and Tundra are especially bad about it. I don’t feel it’s operator error

So do you believe that rotors can warp , or do you believe that pad deposits on rotors cause vibration
Apparently it's a huge debate here

 

[AutoMechanic]

So do you believe that rotors can warp , or do you believe that pad deposits on rotors cause vibration
Apparently it's a huge debate here

Rotors can definitely warp. Most of the time when I see warped rotors the pads look just fine it’s just the rotors that is the problem. It’s rare I’ll see deposits on rotors.

 

[SC Maintenance]

I am not even sure what these deposits look like. Can someone post up a pick? Every rotor I have taken off are all shiny?

 

[CT Rob]

I have never owned a Toyota product, from 1996 until now, that didn't frequently have wrapped rotors between brake jobs. My Tundra developed warped rotors after 10k miles, had brakes done at 50k miles, and now 60k miles the problem is back. My wife's RX350 has had warped rotors 3x now every time with 5K miles of new brakes. I have never had an issue with any other brand consistently.

I do 90% around town driving, not stop and go city, long stretches of open road at 45mph with some stop signs and lights. I drive the Tundra and my wife the RX 350 and we don't drive aggressively or fast. We aren't frequently slamming on the brakes are doing hard stops. No really long hills requiring you to really ride the brakes. I rotate the tires and I use a torque wrench every time so it's not due to over tightening the lug nuts.

Just a gripe session because I'll likely have to live with high speed braking-induced steering wheel shake for another 40k miles.

Did YOU do the brake job on the Tundra or shop? And being in MA with salt, you need to be cleaning and lubing those 2 pins on the front calipers otherwise they get fat with rust and then you start having issues with the calipers not releasing etc.I had a 17 Tundra and i would clean and lube those pins usually after winter and or before winter to try and keep them from getting seized in the caliper.Pins are cheap to buy and replace with new and its very easy.Remove the clep and they should come right out.

 

[meep]

Warped rotors....nothing is warped...you have uneven pad deposits.

Ok. Think with me here. I want your thoughts.

On my gen 1 tundra, yes, new rotors, and then a whole lot of bedding, and they were good. But one month later, theres shudder. So I’d rebed again, and it would be better. This tells me that uneven pad deposits was legit. But then in a month, the problem was back. Tried multiple rotors and pads.

Why was frequent rebedding needed?

The best rotors I found for it were raybestos AT (advanced tech) rotors, but even these had frequent pulsation issues within weeks of installation.

The best thing I did was find hawk LTS pads which had better grip and required less pedal force. This truck was severely under-brakes and I absolutely had to 2-foot it a few times to stop in when towing. It was not possible with even 2 feet to lock the front end with a load in it, so maybe under-braking was a contributing factor???

 

[TiGeo]

Ok. Think with me here. I want your thoughts.

On my gen 1 tundra, yes, new rotors, and then a whole lot of bedding, and they were good. But one month later, theres shudder. So I’d rebed again, and it would be better. This tells me that uneven pad deposits was legit. But then in a month, the problem was back. Tried multiple rotors and pads.

Why was frequent rebedding needed?

The best rotors I found for it were raybestos AT (advanced tech) rotors, but even these had frequent pulsation issues within weeks of installation.

The best thing I did was find hawk LTS pads which had better grip and required less pedal force. This truck was severely under-brakes and I absolutely had to 2-foot it a few times to stop in when towing. It was not possible with even 2 feet to lock the front end with a load in it, so maybe under-braking was a contributing factor???

Have you checked the runout on the hubs? I would start with a fesh quality rotor and pad. My hypothesis is that early soft braking generates more heat than hard late braking and when you sit at lights with the hot pads against the rotors they get uneven deposits of the transfer layer. How about moving to a more aggressive pad like EBC Yellows?

 

[meep]

Have you checked the runout on the hubs? I would start with a fesh quality rotor and pad. My hypothesis is that early soft braking generates more heat than hard late braking and when you sit at lights with the hot pads against the rotors they get uneven deposits of the transfer layer. How about moving to a more aggressive pad like EBC Yellows?

Hmm - thank you for your thoughts @TiGeo - I no longer have it - I did not check runout - that would have been useful. And I did try to drive in ways as to not bake the pads against the rotors at stops, graceful braking with creep room left to distribute the heat - the most aggressive pad was the hawk LTS, but between the 3 different pads I tried, the rate of return seemed the same.

 

[JeffKeryk]

I most certainly have an issue with poor quality rotors on my 2023 ES350. They are OEM and now have 36k miles on them. They started the misbehaving around 10k miles ago. It's annoying. Definitely warping under heat loads (not abusive stops; just normal). Especially prominent if I have to get on the brakes a bit hard from highway speeds (say some moron pulls out and causes a bunch of vehicles to apply brakes hard in a daisy-chain event ...)

I have upgraded to severe service pads/rotors in previous vehicles (of note, my 2018 Taurus had the same issue). The severe service upgrade (taxi/police type) always did the trick; it seriously transformed the Taurus and made it much better. It was especially helpful when driving from IN to AZ; the mountain roads are much harder on brakes than in the Midwest. Unfortunately for me, there exists no option (at least yet) for my current generation of the ES350 platform. However, my wife's 2013 ES350 does have those as an option, so some day soon I'll convert it over.

I don't think warped rotors are unique to any brand; I've had that experience in many vehicles over the years.

Ditto on a Raybestos E3 front pad/rotor set on a '15 Odyssey. I couldn't believe it as I had had good luck with them previously. A good aftermarket rotor pair and Honda pads did the trick.