I have a 2004 XLE v6 Camry. The car was my moms and I bought from her in 2020. She bought it service history. At the end of 2021 it started having a front end shake. In Jan 2022 took it to a mechanic and found out the brake pads had nothing left and damaged the rotors beyond repair. You would think that there would have been a horrible noise as well as the shake but there wasn’t. I wish I would have asked to see the parts that were taken off. Car had about 220k on it at the time. New brakes pads and rotors were put on, alignment done and the car drove great. A few months ago started experiencing the same shake from what felt like the front passenger side. Now there’s 240k on it. I’m being told both rotors are warped but brake pads are fine. This seems odd to me. My family only buys Toyotas and have never had rotor issues with any of them. How can the original rotors last without issue for 17 years and new ones can only last two years and need to be resurfaced because of warping. I’m being told it’s because of how we brake. This is our second Camry and we also have a sienna. My husband has been the primary driver on both Camrys (‘97 and ‘04) and he also on occasion drives the ‘06 sienna. I don’t agree with the mechanic that’s it’s the way we brake. We would have similar problems with all of them. (Note we sold the ‘97 four years ago and never had rotor issues) I’ve asked them to look into other possible causes. It’s only be a year and half and 20k miles. I feel like the mechanic is feeding me a load of crap. What are your thoughts?

 

Shake when braking? Is the steering wheel shaking when braking say worse when braking when going down a hill?Who did the brake repairs, a Toyota dealer, chain repair outlet or independent? This can make a difference as to what brand of parts were used. When the brakes were repairs were NEW rotors installed or the old ones resurfaced? Resurfaced rotors can have issues with “warping.” If doing another brake job needing rotors install new quality ones such as Brembo or Toyota (of course more expensive). However if a shop is doing the work one may not have a choice of parts brand.

Was the vehicle ever driven though standing water, car wash, etc?

How do you brake? Normally, stand on the brake, duel brake and gas driving as in two feet?

 

Shaking only when braking. Repaired at an independent shop. We were told brand new rotors were installed but don’t know the brand used. We had the rotors resurfaced yesterday. We periodically get rain but not a lot, pretty dry and hot and have mild winters with a little snow. We do go through car washes maybe every couple of months or so. We live in a relatively flat area and so we don’t have steep hills. Drive with one foot and don't typically stand on the brake. Just normal braking. Mainly city driving.

 

Don't know.

Did the shop change the pads when resurfacing the rotors?

Assume the shop checked the brake calipers for binding, etc. The caliper holds the brake pads and is able to move sideways on pins (floats sideways). If the pins/caliper bind up there can be problems.

Brakes can be complicated. Note that a warped rotor may not not actually be warped. Read the article at the link below and bedding the brake pads. There is something to bedding the new brake pad and rotors to prevent problems.

https://blog.fcpeuro.com/warped-brak...SAAEgLRMvD_BwE

The article below has additional info what can cause a "warped rotor." In the article the term "glaze" is brake material as noted in the first article. Sometimes one can sand off the glaze with sand paper. Review the article in reference to your driving.

If one drives a hot brake rotor into standing water or snow it can cause warping.

Some combination of rotors and brake pads seem to have issues. I use Toyota brand pads as they don't make noise, wear well, etc. On other makes of cars I research and sometimes stick with the car makers brand or whatever company made them for the car maker.

One some years of Toyota there was an issue of excessive rear brake pad wear.

To prevent future brake pad wear to the metal get a pad with a squealer. This is a metal tab on one pad that gets closer to the rotor as the pad wears. When the pad is close to wearing out the tab hits the rotor and makes a noise.

 

We had new rotors and new brake pads put on and alignment done in Jan 2022. We just had to have rotors resurfaced and an alignment done yesterday. I thought all pads had the metal piece. Learned something new 😊 I’m thinking the shop is using subpar parts. I wish they would have given me the option to choose what brand rotors I wanted.

 

great the blog is very helpfull

 

I would also recommend the same thing what toyomoho is telling install the new ones

 

I'm 69 and have changed brakes on my own car and truck, and then later on my family's vehicles every single time over except once last year when I had a back pain issue. I did brakes on pour daughter's car until she was married. On my very first car, which was a '73 Mercury Capri , I started doing my own brakes, and at that time I paid a shop to cut the rotors to resurface them. Almost immediately afterwards the brake pedal stated pulsing and the steering wheel started wobbling. What I found out was that my rotors had been machined to spec but were apparently still too thin and they warped very easily..... and I didn't have a heavy foot. I had the brakes very lightly resurfaced again by another shop. Same result. My point is that you need to resist the urge to resurface rotors. Just get new ones. Maybe you resurfaced to save $ like I did on my first car, and I will tell you to get a less expensive rotor before you resurface. I have formed the belief that the ridge that forms on the outer circumference of a rotor helps to resist warping, but that ridge is machined away when you get rotors resurfaced . One other thing to try for reducing cost if the rotors are relatively new and of course presuming that the rotors are not a terrible mess.....is to try to replace only the pads. The pads surfaces will relatively quickly wear down to fit a reasonably flat rotor surface with some ridges, and in a very short time but initially you will have to brake harder to get a typical stopping distance. If your ridges are big you are likely not going to have enough metal to resurface w/o causing problems in a very few miles so you will have wasted money attempting to save money. Some will disagree with that solution but a typical shop just takes too aggressive a cut and removes unnecessary metal which generally guarantees warping in very little mileage. Lots of shops won't cut rotors . Remember to take the extra few minutes to lube your guide pins w/ silicone lube. It takes very little time, and your braking will be better and you won't wear out the guide pines. Some rotors will wear better than others in my experience.
Best of Luck and get a buddy that does brakes to work with you to teach you the ropes. When you do your own, it's more affordable to use premium rotors and pads....... which last longer ........ and are therefore less expensive per mile. Your mileage may vary. Best of luck and let us know what happens.

 

Totally agree with not bothering to turn/resurface rotors, just buy new ones. The aren't too pricey so why bother....