I'm at a loss for solutions. I've replaced the drums, shoes, disks and pads and I still have vibration when slowing normally from freeway speeds. I can't see any loose suspension parts. I'm wondering if out of round or out of balance tires could be causing this. Anyone have any ideas?

I have had this problem caused by out of round tires on Tacos before, but not unless they were bad enough to cause vibration or shimmy when not applying the brakes.

Lars, how's your alignment? Tire pressure?

With the MT/R's, mine reacts like night and day to tire pressure.

Mike

I do get some vibration in the legs occasionally when going down the road that isn't related to the bumps in the road and sometimes some steering wheel shimmy. After my 4Runner became seriously airborne (the upper castle nuts put holes in the fenders) the alignment was out for a while. The tires cupped in the inside. I finally took it to the Dealer and mine generally does a good alignement but they are still cupping. I rotated them to the rear. I run 35psi in the front. Lower than that and the vehicle is a bit squirmy. 30 psi rear. The tires are a bit noisy up to 40mph. Sounds like the the out of round theory is not so crazy if you had that issue.

Mike, I love the skidplate BTW.

I've heard that Tundras have a drum star wheel defect. I guess I'll re check the rear and use a dial caliper to check run out front and rear as a sanity check to make sure that nothing in the brakes is out of round. Beyond that, wouldn't it have to be a loose balljoint, bearing or bushing? Lot's of third Gen's have Brake issues. I read the TSB on the brakes but didn't find anything usefull there. All the searches I did only revealed people with problems but no solutions. Some people actually had warped rotors. Others swapped/lathed them with no success. It would be nice to find a solution for everyone.

My OME lower strut bushings appear to be sagging quite a bit. I wonder if that slop could cause a harmonic vibration under light braking? The vibration does not get worse under heavy braking. It actually seems better. Threshold stops are good and the vehicle stops fast and straight.

try rotating the tires.

see if that cures it.

otherwise, check and recheck steering components...

one more thing: driveshafts...

OK, so it's time to get old school on this problem.

Jack up one side (with all the usual safety precautions of course) and suspend one front tire in the air. Grab it and shake it in all directions. Listen, sense, feel, hear where the issues are. Do the same with the other side in the air and then the whole front end in the air with the steering locked and then unlocked. If something is hosed, you can at least start to localize the suspension / drivetrain issues, if any.

As stated before, lubed up driveshafts and u-joints are really a plus.

Mike

Thanks for the advice. I inflated all the tires to 35psi and the vibration is considerably less. The backs are normally at 30psi. I think it may be a combination of things. I'm going to jack it up and give it the twice over on the weekend. These suspensions sure are sensitive.