anyone have problems with brake pulsation in their taco? I have an 04 Dcab with about 13k on it. just started to notice a "shudder" when braking. it feels like when you get a hard spot on a drum or rotor. wheels have not been off so I don't think some yahoo at the stealership overtorqued the wheels. the strange thing is that the shudder comes and goes........

Sure it isn't road surface? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/coolg.gif" alt="" />

is it a thumping like a warped rotor? or are you talking about you abs? My 03 thumps a little bit after breaking hard when the rotors are hot.

could be a few things

the abs could be activated when hiting the brakes to hard

the rotors might be warped, does your steering wheel move back and forth very quickly when you hit the brakes

also could just be the road doing it

this is weird on my truck, say Im going on the road, like a downhill right, and Im not stepping on the gas, but I have the brakes touching slightly, then I hit a pothole or some bump and it feels like either the gas pedal or brake pedal jumps up and down real bad, never felt that before on other toys I owned. Happen to you guys?

to clarify, it feels like a "shudder", it is NOT the ABS being activated. it feels just like a hard spot on a rotor or brake drum. I will pull the wheels off this weekend and have a look see.
I do notice that the ABS system is activated when the brakes are applied on a rough bumpy road, but this is completly different than what I am writing about above.

I did a lot of overloaded towing with my '98 Tacoma. In 170k miles, I put 4 sets of rotors on it. LOL. One set only lasted 9,800 miles before I warped them beyond servicability. After the last set I replaced, I still noticed a pulse though....which ended up being caused by a 90w oil seep from the RR axle seal...got onto the brake shoes and cause some kinda funk to build up on one particular spot on the brake drum surface. I cleaned that brake with starting fluid and then soap and water and it seemed to fix the problem. The oil leak apparently only ocurred when the rearend got kinda hot while towing a heavy trailer in some mountains. All in all, I have NOTHING but good things to say about a Tacoma. I've had 3 now. Haven't had a chance to abuse this new one yet, but I sure beat the first two and got great service from both of em. '96 and a '98.