04 Tundra D-Cab Brake Failure

KBOY_1 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-13-2005, 03:12 AM

Hey,

Dose any one that has a Tundra have brake failure problems?
I had one and now its totaled. My wife was driving and the kids were in the back seat.
The car infront of her had stoped to make a left turn so she she took her foot of the gas pedal and let it coast till it was time to the press brake pedal,well to her surprise no brakes then slam!!
If anybody had this problem PLEASE contact me by email kalenk@servco.com

Kalen

AmpliFyre · #2 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005, 12:47 AM

oddly enough, that sounds similar to wat happened to me, but i swerved in time to miss my dad in front of me. imagine that, how do u explain to ur insurance company that accident.
so story goes. coming back from bakersfield, i was carrying about 1000lb of mirrors in the bed. LA traffic, slowing down gradually, then i need to stop. from a gradual brake, i pushed harder, but the brake didnt respond like it should have, like fade... had to swerve and lucky there was a shoulder on the left lane. scared the $h!t out of my dad and stopped half way up on the sienna.
this was when i had about 7k on the truck? maybe it was also being dead tired from a long day.
i havent had another brake issue since... but this is bugging me.... have 14k on the truck now.
what part of the vin should we check to see?

KBOY_1 · #3 (**permalink**) 07-27-2005, 07:33 PM

not sure what part of the vin. but the insurance is going to look into the problem for me and see what can be done.
I work for a Toyota dealership and I loved the truck.

Picasso · #4 (**permalink**) 07-28-2005, 12:33 AM

Has the cause for the brake failure been determined? That could be valuable information to pass on to this forum.

denverbikeguy · #5 (**permalink**) 07-28-2005, 08:27 AM

Definitely compare VIN's (privately if you like, no need to post that on a public forum for people to grab) and see if they're close. VIN's are like a birth certificate for a car, they can tell you where and when it was made.

I've noticed that the brakes aren't always as "sharp" as I would like them to be, usually after driving for a while. I'm told it can be attributed to the pads floating back further in the calipers over time, but I don't know if I buy that.

I'm planning to upgrade to slotted rotors, Performance Friction pads, and new fluid all around, so we'll see what happens after that. I'm pretty sure the damn thing should stop on a dime once all of that is done.

Anyway, please let us know what you find. Mine is an 03 X-cab, but I don't think the brake components are different between that and an 04 DC are they?

lelandstanford · #6 (**permalink**) 07-28-2005, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by denverbikeguy

I'm planning to upgrade to slotted rotors, Performance Friction pads, and new fluid all around, so we'll see what happens after that. I'm pretty sure the damn thing should stop on a dime once all of that is done.

It won't stop on a dime. I've tried it.

I would at least replace the shoes with higher friction index and max the LSV.

That is if you don't want rear disc conversion (costly).

KBOY_1 · #7 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 09:14 PM

PROBLEM NOT SOLVED

THE SHOP THAT THE INSURANCE BROUGHT IT TO COULDN'T FIND ANYTHING. SO I AM THINKING ABOUT TALKING TO AN ATTOURNEY TO SEE WHAT CAN BE DONE. AFTER ALL THE BRAKES DIDN'T WORK AT THAT TIME.

Picasso · #8 (**permalink**) 08-05-2005, 12:13 AM

Very strange. Let us know when somebody finds a clue to the failure.

vacolinm · #9 (**permalink**) 08-10-2005, 03:11 PM

Just signed onto this board because of what happened to me in my 04 Double Cab. Had a panic stop at 60 mph to avoid hitting a bear and was astonished to find my truck didn't stop! I hit and unfortunately killed the bear. That was three weeks ago. Since then I have tried panic stops from 30 mph all the way up (when brakes are cold) with the same result. The truck just doesn't want to stop. Pedal feels mushy... similar to the freeling of brake fade. I took it to my loacl independant shop, the owner of wich has a TDC as well. He had just come out of an accident where he totalled his truck because... you guessed it he couldn't stop. He then investigated the situation with the service shop manager of a local Toy dealer. The service manager took out an 05 and tried a panic stop. His response... yeah... this truck doesn't stop worth a damn in a panic stop situation. He called out to Toy in CA for any info from corporate on this issue but said nobody had seen any complaints about this problem. Net, there are two factory and Federal complaints going in on this issue and I encourage anybody else who has had a similar problem to do the same. If you have a DC, check out the brakes in a panic stop situation (when its safe to do so) and judge the braking performance for yourself.

KBOY_1 · #10 (**permalink**) 08-14-2005, 06:32 PM

Where should I call to complain?

1raykin · #11 (**permalink**) 09-21-2005, 12:07 AM

Oh man, my 05' DC is so new I just received my plates in the mail today! I have also noticed that my truck doesn't stop like it should. I have already looked in to getting the rear disk brake conversion. Should I wait to see if Toyota is going to do something about this?

cupidstoy · #12 (**permalink**) 11-08-2005, 11:32 PM

really sorry to hear about catostrophic brake failure. glad your families are ok and hate to see good trucks end up in the salvage yard.

so far, nobody mentioned a couple of things that might be related to this.

* rear brake adjustment via parking brake
* effect of load sensor under bed
* break in period or oily film on caliper or drum surface (from road oil through alloy wheels on front, or leakage around rear axle seals, a known issue on some tundras due to plugged diff breather)
* ABS

when i picked up my 04 doublecab used at just under 12,000 miles i felt like the brakes weren't up to par. they were kind of squishy and didn't grab like i thought they should. having run into the emergency brake adjustment issue on other cars, i consciously started using it a lot and also pushing it down when driving/coasting to "exercise" the rear brakes and also to heat them up a bit to smoke off any films or dust.

now, i know there are a lot of folks out there who will disagree or say this isn't a good idea, but i've had similar issues with other vehicles and getting the brakes good and hot in a safe manner once or twice has solved a myriad of troubles such as sqeals, chatter and seating issues. not for everybody, but sometimes it helps. just make sure you torque your lug nuts equally.

i also checked everything over real good and bled out the rear brake lines and the proportioning valve on the bed load adjuster. other posts indicate this is a stubborn area where air gets trapped. all my fluid was clean and i didn't notice much if any air, but the brakes seemed to work better.

when there is a load in the truck (400 lbs or more), i definitely notice stronger rear braking and less nose dive in hard braking. this is the proportioning valve doing its thing.

effect of abs or other design issues? unknown. when my abs comes on, it pulses faster than other older designs i've driven. i don't know much about the inner workings of the abs system.

the bottom line for me is this: a vehicle that weighs almost 5,000 lbs needs all four wheels working together to stop well and quickly. air in the lines, misadjusted rear brakes or a little bit of oil on the friction surfaces and you are asking for trouble. the front brakes alone can't do the job. when the brakes don't grab equally or consistantly, reliable stops are difficult to achieve.

knock on wood, but my 04 DC stops pretty well now with the factory setup. not to say it couldn't do better... when the stock pads start to give up, i'll go with a more aggressive pad material and add stainless lines to replace the rubber flex hose. i really enjoyed that upgrade in a nissan car - the brakes are rock solid with no squishyness.

cupidstoy · #13 (**permalink**) 11-08-2005, 11:46 PM

here's the link from another post that goes into detail about "bedding" the brake pads.

http://www.raceshopper.com/tech.shtml#bedding

this sounds right to me.

also, when doing brakes, be sure to use that little tube of lube that comes with them to lube the moving parts of your caliper or shoe assembly. it is very important that both halves of the disc brake squeeze the rotors equally and do not hang in a "closed' position. that can cause many bad things including low gas mileage, premature wear and eventual rotor and pad replacement and in the worse case, can cause your brakes to overheat to the point the fluid boils and you have no or very decreased braking power! same deal on the rear drums although not as likely or dangerous (probably?).

i toasted a set of rear calipers on my nissan by not lubing them with each brake shoe change. some moisture got in under the rubber grommets and rusted the inner caliper into an immovable state.