Braking issues

[Richard Ramon]

Hey R. Kirshy

My brakes were working just fine and my pads are basically brand new (about 6-7 mil). I completed my suspension which included upper and lower ball joints and inner and outer tie rods.

Now when I press the brakes, they are slipping as I slow down. The pedal is nice and firm. No change there. I had a little difficulty pressing one of the upper ball joints out and in and in doing so, bent the heck out of my dust plate. The dust plate was rubbing on the rotor when I test drove so I removed the wheel and straightened it out. I decided to do a brake service on that, the passenger side, and noticed the rotor had a thin layer of rust buildup along the edge that goes about halfway around the rotor.

Before I go buy new rotors, is there anything I can check for which is causing the braking issues? Brake lines are fine and not twisted and I made sure I topped off the reservoir.

Thank you again for your help

Topic

[Richard Kirshy]

With out knowing and seeing what the condition of the vehicle or what and how the work was done I can only offer some suggestions
First question..
What is the year and mileage of the vehicle?
When was the last time the brake fluid was changed?
If it has been more than several years… suggest a fluid flush of the entire system.
As to the flexible brake hoses… how old are they?
There may be internal issues, might all look good externally but internally is another story.
What condition are the rotors in? Just surface rust is rarely an issue and clears up very quickly
I assume you removed the calipers when doing the ball joints.
Possible you may have dislodged some debris inside the caliper(s) which may be hanging them up.
Did you clean and re-grease the slide pins?
Make sure the pads move freely on the bracket?
Make sure the pad surfaces are not glazed or cracked.

There really shouldn’t be any reason that doing ball joints should affect the brakes unless the brakes had a border line issue.
In which case you’ll need to start looking specifically at the brakes and perhaps doing a full service on them.

[Richard Ramon]

Hi Richard and thank you for your quick response.

My Taco is a 2003 Prerunner, 2WD, 3.4L with 205400+ miles. The suspension parts I replace were all original judging by the age of the cotter pins.
I am not sure if/when the brake fluid was replaced and it is a bit on the darker side. The hoses are probably all original as well.

The rotors were replaced a couple of years ago (within the last 10,000 miles) and have never been turned. They are in okay condition and I cleaned off just a slight amount of surface rust; the only rust is along the outer edge as mentioned previously. And yes, I removed the calipers when I completed the suspension work, or at least hung them with an ‘S’ bracket. Hoses were not crimped nor twisted during and after the work.

I decided to remove the passenger side wheel, fix the bent dust plate and performed a brake service on that side, to include cleaning the slide pins and using anti-seize on the lug nuts and hub. There was not much rust on the hub and I wired-brushed what was there before I applied the anti-seize.
Pad surfaces were cleaned and dry with no cracks nor damage.

Because my calipers are multi-piston types, two on each side, I used the racheting tool to push the pistons. I also emptied some of the brake fluid from the reservoir prior to the brake service to allow the fluid to be pushed up into the reservoir.

I am wondering if I need to bleed the passenger side to fix the problem??? Will try and loosen the bleeder valve this weekend.

Question: It is safe to used 400/600 grit sand paper to remove that surface rust on the edge of the rotor???

thanks

[Richard Kirshy]

Question: It is safe to used 400/600 grit sand paper to remove that surface rust on the edge of the rotor???
I see no real issue in cleaning up the rust.
Considering your description of the brake fluid …
Suggest first attempting to open all four bleeders.
If you can, do a gravity bleed on all four wheels while keeping the fluid level full in the master until you get clean fluid from all four wheels.

[Richard Ramon]

Thank you Richard.
I will work on the rotors and try to bleed all 4 lines. From the looks of the blenders, they haven’t been opened in a long time. I don’t have a acetylene tank/torch to heat up so hopefully with lots of penetrating oil they will loosen up.

[Richard Kirshy]

Propane or MAP gas should work well enough.
Also might be wise to check the operation on each wheel and check the slide pins on all.

[Richard Ramon]

Never use a torch before. My brakes don’t have slide pins. Hoping my calipers are still good

[Richard Ramon]

Hey Richard Kirshy

Good news is that my bleeder screws were not rusted at all and I was able to gravity bleed all 4. Strange thing was that the flow of brake fluid was very slow on all 4 wheels even though I opened up the valve at least one and a half turns.
What does that mean?

Also, when I test drove the truck the brakes continued to make what I call is a “farting” noise. This only happens when I am just about to come to a full stop. I will look at videos right now because my suspicion is that my master cylinder is going bad.

Thoughts??

[Richard Kirshy]

Brake fluid under gravity feed won’t pour out.
It is usually a slow process.
This “farting” noise you mention…
Not quite sure what your hearing, my guess is brake pad chatter.
I would suggest removing the caliper brackets remove the brake hardware clean off any rust build up from under the brake hardware and reassemble.
This will give you the general basics of what should be done.

[Richard Ramon]

Thank you Richard. I already did the front passenger side and will do the driver’s side tomorrow morning

[Richard Ramon]

R. Kirshy,

I did a brake service on the driver’s side and cleaned up the calipe, hardware and bracket and that did not fix the problem.

I will have the rotors turned next and see if that solves the problem

[Richard Kirshy]

Who still turns rotors these days?
For the most part it’s usually cheaper to get a new set of replacements.

[Richard Ramon]

Yeah, that’s what I have heard. I still think it is cheaper to turn them than buy new. AM auto has them for $65.00 for the pair but are out of stock at the moment. I will call my guy in the morning to see what he changes

[Richard Ramon]

Richard Kirshy,

I put on new rotors and still have the same issue. I now think it is a caliper, maybe both front. I did notice some scoring on the brake pads left front.
What are your thoughts??

[Richard Kirshy]

Just curious…
Did you clean and degrease and clean the rotors prior to installation?
It also maybe the pads you installed…
Couldn’t say for certain, but they may not be the correct compound for your vehicle.

[Richard Ramon]

Yes, I used brake clean to take off the stuff used on rotors to prevent rust. Since the pads still have plenty of life 7-8 millimeters, I just put them back on. Should I have replaced them? I do have new Raybestos in the box.

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