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Extreme braking

'94 Camry - brakes replaced couple years ago at the dealer - recent evaluation showed 90% front pads remaining, 80% rear shoes remaining, braking is smooth and progressive and quiet - no problems, except . . . the few occassions, when pushing the car to higher speeds and then braking very firmly, usually from 80 mph to a smooth but very rapid stop, there is a vibration and rumbling from the front - wonder if the calipers are just desgined for sedate use, and their limits have been reached, or if the caliper hold down bolts are incorrectly torqued, or something else is going on. Again, all normal driving, no problem, racer style deceleration, there's a humming resonance that seems to say "don't do that" so I back off and brake with a bit less force. BTW there is no ABS.

Reply to
Daniel M. Dreifus
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I've run into this problem on numerous cars over the years. From 80+ mph to a stop, you have quite a bit of time to build up a lot of heat. The milder semi-metalic pads (the ones that seem to wear forever) ALSO do a great job of polishing the rotor surface. So you combine hot and highly polish braking surface with hot low metalic pad and you'll get a low resonance rumbling from disc brakes as you get below 40 mph (typically) once the rotor surface becomes highly polished. The vibration you have is the pad now seizing/releasing (repeat) because the heat generated is nearing the limits of the pad material. Get a little hotter and the braking will now start to fade ... quickly. Toyota DOES offer different grades of pads. You will have to have the rotors resurfaced and better pads installed.

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  -Philip
Reply to
Philip

The milder

Thanks, Philip. Had seen this mentioned before, but forgot - perhaps since high speed forceful braking arises infrequently. I remember Mercedes recommending occasional rapid stops from high speed to prevent glazing of their brake pads, and have seen others in the Toyota forums mention more forceful braking application to avoid this highly polished rotor/ glazed pad condition. I'd been glad the rotors look so nice (free of scoring) and the pad thickness remains good over time, while practising very progressive, gentle braking application. So your description of the problem was exactly right.

Reply to
Daniel M. Dreifus

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