HELP: 93 Toyota Corolla vibration problem! (2025 Update)

You know, IF a wheel threw a weight off it could do the same thing.

Good suggestion.

I used to live in Plymouth County...

Check the RF wheel bearings.

Usually throwing a weight will cause vibration at certain speeds. Depends on the size of the wheel weight. Big ones act more harshly when missing than small ones. Remember he said the wheel DOES have a small wobble to it. Maybe move a rear wheel up front. Try that for a couple days.

Jon, I have this exact same problem with my 2009 corolla with 3000 miles on it. The dealer thinks im crazy because I take it in and they can not dupilcate the problem. As with your problem, mine is on the highway, at highway speed, not in the city etc.... I have had my tires balanced and my alignment checked and rechecked to no avail. If you figure something out on this post it. Its good to know that im not crazy

I suggested rotating the wheels front to back a long time ago (and was apparently ignored). I think this thread has rehashed all the possibilities two or three times now.

Note that when the mechanic test-drives your car they have to drive conservatively and sedately - because if they get in an accident or break something on the car they'll get fired. One dealership had an insurance policy where they aren't allowed to take a customer car on the freeway.

You really need the mechanic to get in the passenger seat and YOU drive THEM on the test drive, you know how and where to reproduce the problem much better than they would - or could.

I reported a huge delay in the 2-3 upshift with a slam as third engaged that threatened to snap an axle or U-joint, and twice got the "we took it for a test drive and nothing's wrong." Brand new van.

Third time, I took the mechanic out for the test drive and "reproduced the problem dynamically" on the freeway at 'medium' intensity. Reminded him I'd been babying it by feathering the throttle on upshifts for 5,000 miles, and asked if he wanted me to go full throttle and break it - Got a brand new transmission.

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I think you are right. A couple of the "angry experts" here keep pounding the walls about the brake lines, missing that the guy said he TRIED that. Most of the potential problems can be detected by eyeball. If he has

I think the wheel rotation is a easy driveway project.

Did he say the brakes APPLIED? That isn't what I read. He said he felt he had to add pressure to the gas pedal. Without being there driving the car, my best answer to you is YES. If a wheel is out on the side to side axis, it CAN appear at a specific speed that the brakes are on. That's NOT what's really happening. You can demonstrate this for yourself the next time you are in a car. Roll down the window and put your hand out. Try different positions for your hand. Flat to the flow of air, then rotate it side to side on the horizontal axis. If you can look at the instruments at the same time (assuming you are NOT the driver) you'll see that it actually CAN slow the car down a little. Same if the wheel isn't straight in the rolling axis as the wheel revolves. Actually there are more than two. They can be affected in all of them. Caster, Camber and so on. Wheel balance, front end alignment. Some things have been rules out others NOT.

I am one, having been a partner in a parts jobber that doesn't have complete confidence in replacement parts. We have a 15 year old car with almost 300,000 miles on it. We also have a couple smart ass dealer mechanic types here that have ALL the answers. They didn't read that he had already tried their "SURE FIRE IT ABSOLUTELY IS" stuff and it didn't work. We all with have 20/20 hindsight when the problem is traced down. Right now all we all can do is guess.

Ever take a course in metalurgy? What does vibration do to metal?

Guy - you are consistently OBNOXIOUS. They REPLACED the brake hoses!!! Didn't help.

YES. He mentioned it many times. Like here: Now here is what I think, although i'm not a mechanic... I think it has something to do with the front passenger-side caliper. It may be locking up somehow. But i noticed on local roads before the vibration starts, if the pedal is stiff, pump it a few times and it goes away...

And here: Well, the rotor was bluing, which is why i replaced them about 1000 miles ago. But, I think that is the symptom and not the disease. What can be causing the dragging?

And here: I did not have to use my brakes at all for the entire highway portion of the trip, but it still started to drag and then vibrate half way into the trip. Please notice that i said it drags THEN vibrates. You can feel that you need more gas pedal effort to move the car and then the vibration starts gradually shortly thereafter and builds up in intensity

And here: I replaced the calipers because the brakes felt "soft" and i was not getting good stopping power. The replacement cured it. But shortly thereafter this problem occured.

And here: Thank you to everyone that has helped me thus far. These symptoms aren't new... but just better described than previously. Please review:

1. Brake drags occasionally not all the time and the dragging can start without the use of the brake pedal (once i was driving on an empty highway at 3AM for 30 miles, and it just started dragging).
2. once the drag starts, it gets progressively worse. I'm not sure if the heat causes it to lock up more, or if it just locks up more and causes more heat (Chicken or Egg?) But you can feel that more and more gas pedal effort is needed.
3. at its worse, there is so much drag that the car will not idle forward from a stop.

Those were all taken from seperate posts.

Well whos fault is that ??

He said he felt

He stated that the car FIRST slows down THEN the vibration starts. Now, would a bent wheel cause the car to slow down or would the brakes dragging cause it to slow down ??

Bullshit !!

But it has been stated many times that the brakes are being applied. This has been proven by the fact that the rotor is turning blue from the heat and more throttle has to be applied to maintain speed.

Now we have to ask what WON"T cause a brake problem. Will any of these case a brake problem: Caster? NO !, Camber? NO!, Wheel balance? NO!, Alignment ? NO! , Bent Wheel ? NO! , CV Joint NO!

Didn't see any posts from anyone who "had ALL the answers". Did see some good posts from some knowledgable folks who suggested brake hoses or calipers. The brake hoses were tried and didn't fix the problem, nothing else was done at this point.

There were many not so good suggestions like wheel balance, bent wheel, alignment, tires, caster, camber....etc.

Facts so far: brakes drag on right front wheel turning rotor blue. From the info given it appears to be a brake problem on the right front wheel. Brake hose were replaced but did not cure problem. This should be an easy problem for a knowledgable mechanic to figure out. It's quite obvious that the "mechanic" working on the vehicle doesn't have a clue. He needs to take it to someone knowledgable nad get it fixed right.

Wrong ! There should be no "guessing" involved. He needs to take it to someone who is capable of "diagnosing" the problem, only then can it be repaired. You can only go so far with the "shotgun" method of repairs without spening a small fortune.

LMAO

Will tires catch fire if you drive too fast or do the wheels just warp ;) ??

No that's not excaltly whay he said. I can understand how you could read it that way. Hut it isn't exactly what he said. It MAY well be the caliper, but it can be either one of them or both. There are several other options as well.

The word "draggin" doesn't mean it WAS the brakes being on. It CAN but it can also be something else.

Try to re-read that without being so dogmatic. Don't get too invested in a single solution.

Does that mean the brakes were dragging? It MAY. But not necessarily.

How does he know that? Hear it?

No fault here. I just prefer to eliminate all the easy stuff first, the stuff that's easy to check for free before tearing a car apart. It MIGHT be a bad caliper. Like I said from my time in the parts business, rebuilt parts are problem children. I am assumiong that he did NOT go out and buy NEW parts from the Toyota Dealer at 10X the price of a rebuilt on a 15 year old car with almost 300,000 miles on it. I don't know WHY .. Silly me. Most people willing to shell out $300 per for NEW calipers most likely would be driving a newer car. JUST A SUSPICION.

Maybe you MISS that he HAS taken it to a mechanic SEVERAL TIMES.................................................

But Jim don't you think when the hoses HAVE been replaced a couple times that we can RULE THEM OUT and move on to something else? Let me ask you,. just HOW MANY SETS of brake hoses should he replace, in YOUR "expert opinion" before he starts looking at something else? 10? 20? 50? a THOUSAND? Should he change brake hosts 10 times a day EVERY day for the next hundred years? In your mind there is only ONE possibility. BRAKE HOSES. You MISS that he has replaced them! LET IT GO!

HEY GUY he REPLACED the hoses. WHAT part of that do you NOT understand? HE DID THAT - TWICE! Now let it go.

Yeah I believe in the obvious and EASY first. The things you can eyeball and shadetree.

I also said that even though he has NEW calipers that rebuilt calipers have an EXTREMELY high rate of being BAD. He needs to yank them and look. OR replace them under warranty.

SO HAVE THE HOSES SMARTASS!

That's EXACTLY what he said, it's a cut and paste from HIS post. I see reading comprehension isn't your strong point!!!!!!!!!!!

But it does point to the brakes as being the problem, no ????

Ther's that reading comprehension problem again !! Do you think a bent wheel is making the rotor turn blue ?????

You're right. He states the brakes are dragging causing the car rotor to turn blue and the car to slow down, maybe he should do a tune-up.

Keep reading, he explains it pretty clearly.

That's the way to do it, diagnosis is the first part of any repair. But he should be checking the BRAKE SYSTEM for a BRAKE PRBLEM. It will do absloutely nothing to check tires, wheels, balance, alignment and all the crap that WIL NOT CAUSE a brake problem.

It MIGHT be

If you buy from a reputable rebuilder you have less chance of getting a defective part. If you buy cheap chinese crap you end up with cheap chinese crap. But I have even found BRAND NEW parts that were bad out of the box.

Wrong !!! He has taken the car to someone who calls themself a mechanic, but is not capable of finding the problem OR fixing the vehicle. He needs to take the car to a REAL mechanic who is capable of DIAGNOSING the problem and FIXING the car. He has checked everything on the car EXCEPT the brakes and even had him replace what was probably a perfectly good set of tires claiming they were "defective". Sound like he is taking it to a tire store flunky instead of to a real shop.

yup... definitely brakes. Dark horse would be a wheel bearing that's not getting hot but is loose enough to cause brake drag, but quite likely it is a straight up pure brake issue. Either a bad caliper or a return port blocked in the master cylinder. might be pushrod length too short but that wouldn't explain why the issue only started after the calipers were worked on. gunk in the MC is likely though if for whatever reason the mechanic pushed back the pistons of the old calipers without opening the bleeder screws first. Or it could be something truly weird like a busted spring inside the MC allowing the piston to block the return port or something like that.

If I were the OP I would take a jack and a wheel chock along with me for a ride, and go somewhere where there are wide, flat shoulders to pull off. Then once the issue starts, jack up the suspect corner. Try to spin the wheel with the car in neutral. If it spins hard, crack open the bleeder screw on the caliper, let out a little fluid, tighten, and try again. If it spins easy now then you know it's a hydraulic brake issue, either in the caliper or the master cylinder. If it still spins hard look for a mechanical issue like stuck sliders or a loose wheel bearing.

If it turns out to be a hydraulic issue I would then check the opposite rear wheel and see if that spins any harder than the rear wheel on the same side (assuming a diagonal split system.) If it does, the problem is likely related to the master cylinder. If it does *not,* the problem is likely the new caliper. (although it

nate

Okay YOU KNOW - he needs to keep replacing those brake hoses. AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. Don't worry that they don't fix the problem. YOU ARE RIGHT and I am 100% WRONG. The ONLY thing it can be is the BRAKE HOSES.

REPLACE THEM AGAIN.