HELP: 93 Toyota Corolla vibration problem!

Here is my point. You have warranty on both calipers. If one is bad both can be. But beside that we don't KNOW which one is bad. It COULD be either. If you want to chase a rabbit all over the field that's your choice. You could replace the right caliper and find you still have the problem. Then the left and find a problem again. The brakes are engineered to work TOGETHER. In balance. You want them as much the same as is possible. You see, I don't know FOR SURE where the problem is. None of us do yet till we find it. I just think it is unwise to replace only one caliper. It can be (not that it IS) that it culprit is the LEFT caliper, not working at all or right, making the right assume more of the load. Granted the car should pull like hell if that were the case, but cars are funny and they don't always do what you expect. If they did, all repairs would be easy and it would in and out of shops in 5 minutes.

I still think the problem could be in several places. I am not convinced it can't be any of the bearings. Or the spindle. Or the CV joint. What you have here is like that damn gopher game like at Chucky Cheese. You knot they stick their heads up and you whack them with a padded mallet? Then they pop up somewhere else. I can't look at the wheel, at the spindle, rotors, etc. I can't take a mic to them. All we can do here is keep GUESSING till you find it. there are many things YOU can check. Get the wheels off the ground and see if they have any play in either side. Look at the spindles. Roll the tires to see if you hear any sound. Like a scraping sound. Try to bleed the brakes again and manually ADJUST them. Or have the mechanic do that.

It's only a GUESS. Check it for play. They don't always leak.

Same thing I suggested, but have been called a "douche" for suggesting it.

Indeed.

It would be nice IF cars always acted predictably.

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

Good suggestion.

Throwing a weight causes a constant vibration. This was different and was confirmed to be the ball joint on the TL.

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.

Would a missing wheel weight also cause the brakes to apply and make the vehicle slow down ??? That's what he stated is also happening.

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

14" wheels on the car you can find the problem he is having as a common thing. Those steel wheels on the 90's model Toyotas - the 14 inchers and some of the 15's are notorious for going out of round. A 'slight wobble" on the balance machine can translate to EXACTLY what he is experiencing with a selective problem. IF he noted EXACTLY what he was doing with the car when the problem occurs it would be easier to track down. Small things like EXACT SPEED. Not a guess. Type of road and road conditions. That stuff.

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.

Ha Ha HA so his tire is wobbling so much the air resistance makes it hot to the touch. Don't stick your hand out the window it might burn up.

He hasn't tried to do anything to fix the problem. He is relying on a mechanic to do all the work. The problem didn't exist until the mechanic did a brake job. That is when the trouble started. The brake line is still probably the most probable theory. But the facts keep changing so given that no theory is going to be very good.

-jim

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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 ;) ??

Apparently I was being a little to subtle and not obnoxious enough - so I will now spell it out:

The point was the brake hose improbable as it may be, is still a better theory than anything you have come up with.

-jim

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