I was wondering if anyone here can help me. My Airtrek started vibrating while I brake and even vibrates when I drive at slower speeds (<100km/h). I took it to my local garage and the boys told me that my brake rotors on the front are not even. They also told me that I need to rotate my tires and balance them to prevent the vibration during low speeds. I've just rotated my tires and balanced all 4, however the car still vibrates at low speeds and I've decided to stick my head out of the windows while my wife took over the wheels (kids dont try this at home) to find which wheel was causing the problem.

I found out that the front left wheel was the one that was causing the problem. As my wife drove off at a slow speed, I could hear the disc brake was rubbing as if my wife was pressing on the brakes and the accelerator at the same time. And as she did so the car was jerking with the rotation of the wheels. However she applied constant pressure on the accelerator and was not on the brakes at all. According to the boys at the garage, I would need to skim the brake rotors to get them even again and change the brake pads.

I am just skeptical that this procedure would work. Anyone got any suggestions?

sounds as if your rotors are warped. i would just pay the extra money to have them replaced with new ones because you will have to do it in the future anyway.

I had the same problem with my new Outlander and i had to change my front discs.Now i dont have that problem any more.Lucky warranty is covering that problem

I just found out that the front left caplier piston is jammed! Basically it doesnt release the brake pads so it is constantly touching the rotors thus causing drag and hence higher fuel consumption. Due to the heat generated by the constant contact it causes the rotors to over heat and warp!

Luckily the guys down at my local garage managed to take apart the whole calipers and oil them and change the seals. They also shaved 0.05mm off the rotors to make them smooth again and changed new brake pads to prevent any uneven wear on the rotors. I've also drained the old brake fluids and put in DOT5 brake fluid which is supposed to reduce the sinking feeling during hard braking and is supposed to withstand higher temperatures.

The automobile engineer told me that he's seen this happen to a few JDM Airtreks and Outlanders. Scary but I think there might be a manufacturer defect. Anyone else experiencing this problem with jammed calipers?

I had this vibration problem too when I brake from, say about 70km/h. Brought it back to agent who found out that the front discs were warped and had to be skimmed, at no cost to me. They refused to replace them since it can be skimmed!
Any way, got the car back and the braking is smooth yet again .... the cause? well, it's basically water being splashed onto really very hot brake discs. How did it get there? it's either at the local manual car-wash or splashing around in too much floods ;-) :blush-anim-cl:

Now my questions is this, Does anyone know how we can check or if there is any test we can self perform to find out if the brake calipers are in proper working condition?

I am still skeptical that splashing water on hot rotors will cause them to warp. I used to wash my BMW and Honda and have the rotors splashed with water when they were hot and never seem to have the rotors warp. Anyone can seek expert or professional opinion on this? Anyone working for Brembo or any brake company can verify this myth?

Mine happen when the brake getting hot, othewise its ok. I'm not very happen with the stock brake, thinking of upgrade the disk rotor to DBA. ;)


I think the easy way is to jack up the car, shift the gear to N and turn or spin the wheels manually and compare all the 4 wheels, if the wheels is difficult to turn, most likely the brake calipers is jam or the disk pad is touching the disk rotor. :thumbsup: