Breaks pulsating

richpressrichpress Member Posts: 1
edited September 2016 in Toyota
I have a 2003 Toyota sequoia. Its is a 4wd Limited purchased new and has about 140,000 miles

The BREAK light comes on intermittently and has since the car was new. The dealer never found a problem while under warranty.

My current trouble is with the break system. This problem is intermittent and may happen once, than not again for 6 min, 6 days or 6 months. It is not dependent on hot weather.

The symptom is: The break peddle pulsating as if ABS is turning on and off and the breaks are applied in the same way. This only happens when making a sharp turn, right or left, and not when traveling straight, at least so far. It is sort of like going 50 on a stretch of road and slamming on the breaks, it pulsates and throbs, sounding like a croaking bullfrog. It is not the break vacuum assist, there is no not hard pedal. When this happens the peddle pulsates and breaking is ineffective, it works but takes time.

When this problem occurs, the ABS light does NOT come on, and there is no CHK ENG light. The VSC TRAC and VSC OFF amber lights both come on. Those go on intermittently anyway, (like when driving at highway speed and hitting a patch of loose sand. Turning the enginon off and on resets those lamps.

Comments

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Hard to say with computer diagnosis as the problem is occurring, but one guess would be a caliper hanging up on one wheel--this would definitely kick off the VSC light and could explain why it only happens on a hard turn. The only hitch in my theory is that it happens on either a hard left or hard right turn, which means both calipers (or caliper slides) need attention---not as likely, but possible. I suppose ANY movement of the rotor could cause this as well, such as suspension or axle spindle issues.

    Other ideas would be to check the main harness going to your ABS controller (and also have a scan tool to call up your ABS controller for codes stored by that module). You can also check wheel sensor values with a VOM but if a wheel sensor was bad it should really throw the ABS light.

    This problem requires a clever technician, no doubt about that.
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