My 2001 Toyota Sienna now jiggles when I brake. It cropped up after driving 6000 miles in two weeks. I don't know if it's warped rotors or what. Can I just live with it? What sort of damage am I looking at if I just keep driving it like that?
Restrictions due to the mask virus cropped up when I was out of town on my trip so it'll be a while before I could get it fixed.
After my long long trip, the mileage is now over 250000. It was 243 thousand something when I bought it.
When I was in Tennessee, I got two new front tires. A couple thousand miles later, the back left tire exploded so now I have two new back tires as well.
It's very likely a warped rotor but could be loose/worn suspension parts on a high-mileage 20-year-old vehicle. If it shakes the steering wheel when you brake the problem is in the front, if not it's in the back.
This is a safety issue so you'll want to get it repaired ASAP. If you can't do that right away I'd drive it as little as possible and be careful. (Actually I'd park it myself but I have more than one vehicle at my disposal.)
A brakes place said warped rotors and also rear cylinders and shoes and drums. Over $1000.
With drum brakes it would be warped drums, not rotors. I'd get another estimate from another mechanic. (An independent mechanic, not a chain shop or stealership.)
Looking at rockauto.com, wheel cylinders are about $10 each, drums $40 each, and a set of shoes costs $25. Add a drum brake hardware kit (new springs) for $10 and a couple of new adjusters at $8 each. So you're looking at around $150 in parts. Even figuring they'll mark up the parts 50% that's about $225, so they're charging $775 in labor. At $100/hr. that's nearly 8 hours labor. Drum brakes are a PITA to work on but that seems excessive.
I ended up going to a Mexican place and they only charged me $280 total front and back and the guy resurfaced them instead of insisting that they were at the end of their life. He also didn't claim that anything was leaking like the chain store did.
Sounds great, that's more like it. The service writers at those chain shops (as well as at stealerships) are making a commission on the services they sell you. Basically they are salesmen and are highly motivated to inflate the bill as much as possible due to commissions and pressure from management to sell, sell, sell.
that jiggle is going to start wearing on other things like suspension and steering, leading to a bigger repair bill
