Violent shaking when you hit the brakes? Yeah, most likely the rotors. It may look ok, you could try lying them on a flat surface and see if there is uneveness, but thats not 100% either. Best way is a gauge.

If the pads are good, you could have the rotors turned. But rotors are fairly inexpensive and easy to change. If you don't know the history I would probably swap them.

 

and if it's not the rotors, check the ball joints and tie rod ends. play in them can cause wobbly wheels too. jack it up, pull back and forth, in and out on the tires and see if there's noise and/or play at all. if so, eliminate the part(s) making the noise or that have excessive movement. then pull the rotors and check for warpage if necessary.
tony

 

What Tony said. It has been the rotors based on my experience, as my car shook pretty bad hitting the brakes above 50 MPH and it was reaolved with a front brake job. I have to say I didn't feel much during normal driving. So, it could be other things based on others experience or expertise.

Please let us know what you find out.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm going to go ahead and buy the front brake kit ($90 from Amazon.ca, free shipping).

I checked all the front end parts when I changed the wheels, and everything seemed OK. At the same time I found that my rear sway bar bushings are getting very worn, so a set of those are needed at the same time.

Will warped rotors cause vibration in normal highway driving? (no foot on the brake)

 

Vibration in normal highway driving in my experience are often the front struts. The faster you drive the more apparent the steering wheel shaking would be. Have them checked or just look for any leaks, wetness on the struts. Bad front struts can also cause the car to pull on the highway.

 

Yes it can. I have experienced it with another car I owned. No reason to believe it couldn't happen with the Camry.

 

I doubt that in this case rotors is the primary culprit. In my experience 'warped' rotors will cause vibration even on a slight application at highway speeds. All you need is pads to come in contact with rotors for the wobble to get transferred to the entire car.
Rotors won't make it difficult to keep the car in the straight line either. I strongly suggest you have your front suspension looked at. Ball joints, struts etc. Maybe steering rack too.

 

You said you had an alignment, but were the front tires balanced? Unbalanced tires can cause vibration at highway speeds with no braking applied. But from my experience, shaking when applying brakes is warped rotors.

 

I've had rotors cause that before, and it's most likely the cause if the vibration worsens when you apply the brakes.

1A Auto and Ebay have some pretty decent deals.. A new front pair with lifetime warranty from 1A was 40 bucks shipped for my Mazda. Hard to beat that.

 

1. Wheel balance and tire pull. Cross rotate tires front to back to see if the problem goes away. If not, have all tires road-force balanced. A pulling tire can also cause the car to wonder off to one side.

2. Disc brakes need servicing (not necessarily replacing yet). The pads could be glazed and there could be heavy deposits of pad material on the disc giving symptoms of warped rotors, most likely due to the pads not being properly bedded into the rotors after changed. Furthermore if a slider pin is stuck, it could cause brake drag and the vehicle to pull to one side.

3. Tie rods, control arms, and to a lesser extent ball joints, struts and wheel bearings.

 

The previous owner said all four struts were done last year, but you can't always trust that. The steering rack feels very tight. Tie-rods too. Not sure about control arm bushings. Ball joints and wheel bearings are all good as well. This is why I say brakes, everything else seems good. The car seemingly wasn't bagged either, it's in good condition inside and out for the mileage.

I was able to use my old all season tires on this vehicle. I'm confident they're balanced properly since they were only done less than a year ago. The rims are new and the tires (Goodyear Ecopia) have 80% tread left. It costs around $100 to get tires balanced around here, so I'm trying my best to avoid unnecessary costs on maybes.

Supplementary questions after watching some videos:
How much play in the control arm bushings is normal for these 4th gen Camry's?
What's the best way to check the first stage of the front struts? Is the driveability test the only way?

EDIT: Thanks speedkar9 for the video, I'm going to follow it on the weekend and see if that fixes my issue. (All my tools are 150km away)

 

I was able to use my old all season tires on this vehicle. I'm confident they're balanced properly since they were only done less than a year ago.

This stands out for me. It doesn't take much for you to hit a pothole and lose one, or more, of the weights. Plus, since it vibrates without applying the brakes you need to re-check the tire balance and all the front end components carefully. You might need rotors too, but you can be much more sure of that after you rule out the other things.

Another thought: try putting both front wheels and tires on the rear axle and vice versa. If the vibration move from toward the front to the rear, you might eliminate any problems with the front suspension or steering.

Pulling to the side when driving in a straight line could be as simple as uneven tire inflation on one of the axles, but most probably on the front. That is, if you are sure the alignment was done properly.

 

Reason I say this is the vibration gets violent when I apply the brakes at 100kph, but only if I apply them hard. If I slowly apply the brakes (like I've been trying to do for the last couple weeks) the vibration is less apparent.

Most certainly the rotors need to be resurfaced or replaced. Do that first.

 

Hi everyone. I replaced the front rotors and brake pads and now still have a vibration. My next thing to do is try brand new tires/rims to see if it is in fact a tire balance issue as stated in a post above. I just bought brand new winters with rims and had them balanced.

If that doesn't work, does anyone know of another possible issue I could be facing? I also noticed that the steering is a little loose and that's what has me concerned the most. By loose, I mean it tracks slightly when doing 100 km/h+. That plus the wheel vibrates. If I hold the steering wheel perfect it still slightly tracks, but I'm a little more particular so that may just be me who notices it.

 

I would also check caliper pins. If they are not sliding in and out freely you may have vibration. Just inspect each pin, clean and re-grease. Put new pins if the old ones look worn. Good luck

 

"tracks slightly"
do you mean it pulls to the right or left or do you mean there's play in the wheel such that moving the wheel slightly either direction does NOT result in the car moving in that direction?
tony

 

Also check rear brakes. If the car shake feels violent then check rear brakes. There is one ericthecarguy video on it. If you have drums then the drum might be out of round. Recently had this issue with brand new brake shoes and new drums. So aftermarket drums can be an issue. If rear rotors, then it could just be that as well.

Other than that, since you already mentioned bearings, bjs, lca, etc, check all bolts. It could just be a bad hub. Since the front end vibration is one of those detailed diagnosis, its a pain and sometimes throwing parts at it only wastes more money. Its worth more checks if have time and you diy.

 

I'm having the exact same issue as the OP and I've actually made another thread about it.

All suspension and steering components have been replaced, EXCEPT for the front bushings on the front control arms, and the front sway bar bushings.

Same thing is concerning me: Loose steering/car wanders.

I have said before, however, in the other thread that it's probably high time for new tires, or at least balance/rotate the current set.

 

wander:
tires
wheel alignment
steering link > tie rod ends
hub bearing > bearing, hub inner race
stabilizer bar

Recently, noticed my end links nylock nut not good so replaced it back with oem flange nut. Nylock nuts are only good for a few uses and must be replaced after that. Also I am about to replace my inner tie rods.

 

Mine had two sets of tires and balanced many times. For some odd reason I still had a vibration. Once my brakes had to be replaced (rotors) it went away finally. I never had any pulsing brakes when pressing on them, but had vibrations on the highway. Go figure.

 

Well, you know, now that I think of it... The rotor isn't stationary when the car is in motion. It rotates with the wheels. If it's out of balance/warped/something else, it just stands to reason that it will vibrate and shake. I'm guessing that could easily be transferred to the rest of the vehicle.

 

Sorry fellas I should have been more specific. By tracking, the best description I can give is if I hold the steering wheel slightly, with no pressure to keep it going straight, it will wander slightly in one direction or another. When I hold the wheel firmly, I don't notice any wander. So I'm not certain what it would be.

Everything to do with the brakes, front and rear is OK. Caliper pins move freely, caliper cylinders were able to be compressed with no noticeable resistance when I replaced the front brake rotors and pads. I used grease to lubricate all the moving parts. Brakes no longer vibrate when applied and when letting go of the steering wheel it does not pull to one side or another, it stops in a straight line.

Now there is another thing I have yet to mention in this thread that may pertain to my problem. There is clunks and creaks everywhere. Front noise seems to come from the top of the strut (strut mount?) and rear I'm pretty sure is the sway bar bushings (I have a pair in my glove box that I've yet to install).

The car had a wheel alignment done twice (second time with the better of the two sets). After the first alignment there was still pulling issues, but it wasn't as bad. I swapped the tires over between the two alignments and notices a big improvement when I had the better set of tires on and before the second alignment. After the second alignment the pull was mostly gone away. I then did brakes and it was better again. All of these were very slight improvements.

I switched over to my brand new winter tires today and things feel good on the highway. There's still a vibration but it's very subtle compared to the initial vibration.


TL;DR
So right now, my biggest issue is the noises and the slight wandering that happens when I'm holding the wheel with little pressure (that's the best way I can describe it) and when I let go of the wheel completely.

 

if it wanders from side to side, then either too much play in the control arm ball joints or bushings or in the rack itself. you'll need to verify each and every connection to see which has abnormal movement, side to side, up and down.
tony

 

Thanks Tony. Any guidance on how these parts can be checked?

 

"dont sit there with ur pedal depressed with ur pads in the same spot as u stopped."
lexusman, you're the first person i've ever heard that said what i've always thought. when i do a hard stop, i let it roll just a bit after the stop and then a little bit more if the situation allows me the room to do so, because i'm trying to keep the hot pads away from the rotor as much as possible. i've had people say with ABS you don't need to pump the brakes, which is true to keep them from locking up, but they don't realize i'm trying to keep the heat down in the pads by braking smaller amounts of times to achieve the same stopping distance.
tony