Toyota Tundra Forum : “Brakes freeze up”

When you say it's frozen do you mean put in gear won't move?? Or pedal is stuck?? Push brakes and nothing happens?? Expain??

Yes, when the car is put in gear and the gas is moderately applied, nothing happens.  In order to break up the freeze I have to rev up the engine.  Going in reverse tends to free up the breaks with less power applied.

Wow... Be carefull.. Doesn't sound safe.. ha.. I'm thinking you might have a problem in the rear brakes.. Axle seal or Brake cylinders leaking oil bad enough the rear shoes are sticking to the drums... Assuming you have no ABS or TRAC lite on this would be my guess... You might be able to look at the back side of the wheels around the drums from underneth if you see oil or grease all over this is a good clue... You might also double check your brake fluid.. Look at the Master Cylinder is the cap on? If the wrong fluid or something else is added it will cause the seal on the bottom of the Master Cylinder cover to swell up and become soft.. Will damage all rubber parts in ABS and brakes, Wheel Cylinders, Caliper Pistons.. A real mess... Will need lots of work.. Good Luck..

I just bought a 2008 tundra..drove for 30 minutes in light 8" powder snow with a fair amount of light brake action down a mountain for 15 of those 30 minutes. Parked.  7 Hours later at 6AM I tried to back out of driveway and the vehicle felt stuck..like a brake was applied (it wasn't); suddenly with a thunk the wheels began to move as I applied more gas.  Now backing slowly down my driveway I applied brakes again (going 2-3 MPH) about 6 feet from a rock wall..no brakes, no skid, felt like pushing a power brake with no brake fluid..bam into wall.  After driving away I applied brakes lightly as I drove and no response for about 50-60 ft. then fine...almost as if they were wet or frozen with a sheen of ice..has anyone ever heard of such a thing with the tundra?  Is it possible the snow melted on the hubs (it was 8 inches and fluffy) and then froze (temps didn't get above 10 degrees)?  Thanks for any info.  Had mechanics check..nothing...removed wheels and checked hubs and test drove...nothing...??

Dude, that sounds just like what I was trying to describe.  Only difference is I've never had the follow-on lack of braking ability.  It just seems to stick, most notably when trying to go forward.  For whatever reason, going backward doesn't seem to affect them as much.

Frustrating to think more people aren't speaking up about this.