GregW1

Thank you, that makes perfect sense, especially as the brake system works perfectly on sealed roads. I'm going to do some research about the ABS and see if there is anything I can take a look at and check what is normal. We are pretty sure the previous Rav4 didn't have this issue, but I need to check if that had ABS, it was a Rav4 Sports wagon (if I recall correctly). The main thing here is safety. Thanks again Greg P.S. is there a way to check if the previous Rav4 had ABS or not? I have the past rego papers so the VIN etc number are on that

My daughter has her 2nd 2004 Rav4 2.4 Auto Cruiser, has over 300K country kms, but runs really well for age and kms done. This was purchased only recently from a local seller after her first Rav4 was a write-off after an accident. After Insurance excess this replacement Rav4 was not as good as the previous one, it is a cheaper replacement until an upgrade in next 2 to 3 years. It has a few minor oil leaks identified that I will attempt to fix on the next service I do. I do all of the routine maintenance and ensure only quality parts and oils are used. After purchase a full replacement of oil, coolant, filters and plugs were done with a couple of water hoses replaced as well. It is using more oil than the previous Rav4 (150K), but is probably acceptable given the 300K kms. It still runs very well, good compression, good pickup, trans is clean and smooth. So it is in pretty good nick for its age and kms. I have come across an issue I have not had before. The brakes appear good, the pads are fine, brake fluid looks clean, but I'm going to do a brake fluid flush to cross that off the possible issues. The issue is that when on a gravel road and brakes are applied normally there appears to be little to no issue. When only slightly harder than normal braking is applied you can feel through the pedal what feels like grabbing and releasing and grabbing again while the brake is being applied, it certainly feels bad. I'm not 100% sure of what I am hearing, it appears (or at least feels to hear) to be a knocking, rather than grinding. This ONLY happens on gravel, hard application on sealed roads has no issues at all, no bad or poor feel at all in the brake pedal. There is no obvious brake fluid leaks etc, the level of brake fluid has not changed since purchase. Does this Rav4 come with LSD? If so I am thinking that is probably the issue in that it is not handling the loose gravel as it should. Or is this an AWD issue? How to tell? I can't see any obvious visual issues, I will re look at the full brake system when I do the Brake fluid on the weekend. If you have some advice on what the issue could be and a way to fix please let me know. I'd rather work on what is most likely instead of fiddling around with what is ok 🙂 Cheers for you help 🙂 Greg

My daughter owns the Rav4 (2nd one) which I maintain for her 🙂 We will be upgrading to a Rav4 ourselves in 2019 😉 I've joined here to ask questions about the Rav4 troubleshooting and maintenance questions, I hope that is ok 😄 We live rural South West WA moved form the city some 10 years ago 🙂 So anyway, hello every one 🙂