[entrax]

for what its worth:

- i believe the dealer's consensus was definitely out of true rotors from diagnosis 2 days ago.

- steering vibration only happens when brake is applied. as a previous owner of a tercel with solid front discs small enough to fit 12" wheels on, i can relate to the owner regarding the steering vibration due to bad rotors. i saw the brakes recently, and there were no grooves found. to be clear, there is zero vibration at all when not on the brakes. you can drive this thing with your pinky finger nails with fake nails attached to it...until you need to brake. i read stuff and i believe it's because the hotspots/high spots as boostedbb6 has mentioned aren't in the same exact spots on the rotor from left to right, so if you imagine the pad contacting the rotor in slow motion, there's spots where the pad grabs the rotor more, but it's not the same left to right.

- tires were purchased new sometime around early 2015, michelin ps all season. i took his summer wheels off and put on his winters (separate sets) for him back in october and i noted even minimal wear across the tread. i think the fronts wore down 1/32 and rears by 2/32, or the other way around, no abnormal camber wear. car was driven to okanagan twice in the summer up and down coquihalla. rotors were fine then. it's probably been 4 months since those drives and only now has it been an issue

i believe the tires being okay deems the alignment decent, i'll ask if alignment has been done recently. hub run-out can be eliminated as this would have caused issues from day 1.