My car has a slight vibration in the steering wheel that is most noticeable at 90 kmph. However under braking at that speed there is a heavy vibration until you slow down to under 40kmph. It almost shakes your hands off the wheel. I replaced the rotors about 4 years ago but it doesn’t seem like the rotors because the pedal doesn’t pulse all that much. I thought it might be a wheel balance issue so I rotated the tires front to back and there was no difference. Any ideas? Completely stock suspension setup btw.
Well, lets talk wear and tear and whats left to resurface(printed on the rotors themselves). If you’ve been trashing your brakes then alas, your rotors are toast, along with tired pads. Overheating rotors causes hot spots where the metal has been treated like a burnt clutch. Really, you should of thought of stopping at the last rest stop. Thats the worst case. Least bothersome is a split axle boot thats throwing grease all over. Warping rotors are a common problem. As is splatter. Clean the rotors and scruff up your pads, if theres anything left. That way you can try and break them in again properly. Look over the steering boots and axles for splits. Or drive like you know how.:dance:
your rotors are FOUR YEARS OLD? damn. yea after that much time ur rotors are sound like they are warped and thats what causing the wheel vibration to escalate while ur braking.
for the future its a good idea to change rotors every time u change ur brakes. that way everything is even and new. jus spend the extra 80 bucks. its worth it.
check your suspension parts.
Warped rotors = myth. Read stoptech’s article about it. It is 99 percent of the time uneven distribution of brake pad material (caused by driver or other). the other 1% is an f-ed up install or something unrelated to heat.
It may mean your disc(s) have not been installed correctly (i.e. torqued down improperly).
edit:
http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_warped_brakedisk.shtml
wheel bearings?
unblanced tires will cause vibration at high speeds at the steering wheel. If your rotors are wrap then when you brake than vibration on steering wheel and brake pedal. I’m pretty sure you will not get a vibration from warped rotors at high speeds!
I would rotate your tires from front to back and see what happens!
edit: I didnt read the whole post only topic! Most likly your rotors If you do hard braking you get alot of heat which cause rotors to warp. Get your hands on a dail indiactor to test warp rotors. Before buying if you think they are still good. and check for uneven pad wear!
[QUOTE=ez12a;1724562]check your suspension parts.
Warped rotors from heat = myth.
http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_warped_brakedisk.shtml[/QUOTE]
torquing your wheels on too tight will distort your rotors, or torquing them in the wrong order.
Heat - the enemy
It’s this intense heat that causes rotors to warp. With conventional and even metallic brake pads, the brake pads and rotor rub against each other; the pads make the rotor hotter, while the rotor makes the pads hotter. This keeps going back and forth between the pads and the rotors until they get intensely hot. Then, when the wheel finally stops turning, you have a piping hot pad sitting in one place of the rotor. What happens then is the rest of the rotor cools off a lot quicker than the spot where the hot pads are sitting. This is where the warpage comes from. Another danger is brake fade; the pads and rotor can get so intensely hot in hard braking, their ability to generate friction is greatly reduced.
http://www1.epinions.com/content_4738556036
Warped rotors from heat = True
Denied. :umno:
I’d rather trust a company that makes and engineers brakes and hardware than some “eopinion” by a guy thats trusted by only 5 people.
Warpage caused soley by cooling and heating is false.
However, if the disk is hot enough, the pads will leave an imprint, therefore uneven brake pad material. No warping. (hence proper bed-in procedures, I.e. Driver error).
LOL I’ve been working on cars for over 10 years (professionally for 6) and have seen warped rotors. By using a dial indicator you can see the rotor is warped. Alot of poeple use cheap kragen rotors which does not evp. heat fast. I my self have replaced rotors only and use the old pads and the vibration was gone. And no come backs. When i turn rotors from warping you can see the wave and area from the warp.
That site talks most about race cars which get rid of heat faster.
Think about it: what happens to a piece of metal when hot? It bends! Its a no brainer.
Also think about it. Why would a brake pedal pulsate under braking if the rotor was not warped. When the pad hits a warped area it will push the calipar piston back in which than pedal pushes up.
You keep believing what you read and i believe on what i see everyday!
uneven brake pad material on the face of the rotor causes the pulsing maybe? hmmm. I would think the rapid cooling and heating of race rotors/pads would warp, wouldnt you think? but nope.
AGAIN, heat does not cause the warping. Incorrect/incompetent install does. I never said warped rotors dont exist. They just dont get caused by HEAT.
The only danger of coming to a complete stop with hot rotors/pads is brake pad impriting. Dont you know how to bed-in pads? thats why you NEVER come to a complete stop in the process (depending on type of pad). Unless you’re spraying ice water on the rotor while its still nothing will happen. when the rotor’s stopped there isn’t much cooling going on, so warping from just being parked isnt going to happen. Its not like the rest of the rotor suddenly gets cooler sitting still. It cools the fastest when moving.
Also, brake pads act as a “lathe” if you will…If the pads are pressing evenly on the rotor on both sides there should be no problems with it suddenly becoming “warped”
If you read the stoptech article, Assumed that the install is done correctly, heat as an acting force alone cannot warp rotors.
“With one qualifier, presuming that the hub and wheel flange are flat and in good condition and that the wheel bolts or hat mounting hardware is in good condition, installed correctly and tightened uniformly and in the correct order to the recommended torque specification, in more than 40 years of professional racing, including the Shelby/Ford GT 40s – one of the most intense brake development program in history - I have never seen a warped brake disc.”
“I have seen lots of cracked discs, discs that had turned into shallow cones at operating temperature because they were mounted rigidly to their attachment bells or top hats”
lets say you take off your tires on your driveway. I can easily assume that most of us (if we dont have a torque wrench handy) to just tighten the wheels by stomping on the tire wrench. That is TOO much torque already. only 80 ft/lbs is required. Many shops use impact wrenches to tighten the lugs on many cars and that can torque the lugs to over 100 lbs/ft easy. The crank pulley is torqued more than the lugs on your wheels.
edit: think about it, You put new brake pads on yourself. Next thing you know a hundred miles later your steering wheel’s vibrating. How did you torque your lugs? Did you just use your body weight? Same thing with putting on new rotors cause of the supposed warped rotors. How did you tighten them? then how did you tighten the lugs when you put the wheel on?
my friend with a civic took his car to a shop for brakes. He drove it after and it started vibrating badly. Ended up the shop ruined his rotors by torquing too much. It is common practice in shops to use impact wrenches or pneumatic wrenches to tighten lugs. But just because it is common does not make it right. Took it back and the shop replaced it at their expense. Problem solved. 80 ft/lbs is not a lot. You can just push with your arms and it’ll be enough (with a torque wrench). I’m sure people here bench press…you can easily do above 80 with just your arms–hopefully.
http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=107
“Be careful because if you over torque a wheel, you can strip a lug nut or hub, stretch or break a stud or bolt, and cause the wheel, brake rotor and/or brake drum to distort.”
To the OP: have you had your pads changed? Your rotors were changed 4 years ago, i’m positively sure you had to have your pads replaced sometime between then and now. Where did you take it or did you do it yourself? Did you have the rotor turned to remove the old layer of brake material? IF so, have you exceeded the serviceable limit? Have you been participating in autoX that you havent told us about?
as i research more, heat can affect rotors…but chemically. (cast iron turns into a different material, Cementite, at extreme temperatures) Not physically. Cementite and the cast iron wear differently. This still does not equal warped (bent or twisted out of shape due to heat) However to achieve this you would have to reach 650-700 Celsius. To reach this temperature that would involve some serious driving.
*wow, i typed a lot. 
[QUOTE=ez12a;1726950]
To the OP: have you had your pads changed? Your rotors were changed 4 years ago, i’m positively sure you had to have your pads replaced sometime between then and now. Where did you take it or did you do it yourself? Did you have the rotor turned to remove the old layer of brake material? IF so, have you exceeded the serviceable limit? Have you been participating in autoX that you havent told us about?[/QUOTE]
New pads were installed at the same time the rotors were. The same pads are on now and they’re not even close to being worn out (still half an inch thick). Installed myself. No autoxing, just daily driving. Im having the rotors turned tomorrow so I’ll see what that does.
How are your calipers? I had my rotors turned and new pads and still had the vibrating probleml. But it was only during braking. I decided to get all new brake stuff, powerslot rotors, hawk pads, and reman calipers from kragen. It was the calipers. When I pulled them off the slide bracket was not easily movable. I didn’t want the downtime so didn’t rebuild them but it could have easily been done. Check the calipers.
Turned the rotors and all is well. So smooth now it almost feels weird.