Steering Wheel Shake
06-25-2018, 09:56 AM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Steering Wheel Shake
So I brought my car into the independent because my steering wheel was shaking while braking. They said it was the brakes and did the front and back. Well, the wheel is still shaking. Any thoughts on what it is?
06-25-2018, 09:59 AM
#2
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Well, what did they do? New pads? New rotors?? New pads & rotors??? How are your tires???? Are your tires balanced?????
06-26-2018, 09:19 AM
#5
RL Community Team
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What is the thickness of the front rotors?
First thing to do is pull the front wheels off. Get a Roloc pad for your drill, spray some brake cleaner on it and go around the pad running area on the front and back sides of both front rotors to remove the microscopic later of brake pad material that's deposited there.
Then put the wheels back on and redo a proper pad bedding procedure, which means a few progressively harder stops from about 60 mph to 20 mph with the last one being about 80% of total braking power - yes, you will smell brakes. While doing these, never come to a complete stop. Once you've done 5 or 6 of these, continue to drive for at least 5 miles with as little braking as possible to allow the rotors to cool back down. Once back in the garage, don't set the parking brake this time.
On the next drive, see if the vibration is gone. If not, the rotors are probably warped and will need to be replaced. If it is gone, what was causing the steering wheel to shake was an uneven layer of pad material deposited on the rotor running surface. What gives brakes that nice initial bite is the pad material on the pad itself contacting the pad material deposited onto the running surface of the rotor at the microscopic level. If you had different pads installed before or the brakes weren't bed in properly, that layer on the rotors doesn't get deposited uniformally, and as the rotor rotates with the brakes applied, you get a grab and release effect which behaves like a warped rotor. If the brakes weren't bed in properly once the new pads were installed (which means cleaning the rotors as I described above) to transfer the new pad material to the rotor surface and the brakes were used fairly hard, its also possible the surface of the new pads are now glazed/hardened where they won't ever bite well and those should be removed and the surface of them sanded a little with rough grit sandpaper, like 60 or 80 grit to expose virgin pad material. If doing this, wear a dust mask or painting respirator so you don't breath in the pad material dust. If you're going to pull the wheels to clean the rotors and are confident and have the proper tools to remove and correctly reinstall and properly torque the calipers back down, you may want to do both cleaning of the rotors and scuffing of the pads at the same time, but if you aren't equipped or able to do the caliper R & R, then just do the rotor cleaning and rebedding I started with.
First thing to do is pull the front wheels off. Get a Roloc pad for your drill, spray some brake cleaner on it and go around the pad running area on the front and back sides of both front rotors to remove the microscopic later of brake pad material that's deposited there.
Then put the wheels back on and redo a proper pad bedding procedure, which means a few progressively harder stops from about 60 mph to 20 mph with the last one being about 80% of total braking power - yes, you will smell brakes. While doing these, never come to a complete stop. Once you've done 5 or 6 of these, continue to drive for at least 5 miles with as little braking as possible to allow the rotors to cool back down. Once back in the garage, don't set the parking brake this time.
On the next drive, see if the vibration is gone. If not, the rotors are probably warped and will need to be replaced. If it is gone, what was causing the steering wheel to shake was an uneven layer of pad material deposited on the rotor running surface. What gives brakes that nice initial bite is the pad material on the pad itself contacting the pad material deposited onto the running surface of the rotor at the microscopic level. If you had different pads installed before or the brakes weren't bed in properly, that layer on the rotors doesn't get deposited uniformally, and as the rotor rotates with the brakes applied, you get a grab and release effect which behaves like a warped rotor. If the brakes weren't bed in properly once the new pads were installed (which means cleaning the rotors as I described above) to transfer the new pad material to the rotor surface and the brakes were used fairly hard, its also possible the surface of the new pads are now glazed/hardened where they won't ever bite well and those should be removed and the surface of them sanded a little with rough grit sandpaper, like 60 or 80 grit to expose virgin pad material. If doing this, wear a dust mask or painting respirator so you don't breath in the pad material dust. If you're going to pull the wheels to clean the rotors and are confident and have the proper tools to remove and correctly reinstall and properly torque the calipers back down, you may want to do both cleaning of the rotors and scuffing of the pads at the same time, but if you aren't equipped or able to do the caliper R & R, then just do the rotor cleaning and rebedding I started with.
06-26-2018, 08:14 PM
#7
RL Community Team
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06-26-2018, 10:13 PM
#8
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by Petza914
What is the thickness of the front rotors?
First thing to do is pull the front wheels off. Get a Roloc pad for your drill, spray some brake cleaner on it and go around the pad running area on the front and back sides of both front rotors to remove the microscopic later of brake pad material that's deposited there.
Then put the wheels back on and redo a proper pad bedding procedure, which means a few progressively harder stops from about 60 mph to 20 mph with the last one being about 80% of total braking power - yes, you will smell brakes. While doing these, never come to a complete stop. Once you've done 5 or 6 of these, continue to drive for at least 5 miles with as little braking as possible to allow the rotors to cool back down. Once back in the garage, don't set the parking brake this time.
On the next drive, see if the vibration is gone. If not, the rotors are probably warped and will need to be replaced. If it is gone, what was causing the steering wheel to shake was an uneven layer of pad material deposited on the rotor running surface. What gives brakes that nice initial bite is the pad material on the pad itself contacting the pad material deposited onto the running surface of the rotor at the microscopic level. If you had different pads installed before or the brakes weren't bed in properly, that layer on the rotors doesn't get deposited uniformally, and as the rotor rotates with the brakes applied, you get a grab and release effect which behaves like a warped rotor. If the brakes weren't bed in properly once the new pads were installed (which means cleaning the rotors as I described above) to transfer the new pad material to the rotor surface and the brakes were used fairly hard, its also possible the surface of the new pads are now glazed/hardened where they won't ever bite well and those should be removed and the surface of them sanded a little with rough grit sandpaper, like 60 or 80 grit to expose virgin pad material. If doing this, wear a dust mask or painting respirator so you don't breath in the pad material dust. If you're going to pull the wheels to clean the rotors and are confident and have the proper tools to remove and correctly reinstall and properly torque the calipers back down, you may want to do both cleaning of the rotors and scuffing of the pads at the same time, but if you aren't equipped or able to do the caliper R & R, then just do the rotor cleaning and rebedding I started with.
First thing to do is pull the front wheels off. Get a Roloc pad for your drill, spray some brake cleaner on it and go around the pad running area on the front and back sides of both front rotors to remove the microscopic later of brake pad material that's deposited there.
Then put the wheels back on and redo a proper pad bedding procedure, which means a few progressively harder stops from about 60 mph to 20 mph with the last one being about 80% of total braking power - yes, you will smell brakes. While doing these, never come to a complete stop. Once you've done 5 or 6 of these, continue to drive for at least 5 miles with as little braking as possible to allow the rotors to cool back down. Once back in the garage, don't set the parking brake this time.
On the next drive, see if the vibration is gone. If not, the rotors are probably warped and will need to be replaced. If it is gone, what was causing the steering wheel to shake was an uneven layer of pad material deposited on the rotor running surface. What gives brakes that nice initial bite is the pad material on the pad itself contacting the pad material deposited onto the running surface of the rotor at the microscopic level. If you had different pads installed before or the brakes weren't bed in properly, that layer on the rotors doesn't get deposited uniformally, and as the rotor rotates with the brakes applied, you get a grab and release effect which behaves like a warped rotor. If the brakes weren't bed in properly once the new pads were installed (which means cleaning the rotors as I described above) to transfer the new pad material to the rotor surface and the brakes were used fairly hard, its also possible the surface of the new pads are now glazed/hardened where they won't ever bite well and those should be removed and the surface of them sanded a little with rough grit sandpaper, like 60 or 80 grit to expose virgin pad material. If doing this, wear a dust mask or painting respirator so you don't breath in the pad material dust. If you're going to pull the wheels to clean the rotors and are confident and have the proper tools to remove and correctly reinstall and properly torque the calipers back down, you may want to do both cleaning of the rotors and scuffing of the pads at the same time, but if you aren't equipped or able to do the caliper R & R, then just do the rotor cleaning and rebedding I started with.