I had my rotors and brake replaced the other day. When I picked up the car and drive it at highway speeds, I notice a vibration through the steering wheel that was not there before. The shop that did the brake job used Zimmerman rotors.

Anyone have any experience like this. Again, it is not while depressing the brakes, only while driving. I have my winter pirelli snow and ice tires on when they did the brake job. I thought they might of knocked a weight off so i put my summer's on and had them balanced. No change.

I am to the point where I am just going to buy a set from the porche dealer and change them myself to see if that resolves the issue.

Any thoughts?

 

Loose wheel Lug bolt ?

 

Unlikey since the wheels were changed..

Sounds like an out-of-balance rotor. It happens. Some rotors use weight clips in the vent fins to balance them. If one gets knocked off.. other rotors have part of the vent fin ground away to balance them. And some probably never get balanced. I had a bad experience with Zimmerman rotors on a BMW, so I try to use stock OE rotors now.. of course given the price of the Porsche rotors I may be looking at OEM aftermarket (ATE have been OK for a mechanic friend..) when I'm due.

 

Never had that with Zimmermans ( an OEM supplier by the way) there are no obvious balancing weights on the cars, his has to be something simple

 

Can't think of anything but balance that would give his symptoms (nothing under braking, vibration when driving) to me = balance problem, and it's not his tires/rims, so that leaves.. rotors. Eilenberger's Law of Troubleshooting - look where you last worked.

 

that is what I'm thinking. Just out of balance or poor fitment against the hub? Pretty disheartening. The reason I haven't bought a new Cayenne is because this one has driven like a dream for nearly 8 years. Now, the vibration is driving me nuts. Back to the repair shop with a set of OEM rotors in hand.

Thanks for the input. The only good that has come our of this is the new Milwaukee battery powered impact driver I bought to switch out my tires. Awesome power tool! Any yes, I used a torch wrench to 118.

 

I believe the OEM were Brembo rotors and pads when I changed mine. Nothing more frustrating to get a vibration after new brakes. Good luck with the OEMs.

 

Vibration was the one thing these cars were terrible for back in the day. Causes, bad wheel balancing fixed by Road Force Balance on a Hunter machine.

Alignment, 4 wheel aligntment maybe they used a sledge hammer on the rotor bolts and bent it.

Tire weirdness, sometimes just putting the wrong wheel back on the wrong hub.

Really find it hard to believe its the rotors because that would get worse under braking

 

My bet is on poor fitment on the hub. The tech should have scrubbed off any loose corrosion prior to mounting the disc(s).

 

Another possibility is that the big flat spring on top of the pads isn't putting enough pressure on the pads. Feels like there is something loose in the suspension. Easy fix, remove the spring and bend it a bit more to push down on the pads. Pretty common problem.

 

Bob, thanks for that tip. I will try that first. then, if it doesn't work, I am going to shell out the $300 for the OEM rotors. If that doesn't work, at least I will have an extra set of rotors for the future.

if it does work, I will hand the zimmermans back to the shop and get my money back. I'll update the board with my findings so no one else has to deal with this mess.

Appreciate everyone's feedback.

 

Not necessarily if they are out of balance (not warped/bent/on-wrong, simply out of balance. That would not cause any change under braking conditions.)

 

The OEM are Brembo... It is either the Spring Retainer clip not working properly or the Afermarket rotors out of balance.

 

I wanted to give everyone an update on this. I ordered porsche OEM rotors from Sunset Porsche in Portland. Great price btw.

Put them on today and problem solved. The Zimmerman rotors without a doubt were the issue. I check the springs and they were tight. Prior to swapping the rotors, I couldn't drive above 60 without the steering wheel shaking. On the way to the repair shop to take back the zimmermans, I looked down at my speedo and was doing 77. I guess I was so conditioned that if there was no shake, I must be driving below 60 that I didn't notice. My advice, buy from the dealer. The few dollars I would have saved wasn't worth it. On a good note, the repair shop did refund me the price of the zimmermans with tax. Surprisingly, that worked out to $328. I only paid $346 total with shipping included for the new rotors from sunset.

Lesson learned.

 

With due respect, it could have been the rotors, but equally it could have just been one of the wheels in a different position when you put the wheels back on knocking the balance out

I would not be so quick to jump to absolute conclusions on a car where none can exist

Glad your rolling well now tho