Steering Wheel shake when braking

My dial indicator has an articulated magnetic mount, so had it mounted to the knuckle.

 

Doesn't look too complicated to do. I'm going to do the other steps I mentioned first, but I appreciate the tip. I hope I don't have to go that far (buying a new tool...which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but will if the other things don't fix it.

 

Ha, out of all the things I throw money at. Tools are the only thing that seem to last the longest. Long live my tool chest!!!!!! Sort of like women, the bigger the chest the better.

 

You must live someplace warm and rust free to turn that so fast! No fighting the chemically bonded nuts and bolts!

 

Missouri....the land of salt/deicer. I have skillz yo. and various lengths of cheater bars.



And a BFH

 

I know this is an old thread and everyone says warped rotors, which logic would tell you this, but I have a slight wobble and I know its coming from R front wheel, both front brakes have new rotors, new calipers and new pads so this is a bummer if its a rotor

 

Essential tools in any well rounded mechanic's box of tricks.

 

Just realized I never updated this thread.

Mine turned out to be the rotor. OReilly screwed it up when they turned them. Wouldn't stand by their work either. Guy was kind of a huge jerk about it to. I won't go back to O'Reillys after that (and you shouldn't either).

Took advantage of a promo at Autozone and got new Duralast rotors and couldn't be happier with them.

@texvet61 , what kind of rotors did you get?

 

can't remember, got them from O'reilly anyway I noticed at high speed braking I could feel it in my seat as well as the steering wheel, decided to check rear brakes since I haven't done so since buying the truck in 2014 and as expected they were like everything else on the truck and in dire need of replacement, instead of turning and having to replace later considering the truck is at 181K so I just sprang for new drums and pads, drums are Duralast, I will take front apart next week and have rotors checked, sad part is the only place around here that turns rotors / drums is O'reilly, but the one by me has a Manager who was an Army Brat so she takes good care of us Veterans, she knocked off $20 on the rotors and still gave me 10% veterans discount so for now I have no gripes, especially since they are the only ones who turns brakes without having to drive to Orlando or Gainesville.

 

in colorado toyota guys warp their rotors all the time. I either upgrade them to 4runner v8 or lexus lx470 brakes,... or I put slotted and drilled rotors on. I only takes one time of getting your brakes wicked hot and then parking the truck right away. the spot where the pads sit will cool down extremely slower than the rest of the rotor and the heat distortion warps the rotor. either way just remember that its good practice to replace pads and rotors as a set. because too hard of a brake pad will cause excessive heat and warp your new rotors. also dont buy parts from autozone or oreilleys. for toyota trucks i always use akebono pads and premium if not slotted and drilled rotors.

 

when is the last time you used you park brake or had your brakes cleaned and adjusted? if the rears are out of adjustment the fronts do all the work and will heat up faster

 

I just use wheel spacers. Have not experienced brake shake since. Prior to having the spacers on I used to pull the front wheels off and remove the thick layer of rust that had built up on the rotor hats and hub. Worked in removing the shaking everytime.

 

Generally I would agree but I have actually seen a lot of warped rotors when I was in tech school. No idea what the hell causes them.

But later my instructor explained to me that sometimes the metal wears unevenly and so it gives the illusion of being warped.

So still the best way to fix it is just to have the rotors cut and smoothed

 

I know this is old but... So I've had wheel shake when braking for a while now. Its a 2012 and just hit 67k. I do quite a bit of offroading and dipped through mountain streams more times than I can remember. So I wasn't surprised that my rotors were warped. Got new tires recently and saw my brakes needed changing. I went with brembo blanks and brembo pads, came as a set. Put em on and followed the break in procedure to a T. Everything was going well then about a week ago I thought I could hear a slight grinding. Took off the wheels and inspected everything, it all checks out fine. Put wheels back on and later washed the truck. I was a little alarmed by how much brake dust came out. No more grinding feeling. Then it came back and the wheel shakes again. Diffrence this time is its not consistent by any means. Sometimes it does it, sometimes not. Wash brake dust away, no grind. But wtf!!? I don't know what is going on. Anyone have any ideas?

 

You could have already put "hot spots" on your new rotors. It kind of depends on driving habits and type of roads you drive on. If you do a lot of downhill braking and then come to a complete stop while the rotors are still above a certain temp, the pads will transfer material to the rotor. The next time you go to use the brakes, when the pad meets the other pad material that has been embedded into the rotor, it slips a little and then grips again as soon as it passes that spot. This can cause a shaking feeling.

I have no idea what that temp is. Nor do I know if that could even be your issue; but for it to go away when you changed the rotors an pads only to come back a little while later....that's the first thing that comes to mind.

You can go through a process where you basically ride the brakes to heat them up to above that temp (whatever it is). Then get up to speed (~70 mph) and slam on the brakes until you get down to like 30 mph. Repeat the process several times. Eventually, the pads will essentially scrape off the other pad material. But then you need to cruise for a while and let them cool down without coming to a complete stop for a while. Of course, you should do this in a safe manner with no traffic around. Also, don't break any traffic laws.

I'd start there. Then bleed the brakes until you see new fluid coming out of the line. Mark the current fluid line on the reservoir and try to keep it at that level when you are done bleeding them. I don't think you really need to bleed the brakes, but new fluid that has never boiled is a cheap thing to rule out.

Beyond that, I don't know what to recommend.

 

have you ruled out a tire out of balance?

 

I heard something similar from a friend, thanks for the info.

 

No actually I did the brakes same time I got new tires put on. But wouldn't that cause it all the time? It is only does it when braking and even then it only happens sometimes. I am going to get it checked though. Such an easy thing gets forgotten sometimes, u know. Thanks.

 

Sometimes you can only feel an out of balance tire when it hits a certain speed. So like a window between 50-60mph for example and then it will be smooth outside of that window.

 

when mine does this, a few hard stops will prevent it
When it gets worse, front end alignment cures it
When pads get to 50% it seems to happen more now on my second set of pads