Truck Shaking when Breaking

As an avid Penn State fan, I go to every home game. I noticed a few weeks ago that when breaking, especially on downhill mountains, my truck shakes. Specifically the steering wheel shakes and you can also feel it on the break pedal. Passengers do not feel it very much, but as the driver, i certainly do. I have new tires, but they have been on my truck for almost a year now.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Adam

 

You have warped rotors

 

warped rotors or uneven break pad wear maybe?

if they are hot and you run through a cold puddle it can damage them. either have the rotors turned and ground down by a pro or replace the rotors all together. not too costly for a important piece of equipment

for some reason i cant think of anything else

 

That's a myth. You can't drive these trucks hard enough to make that happen. I bet he has been in stop and go traffic a lot and needs to burn in the pads. Do a couple of 60mph-0 stops. Hard, but not hard enough to get the ABS to engage. I'll bet it goes away.

 

Replace your brake rotors. Mine only had a minor vibration and when I put them on a brake lathe they were too warped to cut. You might want to replace the pads as well. I have noticed complaints about ceramic pads making noise(grinding sound) so I would go with semi-metallic pads. This should solve your problem.

 

I wouldn't worry about it, but do you know the difference between braking and breaking?

 

Break or brake. Or there, their, or they're.

 

Rotors are warped....same thing happened to me. Brakes were nice and hot and then i must have hit a deep puddle. The shaking was just as you described, shuddering while braking. The dealership cut the rotors "under warranty" and no more shaking and shuddering.

 

Just burn them in. Try it, it's free and it works. 60-0 two or three times. Do it.

 

Brake pad deposits are the dust that is on your front wheels. Whenever I cut rotors it removed metal from the braking surface not just brake dust. That whole speal about brake rotors not warping sounds like it was written by a manufacturer who doesn't want to replace defective rotors. Tacoma rotors aren't very thick to start with(for the size and weight of the vehicle) so I would just replace them. By all means you can try to burn your pads back in but I doubt it will make any difference. Let us know how you make out.

 

Either my dial indicator lies like a politician, or warped rotors are pretty commonplace in my world too.

 

It shakes when it brakes or breaks when it shakes?

 

Warped rotors...Myth #1 is just that, a Myth....


I just got new rotors, problem solved, took my old ones in to have them turned so I would have some 'backups', they wouldn't turn them, said too warped, said if they turned them it would cause thinner spots when turned and would almost immediately rewarp because of this...


just my .02 worth...

 

If you were to take a rotor that was supposedly warped and measure it for lateral runout with a dial indicator, you would probably see runout in excess of 0.003". I say that because it takes approximately that amount of runout (or more) for the average person to feel in the brake pedal as pulsation. For the most part 0.002" or 0.001" of runout is very difficult to feel in the brake pedal. So what is causing that runout? Well, most people would say that the metal rotor warped, and the solution is to machine (or lathe/cut) the rotors to make them true again. In reality, the runout is almost always caused by uneven pad deposits on the surface of the rotor. In other words, the brake pads aren't depositing material evenly around the rotor. The result is high and low spots on the rotor, which result in excessive runout, and of course pedal pulsation. Machining the rotors will make them true again. So will bedding the pads with a few hard stops. Try it, it's free and I'll bet you a beer it works.

 

I cannot agree with you there. On multiple occasions I have mearured rotor run-out well in excess of .010", yet parallelism (AKA thickness variation) was still within spec of under .0005" when measured with a mic. I like beer.

 

Maybe it works for you... but in my 30 cars that I beat the living shit out of, I have gotten warped rotors on every one. I have done 60-0 brake hits as an ordinary part of having fun since I started driving. You sir are incorrect.

 

Get new front pads and rotors. Problem solved.

If you suck at driving, you'll warp rotors nice and quick. Learn to let off the brake and use engine braking.

Rotors get warped from being too hot. Let them cool down. I drive a truck with 35s, armor everywhere, and lots do heavy extras. Gues what? I've never warped the rotors. I've done hard stops, slow stops, I drive down a long steep hill home everyday and I've never warped my rotors. You need to concentrate and use your head while driving. When your rotors are warped, they don't work nearly as well. When you emergency stop, your stopping distance will increase. Braking and steering are the most important parts of your vehicle...keep them in shape.

 

I recently had a little shimmy while braking and thought my rotors had warped as well. I got my tires rotated and re-balanced a few days ago and the shake is gone. So don't count out unbalanced tires...

 

Or breaks when it is braking??

 

Have a brake, have a kit kat! Chocolate coated brake pads FTW!