renato902

Hey guys,

About 9 months ago, I noticed that the car was vibrating under braking. I deduced that it was the front brake discs that were warped, so I changed them. The vibration was gone and the car worked perfectly. When I changed the discs, I had a hard time removing the little screws on the front discs (which I guess kept the disc level with the hub), they were stripped. I used stripped screw extractors to get them out and it worked perfectly. When I reinstalled the new discs and pads, I didn't put new screws back on, just the disc straight on the hub hoping that it would stay flat and level as long as the wheel was torqued down correctly. Like I said, the car worked perfectly before I stored it for the winter on December 14th. When I took it out March 14th, it seemed like the front discs had warped again, but I had no vibrations in the pedal, it just felt that when I was coming to a stop (at any speed) the wheels would become oval and the car would sorta lump around. It got very annoying and I therefore decided to change the back discs this time. When I reinstalled them, I put the screws back on, unlike the front ones. I took the car for a test drive and to my surprise, the car still felt like it had warped discs and was running on oval shaped tires (only under braking). I also noticed that when I drive close to other cars, I can hear a sort of ticking noise coming from the outside, namely the rear end. I have no clue what this could be but I would doubt that it would be the brakes as they are all new. Maybe it's a bearing? Can anyone enlighten me with some new knowledge?

7schulz

All I can think of is a flat spot on the tires and it only transfers through the car when the brakes are applied. I could be way off though.

JimsGX

These cars are overly sensitive to anything being out of whack. When you installed the new rotors, did you clean the face of the hub surface before installing them? All rust needs to be removed from the mating surfaces of the hub and rotor. Any rust around the circumference of the hub also needs to be removed. The mating surface of the tire rim and rotor needs to be free of any rust as well. I lightly grease this mating surface (avoid getting any grease on the lug nut studs). Did you check the torque setting on the lug nuts? They should be set to 76 ft lbs (I usually go 80 ft lbs)... I think you'll need to recheck all of your work. You can also try overinflating the tires by 8~10 lbs and taking it out for a run to help eliminate any flat spots that may have developed after sitting for 3 months.

renato902

Thanks for all the info guys, I'll give those things a shot Jim

deanbrown

Could the discs have gotten wet and rusted in one spot? Or maybe water or condensation got into the mating faces and you got some more rust in there?

I chiselled off all the rust, and then wire-brushed every part I could see that had any rust, when I last changed the rotors. I also got the softest (and most expensive) brakes I could get last time - Fedoro (or something like that). Seems ok for now anyway, though it has only been a year since I changed them.