gmendoza

Hello all,

My car vibrates when I brake. I had my rear brakes changed thinking this may help (I needed to anyway). It didn't do anything. The front brakes are still pretty new. The guy at the brake shop said that my front discs probably weren't rotated when I had them changed. He said rotating them would help.

Is it that I need to rotate my front discs?

Can it be that I need to have all 4 wheels balanced again?

What else can it be?

Thanks!

GM

RON430

If it really is a vibration or pulsing felt in the steering wheel when you brake, it is most likely one or more warped rotor(s). Front brakes do more work and the systems are normally biased to apply more pressure on the fronts which, combined with being the steering wheels, makes a warped front rotor a lot more noticeable than a rear one. I would be a little concerned about the guys comment that the rotors weren't "rotated". Are you sure he didn't actually say "resurfaced" or something like that? If he did say rotated, you might want to see what he meant by that as I haven't ever heard anyone refer to rotating rotors and I would be surprised if the rotor at each corner wasn't specific anyway.

Warping rotors is not at all unusual and can be sort of a crap shoot. Sometimes you can go a long time and never have a problem and sometimes you get unlucky and warp them very quickly. After market pads, rotors, wheels, weather, driving style, and just plain old fate can work against you. Sometimes turning the rotors is all that is needed to clean things up. There are a lot of opinions about replacing pads, even new ones, if you just turn rotors, but for me, if I had the rotors turned, the price of the new pads is not much more and I would put a new set on. If the current pads are glazed, you will be back for everything again and that is just no fun at all. Good luck.

PS. The question about balancing would be a different problem. If the vibration is more speed related, it is a balance issue. If it only happens when you step on the brakes, I doubt it is balance.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

yeah if it's pulsation then your front rotors are warpped already

gmendoza

I'm sorry...he did actually say resurfaced/turned.

I guess I should just go and have them resurface the front ones huh?

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

RON, rominl - it's actually RARE that rotors in fact get warped. What's MUCH more common is an uneven distribution of pad material on the rotors. This is fixed by resurfacing/turning as gmendoza said.

gmendoza, yup! When I had my stock rotors/calipers/pads on, at one point I got vibration when braking and I had the dealer turn them and they were PERFECTLY smooth after. Recommended.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

wow this is weird. i talked to couple of mechanics and they all said if i have vibration in my steerng wheel, it's the front rotors warpped. if the rears are warpped, i wont' feel anything @_@