Brake Pulsing
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 898
Likes: 25
From: Dallas, TX
Brake Pulsing
Having an annoying brake issue. When I stop normally, the brakes pulse. Not feeling it in the pedal at all but the whole car pulses under normal braking. There is a slight squeal also.
I can get rid of it for a short while by braking hard a few times (almost to ABS land), but it always comes back.
There are no codes and the brakes have plenty of pad left front and rear. Stops strong all of the time.
Is this brake checking? I've heard the term but never run into it so I guess I don't really understand what is happening and how to get rid of it.
I am completely comfortable disassembling the wheel/brake/rotor/calipers to do whatever is necessary, just haven't ever had this happen before.
I have had warped rotors on other cars and this just doesn't feel the same, no strange pedal feedback at all and sometimes after I brake hard, it will go smooth for awhile.
What do you guys think?
I can get rid of it for a short while by braking hard a few times (almost to ABS land), but it always comes back.
There are no codes and the brakes have plenty of pad left front and rear. Stops strong all of the time.
Is this brake checking? I've heard the term but never run into it so I guess I don't really understand what is happening and how to get rid of it.
I am completely comfortable disassembling the wheel/brake/rotor/calipers to do whatever is necessary, just haven't ever had this happen before.
I have had warped rotors on other cars and this just doesn't feel the same, no strange pedal feedback at all and sometimes after I brake hard, it will go smooth for awhile.
What do you guys think?
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 898
Likes: 25
From: Dallas, TX
If the rotors were warped, I think it would pulse all of the time. I thought the warped rotor would also pulse the pedal?
What about checking? What would that feel like? The car is not driven hard and all of the rotors and pads were replaced at 15k miles. I now have 40k miles.
What about checking? What would that feel like? The car is not driven hard and all of the rotors and pads were replaced at 15k miles. I now have 40k miles.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 2,631
Likes: 2
From: Clever, MO aka SOMO
If the rotors were warped, I think it would pulse all of the time. I thought the warped rotor would also pulse the pedal?
What about checking? What would that feel like? The car is not driven hard and all of the rotors and pads were replaced at 15k miles. I now have 40k miles.
What about checking? What would that feel like? The car is not driven hard and all of the rotors and pads were replaced at 15k miles. I now have 40k miles.
http://http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/faqs.shtml
Instructor
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 175
Likes: 0
From: North Texas
Is the noise coming from the rear of the car? If so, I had a similar problem that you have. I changed out the rear pads and had my rear rotors turned....the rotars were slightly warped, which the technician said was causing the slight pulsing under breaking conditions....go have your rotars turned and see if that fixes it 
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 898
Likes: 25
From: Dallas, TX
I always had the same impressions about warped rotors, but this definitely changed the way I look at the problem. Unfortunately with 15k miles on the brakes, if they were not bedded properly, the damage is done.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 898
Likes: 25
From: Dallas, TX
Is the noise coming from the rear of the car? If so, I had a similar problem that you have. I changed out the rear pads and had my rear rotors turned....the rotars were slightly warped, which the technician said was causing the slight pulsing under breaking conditions....go have your rotars turned and see if that fixes it
According to the link from fixvet the warped feeling could be inproper bedding. There is also a TSB for pulsing brakes from the factory that corrects runout by shimming. Between these two I think alot of "warped" rotors could probably be fixed without turning as long as you catch it early.
Fortunately, you can get into a set of rotors without breaking the bank as long as you can avoid convincing yourself to upgrade.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 40,995
Likes: 9,759
From: Charlotte, NC (formerly Endicott, NY)
Have you checked the back side of the rotors? There could be some pad build up or corrosion you can't see without putting the car up in the air and checking the back side. When I bought my 8 month old 03Z with 18K miles on it the only thing I found wrong with the car was some severe corrosion on the back side of the rotors. That corrosion was causing a thumping.
This is what the outside of the rotor looked like:
And this is what the inside of the same rotor looked like:
Bill
This is what the outside of the rotor looked like:
And this is what the inside of the same rotor looked like:
Bill
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