Vehicle is my sister's, currently has 70K miles on it, at about 50K miles her front rotors were shot, I posted pictures of them at the time, rusted beyond belief, etc. So I put in new front rotors, new pads, new brake hardware, bled the brake system alot, put in atleast a quart of new fluid, also bled the rear, but did not do anything to the rear brakes. Vehicle drove great then, no vibes, etc. At about 65K miles the brakes started pulsating again, felt about like it did before (so she said), she took it to a dealership, they determined the rear rotors were toast (not surprising after seeing the fronts)...she bought all the hardware from CDan and took it to her local dealership (saved a ton on tax and list prices), they did the rear brakes no problem.
Now about 5K miles later the vehicle vibrates, but not just when braking. When driving normal at about 72mph the steering wheel vibrates back and forth some, not excessivly, but definetly not good. When you push on the brakes the vibration doesn't really get any worse but it doesn't go away, and when you're slowing and on the brakes you can feel the vehicle's brakes grab more then grab less then more, then less as the tires go around, not really adding to the vibration but more like you're pushing on the brakes harder then softer, etc, even though you're not.
Just for the heck of it I swapped front right tire with back right tire to see if that made any different this past weekend, it did not.
So, I'm curious what I should do. The fact that there is a vibration/shake at 72mph would mean a tire is out of balance I would think (she JUST had them rebalanced, they are factory tires with 70K miles on them, yet still have descent tread, not alot, but not dangerous yet, but she is looking at new tires anyway). If a tire is out of balance that's fine, but I don't know if new tires will fix the brake pulsating problem also. I'm suspect of the work done on the rear rotors, not because anything is probably wrong, but I didn't do it myself, but then part of me is suspecting my own work...one thing I noticed when doing the tire swap is the rotors look really glazed over, very smooth and shinny, I cleaned them up as best as I could with brake cleaner, but it did nothing, since they looked like they needed something abrasive to break the shine, if the shine is a problem (they looked shinier and smoother than most brake rotors I thought, but I could be wrong on that).
If you get on the brakes hard, like 70-5 mph they feel fine and you don't notice the increased braking, then decreased braking, etc...but it'd be hard to notice anything when you're stopping that fast.
So would out of balance tires do everything this vehicle seems to be doing? Hopefully so, but I hate to have my sister buy new tires for that not to be the main problem, she's not poor, but a single mom with 2 kids, not exactly loaded either.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark
Now about 5K miles later the vehicle vibrates, but not just when braking. When driving normal at about 72mph the steering wheel vibrates back and forth some, not excessivly, but definetly not good. When you push on the brakes the vibration doesn't really get any worse but it doesn't go away, and when you're slowing and on the brakes you can feel the vehicle's brakes grab more then grab less then more, then less as the tires go around, not really adding to the vibration but more like you're pushing on the brakes harder then softer, etc, even though you're not.
Just for the heck of it I swapped front right tire with back right tire to see if that made any different this past weekend, it did not.
So, I'm curious what I should do. The fact that there is a vibration/shake at 72mph would mean a tire is out of balance I would think (she JUST had them rebalanced, they are factory tires with 70K miles on them, yet still have descent tread, not alot, but not dangerous yet, but she is looking at new tires anyway). If a tire is out of balance that's fine, but I don't know if new tires will fix the brake pulsating problem also. I'm suspect of the work done on the rear rotors, not because anything is probably wrong, but I didn't do it myself, but then part of me is suspecting my own work...one thing I noticed when doing the tire swap is the rotors look really glazed over, very smooth and shinny, I cleaned them up as best as I could with brake cleaner, but it did nothing, since they looked like they needed something abrasive to break the shine, if the shine is a problem (they looked shinier and smoother than most brake rotors I thought, but I could be wrong on that).
If you get on the brakes hard, like 70-5 mph they feel fine and you don't notice the increased braking, then decreased braking, etc...but it'd be hard to notice anything when you're stopping that fast.
So would out of balance tires do everything this vehicle seems to be doing? Hopefully so, but I hate to have my sister buy new tires for that not to be the main problem, she's not poor, but a single mom with 2 kids, not exactly loaded either.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark