Vibration under heavy braking?

"TheOnelectronic" (theoneelectronic) 03/12/2016 at 23:31 • Filed to: None

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I’ve noticed a few times now, while going through twisty curves, if I get on the brakes hard I get a sort of pulsing from the brake pedal. NO, I DO NOT MEAN ABS. It feels like having a wheel out of balance, but only under braking and it seems only when I’m on the brakes fairly hard and they’ve been being used fairly heavily recently (in other words, hot.)

Is this normal? Am I just feeling the road surface more as the front suspension loads up? I cannot imagine the rotors are warped on a car that’s nearly new and rarely sees intense braking, but there aren’t many other things I can think of.

I’ve noticed it a few times over two driving sessions now. Both were at night, with fairly cool temperatures, in the dry. The effect seems to become more pronounced the hotter the brakes get. On a particularly spirited run where I was regularly using about 70% max braking it got so bad that I pulled off the road and checked my lug nuts.

TheHondaBro > TheOnelectronic 03/12/2016 at 23:33

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Your rotors are warped.

Something that I would suggest, what I’ve considered doing myself, is to have a spare set of rotors that have been resurfaced, and when you need to change your rotors, switch them out with the spare ones, and get the old ones resurfaced and set aside for the next swap.

HammerheadFistpunch > TheOnelectronic 03/12/2016 at 23:33

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Sounds like you need your rotors resurfaced. An uneven buildup is likely the culprit

Nibby > TheOnelectronic 03/12/2016 at 23:42

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You need to resurface your rotors. Don’t get it done at a stealership. Toyota charged my father $180-something.

Nibby > TheHondaBro 03/12/2016 at 23:42

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They may not be warped... just may need resurfacing.

Nibby > HammerheadFistpunch 03/12/2016 at 23:44

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Is it normal for that to happen at 25k miles in the Sequoia? Ended up getting them resurfaced and it’s fine now.

JGrabowMSt > TheOnelectronic 03/12/2016 at 23:46

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The HEMIWagon has been doing this. The brake pedal almost feels like its vibrating rather that pulsing, correct?

Change your ABS Wheel Speed Sensors or try cleaning the ABS tone rings.

Ive been meaning to purchase new sensors, I had to replace one because it was bad, but the others havent been done yet and need to be done.

I am not getting any additional codes, but you could try seeing if theres a parts store that can pull ABS codes, normal code readers cant. Sometimes it can reveal a bad sensor that isnt throwing a discrete code.

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > TheOnelectronic 03/12/2016 at 23:50

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Have you changed out the stock pads?

TheOnelectronic > JGrabowMSt 03/12/2016 at 23:50

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It’s definitely not ABS, that feels distinctly different. Like I said, it feels like an out-of-balance wheel, only the vibrations come through the brake pedal more than the chassis.

TheOnelectronic > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow 03/12/2016 at 23:51

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No.

TheOnelectronic > HammerheadFistpunch 03/12/2016 at 23:52

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That seems odd. The car has 13k miles on it and 99% of those miles were perfectly normal, sedate driving (as far as the brakes knew).

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > TheOnelectronic 03/12/2016 at 23:56

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Ah okay. If you had, one possibility may have been that the new pads weren’t properly bedded.

JGrabowMSt > TheOnelectronic 03/12/2016 at 23:56

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Give it a try. I think I know what you mean, and its not ABS braking, its an ABS fault cause by a bad sensor. Wheel balance come through the seat if its the rear or the steering wheel if its the front. Only warped rotors or an ABS fault with come through the brake pedal.

wafflesnfalafel > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 00:00

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that description is exactly what a warped rotor feels like from my experience...

Baeromez > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 00:07

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99.9999999999% chance your rotors are warped. If you’re mechanically inclined, find somewhere that will let you bring in just the rotors for resurfacing. It’ll save you a chunk of change to take them off and reinstall them yourself.

CounterTorqueSteer > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 00:08

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Definitely warped rotors. Went through the same thing a few years back on a Mazda 3.

Kit 'Haddy' Iwamatsu > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 00:32

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Buildup/hotspots on the rotors. Driving lightly causes pad material to build up, and a vibration at firmer braking pressures related to the speed of the vehicle. Try heavy braking intentionally until they fade, and see if that clears it up.

Apply brakes moderately from 60mph to 30mph and then drive approximately 1/2 mile to allow the brakes to cool. Repeat procedure 15-30 times, or until you smell brake heat. Drive without braking for a few miles to help cool the rotors.

If that doesnt help, your rotors will have to be turned and new pads installed.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 00:37

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Warped rotors. What kind of car? Might be a known problem that they fix under warranty. For example: MB had an issue on a run of a few cars a couple years ago where there was an issue with the pads where they would leave excessive and inconsistent deposits on the rotors, usually between 5-15000 miles. The fix was to replace the rotors as well add the pads with updated parts that wouldn’t have the same issue.

bob and john > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 00:47

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brake rotor. deposits building up (very slowly) and causes that

mr2gud2u > JGrabowMSt 03/13/2016 at 03:00

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Did you get the vibration to go away with cleaning the rings? Mine is doing the same thing. I cleaned the rear rings when a replaced the rear end. The vibration didn’t go away, but I have not done the front rings yet.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 03:36

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If your brakes are stock, I’m gonna call rotor warp.

The cheap Honda OEM discs warp consistently and repeatedly, without any hard braking. Is it a Honda?

Good thing is, resurfacing is not an expensive thing.

JGrabowMSt > mr2gud2u 03/13/2016 at 03:39

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Im actually going to be replacing all the wheel speed sensors first because ive already had one go bad. Im picking up one tomorrow so both fronts are done, and then the rears will be done once I can determine if I can swap the diff myself or not and the rear subframe comes down. I need to get some sleep, but tomorrow ill send you an email about my latest score.

TheOnelectronic > AMGtech - now with more recalls! 03/13/2016 at 04:38

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BRZ. The suggestions of rotor warping just seem weird. As I’ve said, these brakes have seen very little abuse. I don’t even use them going downhill.

TheOnelectronic > CounterTorqueSteer 03/13/2016 at 04:41

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On a nearly new car that doesn’t see a lot of heavy braking, though?

TheOnelectronic > Baeromez 03/13/2016 at 04:41

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While I probably could, having only one vehicle makes that a difficult proposition.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 05:56

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It wouldn’t have to be caused by abuse though. What if they screwed up when they made the adhesive for the brake pad compound and is melting point is 20° lower than it should be so it leaves deposits all over the place? New cars have problems all the time, but that doesn’t necessarily indicate that you did something wrong or that there is a design problem with the car.

My suggestion is to have the dealer look at it and fix it under warranty if possible. If they say it isn’t warrantable and won’t goodwill it either, then find some new aftermarket brakes.

Klaus Schmoll > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 07:58

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Probably uneven buildup. I get that after a while on the Autobahn. Try driving like a grandma, a.k.a. braking a lot and with not much pressure. Get the brakes up to temp and maybe the buildup will even itself out. It’s what helps with my car.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 09:24

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Warped or a hard spot. Either turn them or replace them.

mr2gud2u > JGrabowMSt 03/13/2016 at 10:40

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If I can replace the diff with help. I know you can too. It wasn't that hard at all.

CounterTorqueSteer > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 11:42

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The Mazda only had around 30k miles when the rotors went bad and they never saw any abuse.

Baeromez > TheOnelectronic 03/13/2016 at 13:43

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Ah, well, in that case just bring it to your friendly neighborhood garage. Most places will be happy that you have an idea of what the problem is before you bring it in.

You would think that everyone gets equal treatment regardless of mechanical competence, but I know that when I was in the business, that tiny iota of additional respect for people who knew what was up usually translated into slightly faster service and/or less bullshit upselling.