I have a 2003 Mazda B4000 4X4 with 173,000 miles. I have replaced the front brake pads regularly. When I brake I feel some pulsation and the truck feels like the fron end is bouncing. I replaced the shocks about 15,000 miles ago.Could this be warped rotors? What else could cause this?

 

When you have replaced the pads, did you have the rotors turned? Did you have the thickness of the rotors checked. You may have worn the rotors to the point that a brake application would generate enough heat to warp them.

 

as stated............your rotors are warped

 

I am going to say warped rotors too. I got some used ones and had them cut. Good amount of material left. It was so bad I was uncomfortable leaving the driveway. Picked up new ones from autozone, problem solved.

 

Welcome to FTE.

Did the pulsation come about immediately after the last pad replcement, or had it been there beforehand????

Did you properly torque up the wheel lug nuts to spec with a torque wrench, in a criss-cross pattern, coming to the specified torque in several steps???

Have you checked/adjusted the wheel bearings lately????

Did you properly break-in/ bed/seat the new pads to the manufacturers recommendations????

More thoughts for consideration.

 

Did you clean and lubricate the caliper slide pins? If not they can cause the caliper to bind up.

 

I agree with the previous posts that you probably have warped rotors. This generally is from over tightening of wheel lug nuts. I regret not having changed the rotors when I recently had the pads changed. OEM rotors on lots of late model vehicles are light and flimsy. They do warp easily. I believe I have experienced warped rotors more with Fords than other vehicles I have owned. This might be a Ford flaw or weakness, but I still prefer Ford products. (I'll bet there is a premium after market rotor that is better than the OEM parts too.)

 

Another cause of warped rotors on the 4WD models (maybe the 2WD are the same?) is when a wheel is removed, rust from the rotor vents can drop down into the area between the disk and the axle mounting flange (can't remember the correct nomenclature).

But I have a question for you all: what is the allowable rotor warpage? I have a slight pulsing in my brakes and measured .003" runout on one rotor after cleanup.