I've got a 2011 XLT. The front rotors have been turned twice already in 39k miles. Once at 12k and again around 24k covered under warranty. It starting having vibrations on the highway and shuddering when braking again around 36k. Tired of dealing with the OEM rotors and told it would no longer be covered under warranty I went to Autozone and got duralast rotors and pads for the front.

Swapped them out Friday
- took caliper off
- removed pads
- took caliper bracket off
- swapped rotor
- opened bleed valve to push back piston(used a vise/c clamp combo)
- closed valve with piston under pressure
- put in new pads
- placed caliper bracket back on

I did not remove the pins, they seemed to slide fine and the remaining hardware still looks fairly new.

Took it out all was good, bedded the brakes a bit and called it a night. Come out this morning and start to head out and it's shaking like crazy now once above 40 mph. Made it back this afternoon and took the passenger side off and its not making full contact with the rotors. I've read this can be common until the pads are broken in. Driver side appears fine, pads appear to be bedding fine and nothing looks out of the ordinary, I took the caliper back off but had to open the bleed valve to get it loose enough to let go of the pads.

I've even taken the passenger side back off and reset the piston again just to make sure.

Put everything back together and take it for a spin. Truck seems worse now even at slow speeds 25-50mph. Once the brakes start getting hot from stopping the shaking goes away. When the brakes start cooling back down it comes right back.

Going to swap back the OEM rotors and retest in the morning. Will take the new ones back If that puts it back to normal I may just replace with OEM ones then. The brakes work perfect it's just the shaking that I can't seem to figure out.

Anything anyone can think of to check? It seems like the new rotors are warped :/

 

I warped my rotors pretty early on, they only shuddered real bad when the brakes were applied, is your truck shuddering constantly or only when you apply the brakes?

 

Constant shaking. Pressing the pedal doesn't seem to make it better or worse.

 

Seems more than just the rotors, do you smell the brakes at all when you stop? I would think the pads would have to have constant contact to have the shaking while driving w / out the pressure being applied to them. I'm no expert in any sense of the word. There are a couple of guys on here that are though, It just seems something other than or addition to the rotors, pads, etc...

 

Can only smell the pads under heavy braking.

 

I just sent a PM to another guy on the forum that really knows his way around the F150's, I wish I could help more, I'm afraid to steer you wrong, especially something as serious / important as the braking system. From my personal experience, when I warped mine (being a typical redneck!!) They only shuddered while braking, now they would shake the sterring wheel out of your hand under certain conditions, but only when the brakes where applied.

 

maybe one or more of your tires are out of balance or separating if it`s constant and applying brakes makes no difference.

 

Or a warped rim? The wife had an Escalade, she mudered one of the rims by one our famous Ms. potholes, that thing could do "shake, rattle & roll".

I was under the impression this manifested itself after the brake replacement.

 

doing a pad and rotor change i have never opened the bleeder valve i just use a c-clamp to push it in. I don't really think that's the issue but does seem odd to me.

 

I researched a bit, others have had this issue and several pointed to a "sticky" emergency brake cable. Might look into that also... which doesn't make alot of sense to me either, seems if that was the case it would be obvious from the trucks performance (mileage issues, etc.) You never know though. Is it a 4X4?

 

I do the same, but I guess it can't hurt to mix in some fresh fluid if it needs topped off?

 

i dont like breaking a line open unless i have to. i have a guy who will flush the whole system for $40 so i try to do that every 2-3 years if possible.

i hate bleeding brakes

 

I replaced the brakes on my Expy with the duralast lifetime pads. They seem to be a bit thicker than the OE pads and I had to bleed off some pressure once I got to the rear wheels.

I just did a little research online and the most reasonable idea that I saw was the new rotors could be warped. Unless you have a machine to true them, you"ll never know. According to one poster on a Lexus website, new mass produced rotors waiting in a warehouse are only supposed to be stacked 100 high to prevent warping the bottom ones in the stack.

I've never heard this before but it could be possible.

Is the vibration only in the wheel or can you feel it in the seat as well?

 

Hi JBH, welcome to FTE!

NOPE. In the future you never ever want to do this. What you did is inadvertently check for a collapsed brake line, because that's the only circumstance that opening the bleeder valve would make it easier to compress the piston. It's likely that you got a small amount of air in the system. Probably not your problem, but in the future you don't wanna do this when you do a brake job.


Here's the biggest clue:

And there it is. A rotor would have to be REALLY far out for you to feel it without pressing the brake pedal. And in that case you'd only likely feel it with a stuck caliper. The fact that the pads on one side weren't engaging the rotor correctly is your other clue.

You likely have a caliper issue in my opinion. IF your vibration is brake related that means the pads are being pressed against the rotor when they shouldn't be. The first step would be to check if any of your wheel hubs or rotors are much hotter than the others after driving around for a few minutes. Whichever one is hotter would be the culprit, and my bet would be that it's the one with the improperly bedding pads. If that's the case, replace the caliper and bleed the entire brake system to get rid of any air introduced when you pushed in your caliper pistons.

If it's on the rears Mitch may be onto something with his suggestion about the e-brake. Those can get stuck causing all kinds of strange vibrations.

 

I agree with Tom. If you had to open the bleeder screw to relieve pressure in order to remove the caliper you have a trapped fluid problem. This typically is within th brake hose, often caused if the hose was twisted or the caliper hung by the hose during repair.

But I'd like to also comment on your situation where the rotors kept developing pulsation after each turning. If the rotor had developed a hard spot, and most pulsating rotors do, turning will never remove the hard spot and the pulsation typically returns in 5k to 15k miles. Replacement is the only fix, but garages and dealers can usually kick the replace can down the road until you're out of warranty.

And with a trapped pressure situation, you can thermally distort a rotor (when hot only) until it develops a hard spot. If this is a trapped fluid problem the stopping may be fine once the hose is repaired, but you may find you have pulsation in the next 15k miles. It will be that this rotor has the hard spot in it.