Recently had dealership do routine maintenace including new brake fluid (yes I can to it myself, but I have enough to work on without doing the truck). Truck in signature is at 86,000 and is used almost exclusively to haul truck camper with Jeep in tow. Truck camper does not exceep any ratings per sticker. Total weight of combo including truck is about 15,500 pounds per CAT scale.

Brakes were not a problem, however after fluid change juddering when applying brakes can be severe. Shaking is not at steering wheel as would be common with front rotor warp. I can not reliably reproduce the shaking, but it does shake the whole truck. For example, crossing out of Tennessee on I26 with steep grades in N.C. was the first time I noticed it the day after I got the truck back. Then even very light pedal pressure caused pronounced shaking. Then for the next 1,000 miles to the Keys, nothing noticible. However, on the way back home on I95 on flat stretches it was prononced for nearly entire day. Next day including back over the mountaiin nothing.

My intention is to take the truck back to the dealership, but I am afraid they will just want to do a brake job, so before I do that, any thoughts as to cause? Thanks

 

What else did they touch in the front end during this routine maintenance, besides the brake fluid change? I'd check for wheel bearing play or any ball joint/tie rod end looseness.

Check the caliper pins for smooth motion.

-- Dave

 

Nothing else done on the front end other than tires rotated. I checked the pins myself about 3,000 miles ago and they were fine, but I am going to check things over myself before I take it back in so I will look again.

 

Well, if a tire rotation created the issue, it’d make sense to undo it. Un-rotate the tires, see if that doesn’t help. You may have a tire issue that only occurs when the tire is on a steer axle.

 

I don't know the answer but my question is ... if some air got in the line(s) during the brake fluid bleeding process, would that cause the juddering?

 

No, air in the brake line will cause brakes that “pump up”.

 

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My thoughts, too. Had a friend experience this (also on a SuperDuty) and it wound up being a cord in the tire. Coopers (which despite being US-made kinda suck these days).

His symptoms were similar, initially being sporadic and unpredictable and primarily presenting when braking down passes like Wolf Creek in CO. Eventually it got to where any braking at speeds above 35mph caused it. He described as not so much DW but also with a vertical component: the entire front of the truck would go up and down violently.

However separated tire cords or other tire failures can be extremely unpredictable so they rarely all progress in the same manner. Some may not progress at all, while others go from mild to severe in a day or two.

 

So far have not had a recurrence since home, but also do not have the truck camper on the truck and not towing anything. Keep wondering if weight is causing it as we were at full payload and also towing the Jeep. Juddering is more verical than side to side and it is not felt in steering wheel or brake pedal so much as entire truck. What I would liken it to is the ABS kicking in, but much faster and the times it happened the roadway was entirely dry. I did read online that juddering that is not felt in the steering wheel is normally symptomatic of rear rear rather than front brakes.

The pedal is hard, but the juddering occurs even under very light use of the pedal when it occurs. For example. we were on I95 coming north with the bike week crowd and traffic was backed up for miles. Juddering would occur even when simple stop and go from maybe 5 miles an hour. Totaly flat, easy stops, noting sudden. Use the brake pedal at all and it was there. However, it started out that day even before the Interstate. So for seven hours steady it is constant. Stop for the night and it is gone in the morning.

The tires are Michelin which is all I ever use and are in good shape with plenty of tread and only a couple of years old.

 

Tire age, visual condition and tread depth is irrelevant if it is tires.

Now I'm not saying it is, merely that you can't rule out tires from looking at them. Road force balancing, however, might reveal something

 

Not ruling them out. Just added more detail so see if there are other ideas. At this stage I am just generating hypotheses. Tires were road forced balanced about 5,000 miles ago, but worth considering. As soon as the ground dries out here, I intend to look at things myself. I do hate pulling wheels as things get much harder to do with advanced age!