I have a 2001 F-150, SuperCrew, 4x4, 5.4L, auto. with 173,000miles
When applying the brakes you can feel a vibration...only when you apply the brakes.
so I took home a set of front rotors and replaced them....vibration is still there and unchanged.
Now I am confused......I had been running a set of BFG 285/75/17's but they were worn out so I dumped them (they caused alot of vibration in the whole truck) and I put on my old Michelins LTZ or LTX or LTS 265/75/17, they are in great shape but I wanted meater tires days gone by. The Michelins are in great shape with lots of miles left on them.....what I'm wondering is...would a broken belt be causing all this vibration? I had these tires on for about 6 weeks before the vibrations started...keep in mind it only appears when you brake...regular driving is fine.
could it be the rear rotors?...any ideas?
I replaced the pads on the rears at the same time as the front rotors (this weekend)...they didn't really need them, but I was in there and had the parts so I figured why not.

 

i had a rear pad delaminate and damage one rear disc. looked a the disc closely an dit had an area about 2 x 2 inches .030 inch deep. pulsed every time it rotated.

 

Also check the front end components for play, such as ball joints and tie-rod ends.

 

the tires could need to be weighted out again never mind it is only when braking

 

is the caliper and pads properly installed, and not loose?

 

id try the rotors in the back and see if thats the deal

 

i'm surprised no one suggested the caliper pins! these stick all the time and cause hard-to-diagnose vibrations. Make sure all your pins holding the calipers to the brackets are free-moving and well lubed!

 

what brand did you replace rotors with? cheap auto parts store brands can be warped right out of the box and often are manufactured to be the max min thickness of oe specs.

 

I'm experiencing something similar. I had the front rotors turned and replaced the break pads. I replaced the slide pins in the calipers and made sure they were well lubed.

Under braking, I feel a vibration in the steering wheel. I feel a vibration/resonance in the brake pedal also. Sometimes the steering effort increases like the power steer pump went out. If I shut the truck off and turn it back on, the steering is fine. When the brakes and the steering is the worst, there is a vibration coming from under the hood. It comes from the outermost high pressure hydroboost line.

Could a bad power steering pump or power steering box cause this? Could one of these cause the power steering fluid to airate and throw of the brake power assist? I do know that the pitman arm rod end is loose, but the brakes shutter even why turning.

The truck is a 2000 SD PS 4X4 w/ about 130k miles.

Any help would be appreciated. The dealership wasn't much help. Thanks

 

Problem solved!
After a couple of monthes chasing deer and gearing up for snowmobile season, I fixed it today.
yes, it was getting annoying but couldn't make time.
ended up being the rear rotors.
I jacked up the truck and got it up to speed (50-60mph) and hit the brakes....lots of vibration.
so I just installed a new set of rear rotors....problem solved!


Thanks for all the help guys.

 

Im having a similar issue. Brake vibration is intermittent. I put on drilled brembo rotors and new prostop ceramic brake pads on about 5 months ago. Rear drums are ~2 years old. The vibration goes away if I really get on the brakes so I dont think its the new rotors. Also, the vibration seems to be worse going downhill. I torqued the caliper bolts and wheels with proper torque

THe vibration happens 50% of the time. Last week I thought I found the problem. I took the front brakes apart and found that the slide pins were bone dry on passenger side. the carrier was wedged to the front caliper. I got it apart and lubed the pins with brake moly grease. I sprayed the NAPA gooey stuff on the back of the brake pads and let dry before assembling. Put everything back together and problem still there.

Im wondering if the stainless shim plates that are bonded to the pads are faulty. Ive had rust form under them on another vehicle and got rid of a nasty sound once I peeled off the factory shim plates. Are these shim plates really necessary?

Does anyone think I should replace the pins too? Maybe they are bent - it sure seemed to slide fine once they were lubed. Im wondering if I ruined the pads when the pin was jammed.

Also, does anyone know if there is a specific inner and outer pad? They look symmetric and the only difference is whether the wear indicator is on it or not. I dont know what else to do, thinking of switching the pads to the other wheel to see if vibration is eliminated.

I did a bunch of suspension work - upper and lower arms bushings about the same time I put the new rotors on so I dont think that is the problem either. However, I had to return a faulty arm already due to a bad pressfit bushing which created play when braking....

 

OK - I read on another thread to jack up front wheels off ground 4" and use pry bar between tire and ground to detect suspension play. I discovered that the driver side bearing is loose. I tightened it and it still gets occasionally loose as I drive - I know it sounds weird, but its almost like the bearing has detents or something. The races on the rotors are perfect - they are new also. Im going to replace the bearing. I sure hope that its not the spindle - it definitely looks like it was overheated at one point near the inner race area.....

 

I replaced the bearing and same problem. I tightened the spindle axle nut further and the problem went away. It seems that I need much more pressure on the spindle nut to properly tension the bearing than the "slightly tighter than finger tight" recommendation...

 

you may want to check the steering box also .i had this problem and tightened sb about 1/4 turn and shimmy went away

 

I thought the new bearing would fix the problem, but it did not. All it did was reduce the shuttering that Im getting - and that was cause the original bearing was probably too loose amplifying the shutter.

I did more research and found that brake shutter can be cuased by a faulty brake caliper. The calipers are definitely not dragging, but I notice that if I press hard on the brakes (not locking them up), the shutter goes away. This is a tale-tale sign that caliper is bad. If you press hard and shutter remains, its a warped rotor.

Thanks golddirt on thoughts on steering box, ill look into that as well. Im really scratching my head on this one.... Its weird that its an intermittent problem...