I had warped rotors, and I changed them out for new ones in early February. Now, I'm getting shaking again from warped rotors. What the hell? Does anyone else have this problem? I think I remember someone saying something about something else being bad under there that would cause rotors to warp. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

 

This is a great read StopTech : Balanced Brake Upgrades

It's not so much that the rotor has warped, but that parts of it have hardened. Changing your driving style may help, but a good break-in/bedding procedure is very important.

 

Who needs brakes anyway? Get you one of those drag strip parachutes. Might be a pain to re-pack after every light.

But seriously, ReAx has a good point. If you just changed the rotors, it might be from poor bedding/break-in. Those rascals will build up crud from the new pads and harden on the rotor giving it a shaky "warped" feeling.

Hope you get it worked out. Let us know the culprit of your wobbles when you find out.

 

I'm not an aggressive, hard braking driver in my X. Parts hardening is new to me. That's an interesting read, I did the proper break-in procedure and I don't brake hard or for extended periods of time, and make sure I give time to have the brakes cool if I do brake hard for some reason. I'll continue to fiddle with it. Those guys at Advanced Auto Parts said I have a lifetime warranty on these, so I'm going to try and cash in on that. I may be picking up a 6000lb trailer this weekend that is 5 hours away, I'd prefer to do it with brakes that don't shake like a palsy patient every time I touch them.

 

What kind of rotors did you get?

I got a set of cryo treated rotors and Hawk LTS pads, bedded them in properly, and used a two-step torque method when I put the wheels back on.

Everything has been great, up until late last year when I developed the stupid shimmy shake again.

The problem turned out not to be my brakes, but rather my hubs that had gone bad.

Once I replaced the hubs (the ball joints were replaced too), everything was back to normal.

I do believe in a two-step torque method though. It's been said that 165lbs of torque on one lug at a time can cause problems with cheap rotors.

Stewart

 

I agree with what everyone else said, plus would like to add. Did you check the calipers and make sure they are working properly?

 

Thread resurection!

Calipers are fine, I was thinking ball joints. You mean the entire wheel hub needed to be replaced? That sounds like serious money, and where would you even buy the entire wheel hub? The dealer? I talked to advanced auto parts, they said bring them by and they'll swap them out no problem for me, so I'll do that and get new pads while I'm doing it, but want to know if i should get ball joints while I'm at it.

 

Consider ceramic pads. I use wagner premium ceramic. Going on 3 yrs now and all is well on my 7.3 Ex and I tow a 7000# trailer.

 

I was wondering about that. I have ceramic pads on my SVX, a sports car, and they just don't grip like semi-metalic's. With a smaller car i can kinda live with that, however it worries me with the X and it's size/weight.

 

The ceramic is a non-issue on my Ex 4wd. They work well. First thing I noticed over semi-metallic was less pedal pressure needed to stop.

Ceramic would not seem to get as hot as semi metallic. The ceramic however wears quicker with less rotor wear. So the trade off is faster pad wear, less rotor wear and I found comparable stopping. I would prefer to change pads and not rotors. I have driven about 30000 miles on ceramics and they are still going and don't need to be changed. You might consider them. I bought them from a on line supporter.

rock auto.

 

How are your rear rotors? I'm getting the shakey brake eal too and have the powerslot/cryo's and hawk pads now and it doenst feel like its the front shaking anymore. When my front brakes were acting up teh steering wheel had a notable shake in it when brakeing. Now I get a pulsing in the brake pedal and with each pule the truck feels liek the brakes are grabbing extra hard for a split second. I'm planning on doing rear rotors and pads as they are very likely the originals and I am now coming up on 80K miles. Thin rotors and pads get hot quickly and can cause problems. I do tend to beat on my brakes a lil more than most though.

 

It wasn't cheap!

I had both hubs replaced and went with OEM from the factory to keep the ESOF system. You can choose aftermarket if you prefer, the Warn hubs are very popular, but you'll lose the ability to lock the hubs from inside your rig by using the 4x4 switch on the dash. You'll have to get out to manually lock the hubs.

Stewart

 

if it is the front hub assembly .... this is the part that holds the wheel to the spindle and it has the lug studs on it and the speed sensor...i had to replace one on my wife's 2002 explorer. i believe i gave $180.00 for it ... the wheel bearings had gone bad and it roared like the explorer had great big mud tires ...

 

I believe the timken brand hubs are about 3-350 a side. I think my drivers side may be going, getting some noise tht gets quieter/louder as I curve one way or the other. Gonna wait for it to get a bit louder so the dealer doesn't give me the "that's normal" BS. I'd really wanna get both done under wrranty, I have about a year or so and 10K to beat these up, who has some heavy *** wheels/tires I can borrow? lol

 

I paid right at $350 for the Timken.

However I decided to change the other side as they both had high miles. I bought a replacement on ebay at $150 or so. When it arrived it looked as good as the Timken. What I can't tell is the metallergy or lubricants in the steel. So time will tell if the ebay was worth the $$. Interesting though the ebay bearing came from Canada and given the exchange rate it helped to lower the price. The ebay bearing came with the abs sensor installed also. Only thing missing was the large yellow 0-ring for the ESOF. I already had an extra so not an issue.