max shaking/steering wheel vibration when braking ....whats causing this?

 

errm... warped rotors?

 

Either get your front rotors turned, or replace them.

 

It might also be pads that are un-evenly worn.

 

Long story short, been having this problem for months. I installed new front and rear pads, had them resurface front and rear rotors, but shake is still there. It's ridiculous. I decided to save for new drilled & slotted rotors, and new struts to be changed all at once. If it does not go away, then I'll get new brake calipers and install steel braided brake lines, then let the mechanic deal with a possible rack and pinion or hydraulic issue. I'm trying to get this thing to last more than 200,000 miles, this rattle and shake concerns me because the steering wheel and brake pedal is getting a good workout, which in my inexperienced, non-mechanic opinion, does some damage to the body of the car. Just my $.02...

 

if vibration occur on the highway w/o applying brake maybe you should give hunter 9700 a try.

 

Inspect suspension arms and bushings in the front provided you already replaced/resurfaced the rotors and brakes.

 

Bought rotors and brake lines from this guy: http://forums.maxima.org/group-deals...nes-fluid.html I'll report my shimmy results after installation.

 

are the brakes new? if they are not, maybe its a unbalanced braking. Meaning you cannot use old brakes with new brakes. They both have to wear down at the same time.

 

From what I understand:

If you have shaking/shuddering while stepping on brakes = Warped rotors
Or shaking/shuddering without brakes or at high speeds = Tire/rim runout

But make sure to check all four rotors because I've seen this woman with a F150 have really strong steering wheel shimmy while braking and it turned out to be one of the rear rotors. I mean I couldn't even feel or see runout in any of the rotors and when we measured it, the difference came back to be like a difference of something like .004 of an inch and even after cutting it, the shake was still there but changing the rotors fixed it... go figure.

 

Well, after replacing all 4 rotors with new ones and new steel braided steel lines, my brake pulsation went away. I guess I had warped rotors. I decided to keep my old rotors for experimental purposes and see if I can find the warp myself...

 

It's not "warped rotors" per say that causes the pulsations, it's pad material transfer onto the rotor surface that causes the pulsations.

Here's a good read for you.

http://stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_warped_brakedisk.shtml

 

brake/shake = replace