Thread: Shaking and braking

Hi everybody

This is my first post on here so bear with me. I've been having an issue with my car shaking like crazy at high speeds. Originally I thought it was the CV joints, but it also occured at slower speeds after going faster and not just under load, and I didn't get the characteristic clunking on slow tight corners. I've noticed that the front drivers wheel seems to have alot of dust clinging to it so this morning when I got out I felt around the rotors, and the front drivers one was radiating heat, like alot of heat, while the other ones were hot, but not overly. I was just wondering if this points to a seized caliper? I did my own brakes for the first time in the summer, and it ran fine after that. My parking brake did stick after releasing after the brake job, but I believe that it is only on the rear wheels so shouldn't cause this on my front. Could I have done something wrong when I changed the brakes out. I didn't change the rotors (I'm cheap and they looked ok), could it be a warped rotor. The thing is, it doesn't do it all the time, mostly just in the first 20 minutes of driving or so, guessing once it gets hot enough it either evens itself out, or it's so hot that braking performance is reduced to the point that it doesn't cause the shaking. If it isn't a warped rotor, is it likely warped now? I'm kinda tight on cash, and only planning on running this car for another few months or so, so not looking to fix everything for the long term. Just looking for advice from the pro's on what they might think is wrong and what I can do to fix it?

Oh, and I forgot to mention that shortly befor all this started hapenning I had the front passenger strut replaced, and no alignment was done as they checked it and it was still all good. Could this be caused by an alignment issue?

Firstly welcome.

You say it shakes at high speeds.

90% of the time if you feel a vibration at 50mph+ while driving its a tire issue, balance needed or something wrong with the tire.

If you feel the vibration while braking only it is usually a warped rotor.

Since you say you just had a strut replaced but no alignment I would say the alignment was off just enough to wear the tire and cause the vibration. I have done brake jobs plenty of times and not replaced/turned the rotors, usually just results in some noise and faster wear on the pads. Very rarely does it cause a warped rotor, but it could be possible.

I would seek a tire shop and have the tires checked and balanced first.

If it still does it, consider checking the brakes again.

From what u described I doubt its a cv shaft. My drivers side is shot and when they go bad they tend to shake upon acceleration when their under a load. That's sorta how mine acts anyways. So id have to say have the tire checked to see if its balanced. Most shops charge like 10 bucks a tire to balance em. But first do what they said above and rotate ur tires one at a time

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But doesn't the smoking hot front drivers rotor point to a break/rotor issue. I mean it was probably a hundred or more degrees hotter then the other ones. Oh, and I can feel it (the vibration) in the brake pedal at lower speeds, like under 10kmh. Also my gas mileage dropped, which could be explained if the break was sticking and staying engaged.

Can u smell the brakes after driving?. You may just take the calipers off and inspect them

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If a bracket bolt came loose he would know. You I'll show u what happens when one does. It did on my car luckily I was only doing like 5 miles per hour and didn't damage the rim or caliper to much

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and I wouldn't think of anything else that could be bad except brake master cyclinder...but I doubt its that. One of my calipers went bad awhile back and I just replaces both by front ones

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Yea but I've had a bearing that was so bad that when I started to take it off it just fail apart. Never caused braking problems or wear or heat on the rotors...and I don't think it would wobble so bad as to be extremely noticeable. All the ones I've had go bad or replaced for other people that where bad had play from 12 to 6 o'clock and you could also hear it while driving.

Maybe someone with more experience with cars will chime in

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If it warped it you would feel it when breaking. It would make it feel like one second you were braking hard and the next second easy in a repeating cycle. And spazz nothing personal bro...sry

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What's the year make and model of yours? And as for bleeding the lines the best way is to have some push the brake pedal half way down three times. On the 3rd time hold it half wah and open the bleeder screw a second or two and fluid will come out. Then let off pedal and repeat till only fluid comes out of the bleeder screw. And do it with car off. But if I were u I would jack the car up and do like spazz said and just check the hub make sure its fine. Grab at 12 and 6 o'clock and see if it moves. If it does its bad. After u send me ur make model and year I'll give ya some good info from repair manual

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I had bad both front wheel hub bearings go bad, and I rotated my tires and the whole car shook.
Rotated them back, car didn't shake. Tires wore with the bad bearing, introduced a new wear pattern with a different tire, all hell broke loose.
The factory wheel hub bearings on these cars are junk. Like's been suggested jack the car up and check for play.
The good timken's are cheap at rock-auto. So far the timken's have lasted double what the OEM bearings lasted.