EK steering wheel shaking when braking, ROTORS WARPED?

[lsvtec]

Hey guys,

When I brake my steering wheel shakes/vibrates and so does my brake pedal,

after doing some research apparently I have "brake judder", my discs are warped.

Does anyone know how I can check at home if my rotors are warped?

Also this is my daily, so I don't get how the discs could of warped? Any explanation would be helpful

Thanks

[carayan]

Unless you have a run out measurement tool (rotary dial gauge) you can't really tell by eye, as the warping would be very tiny.

The car being your daily is irrelevant, you must have done some serious braking at some point (more than your set up can handle) and the heat warped the brakes, or even your caliper is applying different pressures to the brake, a whole variety of things could have happened.

Best bet is to take it to a shop where they can check it, and then determine if the rotor can be machined or whether it needs to be replaced.

[Limbo]

Could be you drove over a large puddle area, when breaking a lot. It can happen sometimes.
Or its your steering bushes playing up.
Best to have a mechanic look at it.

New Rotors are fairly cheap or you can get the discs machined for about $30 each rotor

[bennjamin]

Aftermarket pads can do this -

Firstly measure the thickness if
Your front rotors at 3 points - make sure it's within spec. If
It's close to min or less replace

If they are fine a try rebedding your
Pads in.

Simply warm up car - then drive to 50km/go and jump on the brakes until you almost stop. Then abruptly accelerate to 50km/h again and repeat the process 2 or 3 times.
Once smoke comes from your brakes go for a slow leisurely cruise for a few minutes ,
Avoiding using the brakes. Pull up with light pedal use and park car leaving in gear to hold on a flat surface. Don't use handbrake. That should be it

[MrJoeySan]

I had this happen to myself with my daily driven EK (non abs)...

It only took 2 hard braking moments to warp the right front disc. I didn't even think it was that hard a braking moment because I didn't even lock up the fronts.

Took it to my mechanic who machined all the rotors (to be on the safe side) and now they are fine. Cost $100 bucks and a slab of beer!

[lsvtec]

took my rotors to get machined today, will put them back on tomorrow hopefully problem fixed

[lsvtec]

so put the machined disks on today and problem fixed :), also removed calipers to give them a clean and tried to bleed brakes but they still feel spongy.
Any tips on how to bleed brakes properly will be appreciated!

Also booked in wheel alignment at garage 88 at eastern creek, hopefully all goes well

[Hondarally]

The rotors aren't actually warped - it's due to variation in thickness of the rotor. The pads deposit friction material onto the rotor, and if this deposit becomes uneven you get the shuddering you experienced. Machining will return the discs to a uniform thickness, but unless you treat the cause of the problem, it can come back. Bedding the brake pads can work, as suggested above

Here's (http://www.mossmotors.com/SiteGraphics/Pages/brake_discs.html) one of the many articles that discusses the issue (2 minute google search, and it was the first article that came up)

The variation in thickness only needs to be a couple of thou before it's noticeable.

[SUITUP]

you can feel if its lipped on the disc. just run your finger from middle to edge of disc and feel if its straight or wavy.

also could be your wheel alignment that causing shaky feeling

[lsvtec]

I changed the rotors and calipers and brake pads and also got my alignment done, car feels a million bucks

[SUITUP]

nice. did u bleed the brakes too ? get new fluid in?

[lsvtec]

yep all new fluid and bled the brakes