Tired of steering wheel shake and brakes

[TRDHULK]

My 2020 has 36k miles. I only get the shake when the truck sits for a couple days without being driven; as if the tires maybe flat spot. 5 minutes of driving and the shake is gone.

I did also have a little shake as my previous Geolandar MT's wore a little, but very minor only sometimes above 70mph.

 

[Jetboy]

Rotors can warp. It's not the only cause of brake induced vibration. But anyone with a dial indicator can measure runout and thickness variation and verify how much if any rotor runout exists when cool. It's much harder to measure runout on a hot rotor where it tends to have runout because of the thermal expansion. A weak or thin spot or a small initial runout allows the rotor to expand by becoming wavy under high heat rather than compressing in its original plane like we want it to. My rotors on my 2015 had about .010 runout and had noticeable brake induced wheel shimmy under heavy sustained braking down mountain grades and at low speeds all the time. I had no issues until after a dealer brake job and this started within maybe 5k miles. Dealer used the cheap pads despite my direction to use the original type.

I replaced the rotors with new OEM and new OEM pads and have had no issues since. Runout on new OEM rotors was less than .001. Both measured on the hub.

FWIW - I had not steering wheel flutter while driving. Only under braking. So the brakes can cause issues, but it's unlikely to be the problem if you have steering wheel flutter while not braking.

 

[2021nightshade4x4]

Rotors can warp. It's not the only cause of brake induced vibration. But anyone with a dial indicator can measure runout and thickness variation and verify how much if any rotor runout exists when cool. It's much harder to measure runout on a hot rotor where it tends to have runout because of the thermal expansion. A weak or thin spot or a small initial runout allows the rotor to expand by becoming wavy under high heat rather than compressing in its original plane like we want it to. My rotors on my 2015 had about .010 runout and had noticeable brake induced wheel shimmy under heavy sustained braking down mountain grades and at low speeds all the time. I had no issues until after a dealer brake job and this started within maybe 5k miles. Dealer used the cheap pads despite my direction to use the original type.

I replaced the rotors with new OEM and new OEM pads and have had no issues since. Runout on new OEM rotors was less than .001. Both measured on the hub.

FWIW - I had not steering wheel flutter while driving. Only under braking. So the brakes can cause issues, but it's unlikely to be the problem if you have steering wheel flutter while not braking.

Unless a stuck caliper or failing ABS pump.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Charles Bronson]

Maybe some are. But this “adhesive” property creates a varnish on rotors that results in an uneven surface.

Most drivers are not going to creep at each light because they “shouldn’t have to do that” to have consistent pad performance through the life of the pad. It’s 2022 and really, we shouldn’t have to do that.

Also, good luck getting driving instructors to agree on the creep. Your car should be securely stopped at traffic controlled intersections, when indicated. We shouldn’t be subjected to this mutually exclusive, false dichotomy of being EITHER 1.) safely and securely stopped, or 2.) enjoying consistent brake performance.

In a perfect world, yes, but in order for brakes to work, they need to create friction. Friction = wear and high friction = stronger braking performance. Same thing applies to tires. If you want excellent braking and/or good traction, then the brakes and tires will wear much faster and the will brakes dust. You can't have it both ways. Wear generally = better performance.

Heavy braking and then coming to a full stop with the brakes fully compressed will definitely lead to uneven transfer of pad material baking into the rotor face. No car or truck is immune to this, even cars with $15000 carbon ceramic brakes.

As noted, it is good practice to bed the brakes on a routine basis to heat up the brakes and burn/sweep that excess pad material off the rotor. If you let it go too long, the pad material can get really inconsistent and bedding could actually make it worse thus requiring machining of the rotor or replacement.

 

[Jetboy]

Unless a stuck caliper or failing ABS pump.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah. If the brake pads were dragging on the rotor it might cause a problem. The fact that so many times that this happens right off the dealer lot tends to point me in the direction of it being a combination of:

Unbalanced tires - even slightly out of balance

Suspension design that is sensitive to harmonic frequency at a similar frequency as the tire rotation at 60mpg. I think this is the real underlying culprit, the combination of geometry and bushing resistance all work together for some reason to be very sensitive to shimmy and feedback.

and a steering rack design that is prone to a lot of feedback as a result of relatively low internal dampening.

 

[Jon S]

That shaky rear view camera is a deal breaker.

CutthroatSlam, not sure what you mean by that. Please help me understand, maybe I'm missing something. I'm happy with the exchange until now. Had an update installed yesterday and identified the clock spring/ribbon being the issue.

 

[catrains]

colorado25 member does not do the work/inspect/investigate the runner.
he goes to a mechanic monkey and then the monkey throws parts on the runner and he did no inspections of the defects just throw parts on the runner ......................colorado25 pays a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

I would say if you're unhappy with wheel shake/vibration, don't bother looking into balance beads.

Having run them in my LT35x12.5R17 Toyo Open Country R/T's for years and close onto 30k, I would say that in terms of actually balancing the tire they work very well. But they do come with cavets/quirks, one of them being that if you hit on-ramps/curves on acceleration or hard enough when you're driving that the beads will "slosh" to the sidewalls and cause an imbalance. You can "reset" this issue by either slowing down below about 25mph and then doing a straight line acceleration, or just driving in a relatively straight line for a while at higher speeds. It's not a big issue, but it is an annoying one and one I imagine would drive you nuts.