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Brake shake

Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 9:19 am
by jimincalif
I drove to Las Vegas today, after driving for a couple of hours at speeds mostly 80-90 mph, when I had to use the brakes I got extreme shuddering/shaking in the steering wheel and the whole car. What is weird is how quickly it came on, when I left the OC the brakes were fine and its not like I used them very much on the interstate. What is even more weird, by the time I got to Vegas they seemed fine again. No rain, didn't drive thru any puddles. Visually looked thru the wheels at the rotors when I got to Vegas, didn't see anything unusual. My Vibe is an 03 GT with 44K miles, original brakes.Any ideas what could cause something like this to start and then disappear so quickly?BTW, there was a strong tailwind all the way out here. 277 miles used 7.9 gallons of gas at pretty high speed. Thx

Re: Brake shake (jimincalif)

Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 10:39 am
by Mavrik
usually a brake pulsation remains and doesn't go away. However something to keep in mind are your speeds. Some pulsations may not be noticable at slower speed stops were as a tap on the brakes at hwy speeds might show one. Try again at those speeds and see what happens.

Re: Brake shake (Mavrik)

Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 11:00 am
by kevera
Could have been high temperatures.Sometimes heat plays tricks on stock braking systems.

Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 3:09 pm
by jimincalif
I'll have a chance to do some tests on the way home, with the fight here in LV tomorrow night, I suspect the Sunday traffic home will give me more "opportunities" to use the brakes. Could very well be the speed, I don't know about the heat aspect. Seems they would be hotter in stop and go around town that driving the interstate not using them much at all. Thx for the comments.

Re: (jimincalif)

Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 4:28 pm
by Whelan
Got rid of mine completely when I switched rotors and pads to Powerslot with Stillen pads. World of difference. I could probably outbrake most people on this board.