You have got to read this - steering wheel shake and front wheels vibration is gone!

A

Ataher

Member
Location
Tripoli - Libya
Ok, I had this annoying issue since forever, I read tons of posts and tried everything I possibly could, including - but not limited to- investing in EBC sport rotors and brake pads, on a scale of 0 to 10, being 10 extremely annoying, I was able to bring it down to 7, and the issue was still there, an intermittent steering wheel shake accompanied by vibration that feels like coming from the front wheels.

So here is how it began, since I installed the EBC brake rotors, I thought it would look cool if I pained the calipers and pads in orange faking them into sport ones, I did that with a spray paint and they did look really cool. After a while, I noticed burn marks on the visible side of the front left wheel's pad, seemed like it was fried, now I would not have noticed this if it was not painted in orange. That was a sign of severe friction and consequently abnormal heating, I knew then that there was a problem and it can only be the piston getting stuck after every depression on the brake pedal forcing the pads against the rotors while the car was accelerating or cruising, it was too early to relate this to my original problem, but in my relentless pursuit of quality ride, I decided to redress the front left caliper and I did that with Centric kit (you can find details about it in my earlier posts), the piston was kind of jammed and very heavy, it took around 100 psi of air pressure to pop it out, when redressing was complete, I could feel the difference, I was able to move the piston a lot easier than before.

I took the car for a test drive.... and OMG, if I was blind folded when I got into the car I would have sworn that it was not mine, this is how the FX should ride. I have got the proper OEM redress kits for all 4 calipers on order and I am doing them all.

I am a happy FX'er today, I am enjoying every mile. I wish this can be of help to others with similar problems.


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wait, so u put a new brake hardware kit all the way around? confused.... whenever i do a brake job i will always put a new brake hardware kit on and brake grease the back and lips of the pads and all slider pin mechanisms.. just to prevent anything "freezing" on... and if u have a braking vibration (steering wheel shake) its most likely a warped rotors
 
mbarb15 said:
wd40 is good to clean but relube everything with brake grease, trust me
Click to expand...

I did that but with normal grease, I did not have any brake grease on me but it is coming with the OEM kits. So this is like a temp work around just to see if this was the cause or not.

I probably did not explain my vibration and steering wheel shake very well, it used to get worse when braking so I figured that the rotors are wrapped and replaced them, afterwards it would happen intermittently and only while cruising, it would either happen or not after each brake action is completed - it mostly happens so you wouldn't think it has to do with the brakes at all, that is what made it hard to troubleshoot, intermittent symptoms are the most difficult to diagnose.

I did wheel alignment which solved other issues but not this one, time came by for new hubs and bearings all around the car but no change, dismantled the suspension components and got under the car several times for inspection, checking for looseness or signs of wear and tear, none found. There was a post talking about tightening a 24mm bolt on the steering rack, did that too. Never mind how many times I done wheel balancing. The last thing I did was a new set of rims which I purchased because I really liked and had nothing to do with this issue, but it confirms that I did not have any bent rim or such.


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Guys, so far with same driving profile, I do not see no burn marks on the side I redressed and repainted in orange. So the issue has permanently gone as already been confirmed with the ride quality improvement.

So maybe when you experience vibration that is coming from any of the wheels and couldn't be associated with any direct cause, a quick paint job for the visible sides of the pads with bright color + driving with same profile for couple of weeks can help you troubleshoot and pinpoint the problem. That will be a cost effective step that will either confirm or eliminate if you have a caliper related issue.

Obviously, if you got the same burn marks on all wheels, then that might as well mean you are an aggressive driver with heavy foot on the gas and brakes, or all of your calipers are due for maintenance. In my case 1 out of four was straight and obvious.


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You're saying the burn mark on the painted caliper makes you suspect a bad caliper. So you go ahead and rebuild the caliper with new o-ring and took care of the shaking/vibration? I would think that you should have felt that side would be much hotter if your caliper stuck.
 
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la_fx35 said:
You're saying the burn mark on the painted caliper makes you suspect a bad caliper. So you go ahead and rebuild the caliper with new o-ring and took care of the shaking/vibration? I would think that you should have felt that side would be much hotter if your caliper stuck.
Click to expand...

It was actually the brake pad that had the burn marks and not the caliber body (both were painted), and yes when I rebuilt the caliber the vibration was gone. True that I should have probably checked and i should have felt more heating on the left side but I was not suspecting them at the first place and hence never thought about doing that, it was the burn marks that caught my attention to this.


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Guys, some serious update, I might have slightly misled you but not 100% sure.

I was cleaning up my garage and workshop table, I ran into the old front left brake tube (the metal pipe that goes from the abs actuator to the flex hose) that I have happened to replaced when I serviced the caliber. I had a new one that was sitting there since forever.

Anyway, I noticed that it was collapsed badly near the fitting that goes to the flex hose, so bad that I could hardly blow air throw it, looking at the road dirt around it, it does not seem that it was bent when or after I have removed it from the car, so this likely was the problem or at least a major part of it, rather than the caliper piston that I thought was sticking.

This would make more sense, because the master cylinder puts more pressure to this line when hitting the brakes so the oil flows through the restriction of the collapsed part, but when releasing, the caliper piston will have an issue pushing the oil back through the same restriction considering the smaller force and hence smaller pressure, eventually the pads will keep in hard contact with the rotor when accelerating or cruising, causing heat, wrapped rotors, vibration, ride quality deterioration ....... and the entire saga.


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