Any vehicle mechanics on here

[DapperDan]

If the steering wheel is shaking when braking, it's a result of warped rotors. Even though you just did a brake job, you have warped rotors again. I have run into this many times with Ford Super Dutys. The reason you have warped rotors again so soon, could be from driving through water/splashing water on one or both front rotors while they are hot. You could also be over heating the rotors, by using the brakes hard, like I do. If you stand on the brakes hard, enough times and heat the rotors up hot, you can warp the rotors. Cheap rotors or pads can cause the problem. I had a 93 Lightning, that I would warp the rotors every two to three weeks. Actually by two to three weeks it was unbearable to use the breaks, the steering wheel would shake very hard by that point. I worked for Ford at the time, did a lot of brake jobs on that truck, then eventually I was told no more brake jobs. I was hoping Ford would admit their brakes sucked and come up with a cure for them and replace them with some good brakes, but that never happened. I wound up buying some Carbon Metallic performance pads and some rotors from NAPA. Back then we found multiple times, that the parts that NAPA sold were better than what we could get from Ford. We had a customer who was in the shop with his F150 Supercab as for warped rotors as often as I needed new rotors. He was a old guy that owned a HVAC company. We finally made a big difference with his truck by putting NAPA rotors on it. We never saw him again for warped rotors. So I put the Carbon Metallic pads and NAPA rotors on my truck, I went about six to eight months before I warped the rotors again. The brakes on those trucks had all types of problems, warpage and the rear brakes locking up were the two most common things we had with them.

Then when Ford came out with the Super Dutys for 99 year model, it did not take long, before we had a lot of customers complaining of warped rotors. We replaced a lot of rotors on those trucks. I bought a 2002 F350, brake rotor warpage has been my biggest problem with that truck. I can replace the rotors and have warped rotors in a month or two. It ****** me off. I have thought about trying some performance pads for the truck and maybe even see if NAPA has some higher end rotors. The Chinese junk I have bought up to this point has only been good for a couple of months. Pretty much the same for the Ford rotors, I may have gotten three to four months on the Ford rotors before warping them, back when the truck was under warranty, Ford told me after one or two brake jobs, that was it, no more warranty brake jobs.


Other reasons why your rotors may be getting warped so early, is you may have caliper pins sticking in the caliper brackets. A few years ago, it seemed every truck I worked on for a while there, I found at least one caliper bracket that had a seized pin. I found O'Reilly's often had them in stock, if not they would have them to me the same day. If for any reason your calipers are dragging and not backing off, when you release the brakes. It will cause the brakes to get hot and can warp the rotor or rotors.

I have found that rotors with more metal or better quality metal are less likely to warp, then some high performance pads seem to either pull heat out of the rotors or not build up the heat as much. When it comes to friction material, there are many different types, some of the high performance stuff, you have to get very hot, before they work much at all, but then others will put you through the windshield when cold. So you have to be careful with performance friction pads. But most likely they don't make any of the really serious friction pads for trucks. I have used ceramic pads on may cars in recent years, you have to seat them in, but once they are seated in, they are great.


One last thing, that I have been told will warp rotors, is how the wheels are torqued and what they are torqued to. If the are torqued wrong, it can warp the rotors. The fact you had your tires replaced around the time of the brake job, someone may have gotten a bit carried away with tightening you lug nuts.

Thanks for the input. I admit, when I changed the breaks and rotors, I did put cheap organic break pads on. Maybe I should change to ceramic? Not sure there. But I’ll definitely have the rotors spun or buy new ones. I’ve had a caliper stock on another truck before and I’m pretty sure that isn’t it. It was so bad on my other truck that if I drove 45 miles the rim would be hot to the touch. Lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rembratton]

Coming from an actual mechanic here. With a fleet of 75 vehicles I maintain. That’s a rotor issue. I’ve actually taken brand new rotors out of the box, installed them and had a vibration. Turned them, low and behold brand new warped rotors.

[deerplanter]

Do you feel your brake pedal pulsating when you apply lite braking, if so then you most likely do have a warped rotor. I had a similar issue not long ago and it ended up one of my rear rotor was warped. I went ahead and replaced all rotors with drilled and slotted rotors and ceramic pads.