Vibartion in the steering wheel after new brake pads and rotors.

55

Asked by clutchmiracle Oct 09, 2007 at 09:38 AM about the 1998 Toyota Corolla CE

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

This car has stock 14 inch wheels. I upgraded to 16 inch wheels with a 205/45/16,a Plus 3 upgrade. Two weeks ago i replaced the front pads and rotors and balanced all four tires,and cleaned and adjusted the rear brakes. Upon test driving,the car had a serious shimmy/vibration through the steering wheel,the foot well around the foot pedals and in the front seats. I came back and inspected the tires,it would up needing three replaced due to varied stages of feathering, slipped knots etc. Keep in mind,before any brakes or balancing
was done,the car had no high or low speed vibration. Now,back to the present,I replaced three of the tires with the same brand that came off,Falkens. Before mounting the tires I checked the runout on the rims--all pass. Match balanced the three new tires. Road force
numbers where 11,9,0,the one tire i did not replace was 8. All those numbers are great. Machine used is a Hunter DSP9700. Keep in mind I also have a hubcentric ring on all four wheels. Went for the road test,the vibration is still there. Took the car back to the shop, checked the wheel alignment,all settings within the manufatures spec. Then we put the car on a rack and let it run. Both front wheels had a egg shapped rotation,the left rear did as well. So we replaced both front wheel bearings and hubs and the left rear hub assembly. Both front bearings where bad,hard to turn and noisy. Same with the rear. Put it back on the alignment rack,aligned it and road tested again. Same vibration as before,except it is now concentrated in the steering wheel only,not the seats or floor. Checked for slack in the inner and outer tie rods,lower ball joints and there is none. I feel I am missing something pretty simple and in my face,but yet it still eludes me . Help !!

4 Answers

84,375

Part of the problem could be from the new wheels. If it did not vibrate before the change to 16" wheels, you may just be feeling vibration from the larger wheels and lower profile tires. Did you check the lash on the steering rack, etc.?

27,895

This would be about the simplest thing. Check that your rotors don't have a set pin or screw/bolt that holds the rotor to the hub. There's probably a very specific way to install the wheels on the vehicle. This would explain why the vibration only occurred after the brake work was done to the vehicle. Try this ... When mounting the wheel to the hub (before installing lugnuts) check for play between the wheel and the hub.

6 people found this helpful.
55

Thanks for posting guys. The problem was the rotors where out of round. They would not shake when the brakes are applied,but its like they where not balanced when they where manufactured. Replaced this morning with some new ones and the vibration is gone. I have never seen this before,but good mechanic I know said that it might be it. It was,and I'm happy now .

1 people found this helpful.
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