Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Brakes Front brake shudder at high speeds after replacing

I replaced my front pads and rotors with Bendix pads, but with cheaper rotors from Kragens. Now I am experiencing brake shudder at higher speeds. I am guessing since the rotors are cheaper, they are probably warping early on. Should I have them turned? And if so, will that disrupt the "bedding" process?

did this happen before you changed the brakes?

first check that the runout is with in spec on the rotors

if that checks out then you a-arm bushings are shot and you need new control arms

No. This started happening after changing brakes, which leads me to believe its the cheap rotors that are warping already. I cleaned and lubed the slider pins and they all seemed OK. Lesson learned - don't cheap out on brakes!

Before you go pulling anything apart, check to make sure you have the retaining clips in properly.

My brakes started to "chatter" and make vibrations so I bought all the parts to replace them. But when I went to change them I notice that the retaining clip on the driver side has popped out on the bottem.

Yeah good point. Man, putting those things back on are a PITA. No, those are on right. Its not the chattering, its more of a vibration (only breaking at speeds over 50mph). It drives me crazy.

Question: If I turn the rotors, will the slight wear in the pads be a problem with bedding to the new flat surface? And if so, would it affect breaking performance?

more than likely the rotors were not flat and true to start with, either that or you have a bad wheel bearing allowing the rotor to "wobble"

don't worry about the pad wear; go ahead and get the rotors turned but cut as little as possible, and get them turned ON the car if at all possible, you will end up with a truer rotor in practice.

Next time, buy a quality rotor.

Is it worth it to turn them while they are on the car? The guy down the road charges $5 ea to turn them if I bring them in. Around here only the dealer can turn the rotors on the car, which they would charge quite a bit more at $75 per hour.

Either lathe, on the car or off the car, can do a quality job if the equipment is good and the machinist knows what he is doing. The on the car can be better, but I don't think I would pay the difference for a home brake job.

yeah, in your case, its probably not worth paying for the on-car turning.