Brakes shuddering on '07

Hello all,

My daughter, after turning 16, has claimed our '07 with 170K as her own. Both my wife and daughter have been complaining that the car shudders when hitting the brakes.

For background, last fall, they heard a loud scraping noise coming from the front wheels, I decided that after 155K, it was time for a brake job. I pulled off the wheels and proceeded to swap the pads and rotors to discover that the scraping noise was coming from a rock caught between the hub and dust shield. Didn't really think about it prior to doing this, but this is a different beast when it comes to brakes and the pads still had plenty of life left on them. The piston on the right caliper refused to go back in to allow space for the new pads, so that needed to be replaced. Quite the frustrating job.

The brakes had been fine up until a month ago or so. I took it out for a test drive, but only detected a "shudder" when braking through about 20 mph. I didn't detect any pull in the brakes and the stopping power seems fine. They seem to experience something different than I do.

I plan on pulling the wheels off and having a closer look when our schedules allow. Is there anything in specific I should look for? The mechanical brakes kick in under 10 mph, correct? If the shuddering is happening above this speed, what in the regen braking system could cause this?

Thanks.

 

I have had warped rotors on our van and this has a different feel to it. I don't get the shudder when tapping the brakes at highway speeds. The rotors are less than a year old, so I certainly hope that they haven't warped in that amount of time.

I plan on pulling the wheels over the weekend to have a look. I'll check the caliper slides to ensure they are operating as they should. I put on an OEM caliper as a replacement, I certainly hope that hasn't crapped out either. But I would think that I'd get some pulling if the caliper had gone.

Last time I had looked (generally when I rotate the tires at 5k), the boots and joints appeared to be fine a month or so ago. I'll give it another look over though.

From what you're saying, the likelihood of it being something in the regen system is small. That's a relief.

Thanks for the input.

 

I pulled off the wheels over the weekend and had a thorough look at the brakes and suspension. Found no leaks or broken boots and all the bushings looked as well as they should for a 9 year old car.

One thing I did notice, however, was the caliper slides were a touch sticky. I pushed them in and twisted them a few times and that seemed to loosen them up quite a bit. After putting it all back together, I had my wife drive it and she thought it made a slight improvement, but didn't really completely make it go away.

I hadn't checked the rears, so I pulled those off and had a look. The shoes were at about the minimum spec so I proceeded to swap those and the drums (which were also at the minimum spec per the local auto parts place). Man, I've forgotten how much I hate dealing with brake drums and all the associated springs.

My daughter said it felt better on her way into school this morning, so hopefully that will hold true after they have fully bedded.