vibration during braking - rotors?

[mikedev10]

hey guys, when i'm braking i get some vibration from the car which can be pretty violent. if i apply more pressure though the shaking goes away. does this mean that my rotors are warped?

if so, suggestions on where to get stock/good rotors/pads for cheap appreciated! i browsed alloembmwparts.com and there were a bunch of similarly priced brake pads, not sure if any are better than the pack? thanks for any info!

[tim]

It certainly sounds like a warped rotor. Do you notice any unusual syptoms when not braking? What do mean by violent? I'm picturing you getting thrown around the passenger compartment- and if that's the case, there's more to it than just rotors. Your calipers may be off spec. or worse.

The oem rotors and pads are decent and reasonably priced just about anywhere except the dealer. You could get the cross drilled ones for not much more.

If you want to upgrade- check out Bruno's faq on the subject. If you've never done it before, let someone do the work for you. Should be about 2 units of labor. Many good indies will let you supply your own parts.

[632 Regal]

what speeds are the fronts shaking? If around 45-55 mph its most likely the thrust arm bushings. If at all speeds then possibly rotors.

[John B.]

I had a similar problem recently & it turned out to be the ball joint on one of my thrust arms. Check for wear there before buying rotors. Do you get any frt end clunking noises over low speed bumps?

[spddmn713]

I am having the same problem with my car, and I am just wondering do you need to replace the thrust arms or can I just replace the bushings?

[632 Regal]

you can try to replace the bushings as they wear at about 2x the miles as the ball joints, If you dont know the history of them then replace the whole unit with the arms that have the 750 bushing pressed in.

[John B.]

I am having the same problem with my car, and I am just wondering do you need to replace the thrust arms or can I just replace the bushings?

I would replace the entire unit as I doubt you're going to replace the bushings without pulling the entire arm off the car anyways. By the time you break the ball joint free I wouldn't want to reuse it. I had no shimmy, only the clunking and brake vibes so I doubt my bushings were the problem but I was happy to update to the 750il bushings. I would highly recommend renting the thrust arm press from KMS as it makes what can be an ugly job with a pickle fork a 2 minute procedure.

[spddmn713]

Thanks! That answered my question.

[Bill R.]

remove it and it only requires that you take off 4 more bolts. Plus you can inspect the other ball joint for play while its off the car. Remove the 3 bolts that hold the strut to the steering knuckle and the 2 bolts that hold the thrust arm and the lower control arm

[632 Regal]

pretty dirty 3lb'er there!

Id suggest a nut on that balljoint if you may plan on re-using it again.

Beautiful pictures Bill!