Only at certain speeds, and if I hit the brakes light-to-normal. This is actually on my truck, but just as relevant for mavericks. Doesn't do it every time, and only from around 30-15 mph on deceleration. I am assuming warped rotor, but they are measuring out at .010" runout on the pass side, and around .035" on driver side, both fronts. Is the .035 enough to cause a little shimmy? Should I check the back rotors?
Oh, guess I better get that taken care of. Wheel bearings are pretty new and all joints are recently swapped. I swapped brake pads and rotors about 15000 miles back, and learned my lesson about buying the top-of-the-line pads (ceramic). They stop on a dime, but they squeal like crazy just before the stop, and apparently they run pretty hot and I assume caused this rotor to warp. I have never in my life had a warped rotor until this one. Is the .010 enough to shimmy, or just the .035? I will probably get them both turned anyway.
Yes, definitely turn both rotors. The only thing I have ever found to cause a shimmy in the steering wheel upon braking is warped front rotors or bad front tires...95% of the time is rotors.
That is what I was thinking. Tires are brand new, in fact, all brakes,joints, and suspension is new within the past 10k miles. Then last week this shimmy starts and I am trying to figure out what caused it. i still think those damned hot ceramic brakes did it. We have had no rain in 8 weeks, so I didn't get them hot and hit water. These "lifetime warranty" top-shelf pads have been a nightmare. In fact, if you do a search on here, I was complaining about them months ago trying to get them to stop squealing. :16suspect
I just went through this on my 86 Bronco. The caliper on the right side locked up coming down a mountain and warped the rotor. I drove it warped for a while due to not needing the truck but replaced the rotors, pads and calipers last month. I hooked up a dial indicator to is before pulling the bad side and it was around .040 and the shimmy was real bad at all speeds. I would say that is your problem for sure. I put the cheap pads on mine because I hate the squeeling and that was a mistake. I pulled a friends 64 F100 the other weeks and the brakes faded real bad at the bottom of the first hill and I was taking it real easy. I will be replacing them soon. I will probably go with a mid grade so they don't wear out the rotors so bad clint
Wagner Thermoquiet Ceramic Pads. Not at all thermo, nor quiet. They suck, and about 4 times the price of the base models. Lifetime warranty is cool, but I plan on throwing these away and getting organic or semi-metallics instead after 6 months. $60 per set... And did I mention they advertise being cleaner? My aluminum rims are covered with a brown/red dust about 100 miles after I wash them. MUCH worse than the stock pads or low-end pads.
