My car shakes a little when I break hard. I just hit the breaks as hard as I can without making the tires screech....my car doesn't have ABS.

Is something wrong with my car or is this normal?


[Modified by Calavera, 6:05 PM 1/13/2002]

 

rotors need truning..take them to your auto parts store costs like 20 bucks to do

 

Sounds like warped rotors to me. A good time to get the Fastbrakes upgrade. Don't do rotor resurfacing, it's a waste of money. Just get new brakes.

 

Don't resurface, they will warp faster the second time.

 

u need new rotors.

 

What causes the rotors to warp, really hard braking?

 

Heat and unevening of wear from brake pads.

 

yea sometimes if u look them up hard when there already hot or warm

 

Cooling your rotors unevenly will warp 'em. Eg Setting parking brake after getting them smoking hot, spraying them with cold water from car wash might do it, ...

That said a major way to prevent this is to make sure all your lug nuts are evenly torqued to 80lb-ft. Get a torque wrench for this (clicky). I haven't had this problem and I had my brakes smoking hot from lapping on the race track.

Don't assume the dealer or tire store will do this properly either.

-al

 

This is very true. I bought a torque wrench because I got tired of constantly warping my rotors. I take all the precautions after a nice run also. My best recommendation is to torque the wheels, and if you are braking hard, don't come to an immediate stop. If you do stop 20-30 ft short if possible and roll slowly until the light changes.

 

yes, actually the torque wrench helped me a lot also.