when i brake on the highway, steering column rattles, and shakes. i thought it was my steering wheel not being tight but turns out that its it tight. any ideas??

 

It could be a few things. Tie rods, brakes grabbing unevenly, rotors, or front end bushings.

Does the wheel only shake when you brake at highway speeds?

 

Most likely, warped rotors. But worn suspension components like mentioned above can do all kinds of things.

But most likely warped rotors.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wiZCo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Does the wheel only shake when you brake at highway speeds?</TD></TR></TABLE>

thats when you can hear it best! haha

 

Hear or feel?

I had a similar problem...wasn't just at highway speeds though...well kind of...slowing from 60mph and up...but only when coming to a complete stop...not just tapping the brakes...

Replaced the rotors and that fixed the problem.

 

one more thing dont know if i mentioned it, but my whole steering column shakes too...dont know if thats could be it..

 

Dude, your car has some serious problems that need to be fixed before you kill someone.

Change you rack end bushings first, then have your rotors checked.

 

anything else??

 

YOu have plenty to work on with those two things. Do those then let us know....

 

if it only happens when you brake then its probably not you rack and pinion but check it anyways to make sure its good. Also i had similar shaking when my wheel bearing was going out.

 

its not my wheel bearings, they are brand new
its not my radius rod bushings either, i just changed them..
should i change my whole steering rack? i have one available

 

Axel or allignment?

If its hitting brakes I would say rotors also though

 

Dont change your rack yet until you inspect the rotors. They are much cheaper to replace than a rack and pinion. I had to have mine rebuilt because they dont make them new for my car i was told.

 

dumb question but how do i check if my rotors are warped?

 

They're cheap enough man. Just buy some. I'm pretty sure that's your problem.

 

Yeah, take the advice you've been given and either replace your rotors, or have them resurfaced. If after that you still have the problem, then come back and we'll go from there.

 

i had this problem on my 92 integra, its definitely rotors, even tho i bought brand new pads and rotors a week before hand, apparently i didnt break them in properly and they never really formed to eachother.

so what was happening was the metals in the brake pads were crystallizing on the rotor forming a very nasty darkish shiny "film" into the rotor, and my brakes were never hitting solidly cuz it has the same effect as if i had oil soaked rotors, cuz you could see very shiny spots and the pattern was in shape of the pads hitting over and over again rapidly like i had ABS(which i dont).

i never noticed this unless it was above 50, then my wheel would shimmy slightly left and right really really fast. and then when i hit the brakes it would shake like hell and if i hit em too hard my whole front end would break loose.

my remedy wasnt the greatest but it was effective, what i did was take everything bak off, took a belt sander and turned it upside down, and sanded off this "glaze" that was on the brake pads, ( which im not sure should be there in the first place, they were from autozone lol).

then i recommend to get new rotors, make sure you clean that rust preventative **** off of there with some starting fluid instead of brake cleaner and try not to touch the surface of the rotors cuz that will have the same effect. i just ended up taking the belt sander to the rotors cuz im cheap and trust me when i say that dark **** in the rotors is IN there, cuz it took a decent amount to sand it out. my rotors are not "true" at all all the way around but theyre not embedded with that dark **** so i still get the steering wheel play, but i don't have to worry about whether im gonna be able to stop or not.

in short ...
-buy new rotors, clean em properly
-new pads, possibly sand that glaze off of there
-break in your brakes properly

 

are you getting any pedal pulsation???? thats a for sure sign that your rotors are warped

 

rotors