Problem: Shaking in the steering wheel while braking (especially heavy braking). During city braking it feels like braking, then no braking, then braking. ASCII Ver. -0-0-0- But really fast.

Car Background: 99 TL. Bought last year without issue. The problem has progressively gotten worse over the past month to month and a half. The car suspension wise appears fine. No pull to one specific direction. VERY VERY smooth ride when braking is not performed.

What has been done to correct:

Took off the winter tires and put summer tires on yesterday to see if it would correct the issue. Not better. So that ruled out tires, air pressure, and balancing.

Inspected the suspension and no visible issues noted.

Checked the rotors and pads visually. Plenty of pads and the rotors appear to be fine. No abnormal wear on either side in the front.

 

rebalance your tires once again and resurface your rotors. (all 4)

 

Your brake rotors have glazed over. The cheap way is to deglazing the rotors, but the problem may come back later. A sure and expensive way is to "turn" (or resurface) the rotors and get new brake pads.

 

Would it be cheaper to buy new rotors?

 

rotors. best bet is to replace them with slotted/cross drilled and new brake pads front and back.

 

Not always cheaper but def. more safe and last longer than resurfacing it. Once you go with resurfacing route, the problem might come back on the future.

 

go ahead and upgrade your rotors and get new pads. these are warped - a known issue with the tl. if you buy stock rotors, the issue will reappear at some point and you'll be back to square 1.

there are tons of options out there and threads discussing the upgrades - do a search. i personally have racingbrake slotted up front with racingbrake et500 pads. coupled with the legend caliper swap, my car stops in front of the dime (then i pick it up).

 

nice

 

That's niiiiiice.

I don't think I need to do a Legend caliper upgrade but I'll give heeltoe a look real quick

 

Just purchased

Racingbrake Ultra Performance (Slot) 1-Piece, RAB.90761.4
Racingbrake ET300, RAB.PD787-33.2

From Heel-Toe.... We'll see what happens

 

What about rear?

 

if the rear is fine, there's no need to replace the parts. would be a good time to inspect the rear for wear and runout. also i'd go ahead and flush the fluid and replace it with new.

with that set-up, you'll be pleased. make sure you follow heeltoe's bed-in procedure and not the racingbrake instructions. this is a very important step.

 

A most excellent combo.

I've got that rotor and ET500 on the fronts. StopTech OE Replacement Slotted with ET500 pads on the rear.

Make sure to bed them in.

 

GG theyll look sick.

 

It doesn't look good with slotted or drilled rotors at the front, but blank rotors at the rear. It'll looks much better putting the same on all four corners.

 

^^ i hear what you're saying - i bought stoptech slotted for the rear for the same reason - no need to spend the cash on the rb rotors for the rear - there's just not that much stopping power from there.

 

But it's not uncommon to see slotted up front and plains on the rear. The rear does so little braking it's only a visual thing.

 

thanks rob - i meant to add this in. my only reason for the stoptech rear was so they would match visually. many performance cars with slotted or cross-drilled rotors from the factory only have the fronts with regular blanks in the rear. there really isn't a "need" for them.

 

fashion over function

 

I'm putting slotted and hawk pads up front. I've go 100k on the rears and 60K on the fronts. The rears look almost new. I cannot believe it.

 

^^what brand rotor are you going with on the front? i had problems with hawk pads and racingbrake rotors.

 

PremiumOne Slotted Rotor with Hawk performance ceramic pads.

I figured they were only $7 more then OEM and got decent reviews. If they're as good as OEM and don't warp I should be happy.

 

Yep, it's a visual thing, just like body kits and spoilers.

 

OEM's aren't so good tho....

 

I bought last night the rears from Brakeperformance.com with AXXIS Semi-metalic pads. So I wont have blanks in the rear. It should match the front

 

And what is the measure of 'good'?

Seems they've worked well for 130K and in the last 5-10K got warped. Best rotor life I've ever experienced. My brakes still worked and I haven't rear ended anyone from a failure.

Seems to me all the 'hype' of performance is really a dick contest. This is a people mover not a race car - lets not forget that.

 

I never thought of it as a race car. After resurfacing mine went maybe 1K mi. before same issue came back (shaking when braking), and I don't drive it hard. I've also read numerous accounts on here of the same issue w/ stock rotors. So I think I can confidently state OEM's weren't too good to me.

 

The price difference isn't that much anyways. I got the rears for 100$ for both side plus a closeout sale for 21$ on the pads. Then Heel-toe for 300$ for the front. Thats about 50$ per wheel. Thats pretty good, for an upgrade.

 

def. make sure you flush the system and inspect the calipers. not sure of your mileage, but the age of those parts means they could need some tlc by this point. the 1st time i flushed after purchasing at 75,000 miles, the rear fluid was a rust color but the front was much cleaner. a one-man bleeder will help if you're doing it yourself - cost about $10 at your local auto parts store.