geronimomoe

I have a 96 Accord. Great car, 103,000 miles.

The steering wheel occasionally shimmies when I apply the brakes from say 40+ MPH. It doesn't happen all the time, just sometimes. I'm trying to see if there is a pattern to it, say after hard braking to a stop light, etc. So far, no conclusive or consistent pattern found.

Front and rear brakes have been worked on once (brake job), rears at roughly 60000 miles and fronts at roughly 72000 miles. So, obviously I'm pretty light on the brakes. The dealer probably turned the rotors when I had the brakes pads changed. So, I'm wondering if it's an issue with glazing on the rotors, brake pad compound issue, warped roters, etc?

Right now, I'm ruling out warped rotors. Reason being, if the rotors were warped, the shimmy would happen all the time when braking. That being said, I'm leaning towards a glazing on the rotors.

Thoughts?

stright-(paint)balling

i'm gonna guess glazed rotors but i wouldn't put 20 bucks on it. just a guess.

TLdriver022

I had the same thing. My rotors were warped.

mclarenf3387

Probably warped rotors. Just because they are warped doesn't mean they will do it all the time.

GreenMonster

I've got warped rotors on my CL (66K miles) that do the same thing. I don't always feel a pulsation in the wheel when braking, but they do act up under heavy braking most of the time.

I've got the original factory rotors. They were cut at 22K miles, and were fine till about 60K miles... Since it's not a constant agravation, I haven't done anything to them yet. I'll probably run them thru the winter and swap 'em out for aftermarkets next spring.

geronimomoe

That's what bothers me. I think it would be constant if the rotors were warped.

geronimomoe

The steering wheel shimmies left and right (not enough to affect the direction the car's going in). After I release the brakes and re-apply the brakes, in general the shimmy goes away, hence the thinking it's a glazing.

Did your steering wheel shimmy go away after an initial application of braking?

Moog-Type-S

One of two things: warped rotors, or ABS problem.

mclarenf3387

Not necessarily. I've seen plenty of cars that had warped rotors that wouldn't do it all the time. The only way to know for sure is to measure the run out, but unless you have the tool, you'd have to take it to someone. Also, generally when the brakes get glazed they also get a little blueish tint to them.

TLdriver022

If i did a stop from a high speed the steering wheel would shimmy. No the steering wheel did not stop shimmeing if I released the brakes and then re apply them. It would shimmy for a while after a hard stop.