Impala - Chevrolet :: Pulsing When Decelerating From Highway Speed - Warping Rotors
Mar 10, 2013
I have a problem with the front rotors on my '01 Impala warping. The pulsing is really bad when decelerating from highway speed. They will last maybe a month after installing before they start to warp again. I purchase my parts at the local NAPA store. Is there something I could be doing wrong during installation or it bad parts (cheap material)?. Could it be an issue with other front end components?. The car has 173,000 miles on it.
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I had an accident a couple years ago. I hydroplaned on the freeway and ended up hitting the center concrete wall with the back right corner of the truck. Ever since that time after a few thousand mile any where from 2500 to 6K my rotors warp. I do not ride with my foot on the brake peddle. I have 198K miles on the truck and other then the brake issue it run great. I take it to a mechanic I have used for years for all my vehicles and we have replace everything from the wheel up to the firewall, Rotors ( even high performance) Pads, Calipers, Rubber line connecting the Calipers to the metal line in the front, Master Cylinder, and the Booster. The front warp worse then the back but all of the rotors warp. What else in the braking system other then the Antilock brake stuff could it possibly be? I have spent way to much money now and replaced my rotors 7 times since the wreck. It feels like the brakes engage randomly when driving down the road, I will feel a drag or a shudder like if a wheel is out of balance.
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My 79 year old father put fuel additive in his 2010 Chevy Impala. Don't ask me how much, or for how long... The Check Engine light came on. I never got a clear answer from him on what his mechanic said about it. Five to Ten fill ups later the Check Engine light went out on its own. Engine seems fine. Could this have caused damage to the engine or emissions controls? Would a computer diagnostic from a mechanic pinpoint any problems? Would you recommend a computer diagnostic be performed?
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Ever since the day I bought the car, it has had a highway speed pulsing vibration. This vibration manifests once you cross about 90kph, and pulses like a sine wave.
Think of it like this - OOOOOOooooooOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOooooooOOOOOO - where big O's are vibration and little o's are absence of vibration.
I have had the wheels and tires rebalanced several times on various machines over the years in attempts to rid myself of it. The original owner had theorized that the car was so heavy and had sat on its aftermarket rims in one spot for so long that the wheels had bent, which does not appear to be the case. The dealer has experienced the symptoms but cannot find a cause...though I fear they are less knowledgeable about the car than I am. I note that several people on the forum have had vibration issues due to drive shaft bushing failures...but in skimming the relevant threads, none of those people characterized it as a pulsation OR a constant issue that I saw.
I wouldn't say the pulsing was fast...think 4-5 seconds of vibration and then 4-5 seconds of peace.
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I have an 03 Camry LE I4 with about just under 100k miles. Recently, under semi hard braking at highway speeds, the steering wheel will shake quite a bit to the point that I don't feel safe braking hard. I initially thought the brake rotors were warped, but those were replaced less than 2 years ago somewhere around 80k miles. I've taken it to many shops and here are the verdicts they've given me:
1. Rear drums are warped which is the problem (I don't think so...)
2. Control arm bushings need replacement (coming from shop who did brake work before)
3. Ball joints need to be replaced
4. All rotors should be resurfaced
What should I do?
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When turning a corner at low speed (left or right) while riding the brake, if the suspension bounces (e.g., crossing uneven manhole cover) the left front brake pulses for .5-2 seconds. The pulse is felt in the brake pedal. A grunt noise comes from the suspension. Cannot reproduce over parking lot speed bumps.
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Got a 2004 Chevy Impala with 99K miles. Speedometer seems to be acting sporadically often. Sometimes, it will shift 10 or 20 mph "faster" than actual speed then, sometimes, it goes to the "maximum" speed on the dial and just stays there with the car on or off. Then a few days later, starts working normal again.
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The wife's '07 Chevy Impala's wheel is making a funny noise - sort of a "whoop whoop whoop" out of the front passenger side wheel as the car gets up to speed. there is vibration in the steering wheel also. When coming off a local highway down a hill, she had to hit the brakes semi-hard and there was a great vibration from the brakes.
I have already rotated the tires in case it was a tire/wheel issue, and took to mechanic to replace the bearing - and it seems to have gotten worse. The mechanic said the back bearing looked good but he still wanted to replace... which wont happen. recently had a control arm replaced by same mechanic in front but don't remember which side.
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I replaced the pads and rotors on my 05 Civic 3000 miles ago. Now it is pulsing badly again when stepping on the brakes. I can feel the pulse in the brake pedal and the steering wheel. What should I be looking for when I pull off the wheels again.
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My front disks are pulsing & the thickness is near minimum, so I guess I'll have to replace them soon. Is any particular brand better than others?
These stock ones are made by Bosch and I'm not impressed with their lack of resistance to warpage. I see "Drilled and Slotted" available at Rockauto. What's your experience? Are they any good?
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I have a 2005 Malibu. After two alignments, a front wheel alignment by an independent shop and a "four wheel" alignment by the dealer, my car still pulls to the left at highway speeds. What else could be the cause of this? Bought the car with 22,000 miles and now have 80,000 plus. No accidents; don't understand what is wrong.
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'98 Chevy Lumina. Driving at Highway speed, I hear a short rattle. Makes me think of linkages vibrating, from the passenger area. Few minutes later I hear it again. Few minutes later I look down to see me thermostat at 240+. I watch it redline, hold for a few minutes, then the rattle again and my temp goes down to 160 or so. All of this happens at 60 mph, in 45 degree weather.
Rinse, repeat about every 10-15 minutes. I notice that while the engine temp is climbing, I have no hot air from the vents and after the rattle and temp drop I do have hot air. Check the block when I get home and I see the familiar green puddles. So is this: Water pump, the apparent source of the leaks, heater core causing back pressure to leak at the hose, or the ever dreaded head gasket?
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I ask because my father's 08 Avalon is pulsing during braking at highway speeds but only sometimes. When it does it we can feel it in the steering wheel. I suspected maybe one of the caliper pins was seizing. So I pulled the front wheels. The pads and rotors look great. I removed the pins, cleaned and greased them. On the test drive it pulsed two times for me but was totally smooth on the rest of the drive.
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It all started around 18,000 miles when I noticed a vibration under highway braking. I convinced myself that everything was fine for the time being and I would have the dealer inspect the brakes at my 20,000 service. Fast forward to the service and all four of my rotors were warped. The dealer turned them all and said I wouldn't have any more problems. The car sits at 28,500 miles now and I'm starting to get the same vibration sensation as I had at 18,000 miles. I'm definitely going to be bringing the car in for it's 30,000 mile service and I will bring up the issue again. What type of warranty is on the brakes as I hope they will replace the rotors this time.
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When I apply the brakes moderately at speeds between 60 mph and 80 mph, the brakes pulses and the car shakes. If I press harder, the intensity gets worse shortly and then disappears the harder I press. The front steering wheel does not shake so I believe it is the rear brake or wheels. This problem started after I changed the rear VW brakes rotors and rear VW pads and changed all four wheels with remanufactured VW Phaeton wheels. The issue must be with the wheels,brakes, or lug nuts. The tires have not been changed but they are fairly new from what I can tell. The front rotor and pads was changed by the prior owner and I've never had issue with them, they are fairly new and look to be OEM.
Prior to reinstalling the new wheels, I cleaned the rust off of the front rotor surface that makes contact with the wheel and applied high temperature paint. One of the wheels I had a run in the paint (and there is no way I can make the paint 100% the same thickness) so perhaps this has slightly misaligned the front wheels to the rotors.
When I did the brake job, I cleaned the driver side rear hub of surface rust prior to installation of the rotor. I did not clean the hub on the rear passenger side because the hub and wheel bearing was changed a few months prior. I did snap the plastic for the speed sensor for the abs on the rear passenger side. I epoxied the plastic back together and have no ABS errors when the car is scanned. Everything was torqued per VW recommendations. I also checked the calibers sliding mechanism (for left to right movement if rotor slightly warped or out of true) and they moved freely and was not locked up. The only part of the job that was not 100% by the book is I used a hand made tool to push the pistons in on the calipers so I could install the pads (I had to push and turn the piston roughly at the same time but was not 100% at the same time because the tool was hand made).
I've had the wheels professionally rebalanced balanced at a tire shop with a fairly modern balancing machine (digital computer flat screen readout). Originally the wheels was balanced with an older balancing machine and when they rebalanced it it was noted the wheels was way out of balance. I had a bad steering wheel shake and the car vibrated significantly prior to the new balance. The shaking improved greatly with the rebalancing but I could still feel a subdued shake in the seat of my pants (steering wheel shake is gone). Yesterday, I retorqued all of the lug nuts and found the driver side rear and passenger side front had one loose lug nut. Also it appeared that the lug nuts may have been installed with an impact driver and probably not torqued because some were very tight. I used a dial gauge to check both the rear tires and I have about 15-20 thousands of movement in each wheel when rocked side to side and top to bottom. Prior to tightening the lug nut on the driver rear, I had 100 thousands of side to side movement. Car now runs much smoother (maybe not as good with the original wheels and brakes but pretty good) after retorquing all the lug nuts, but the same 60-80 mph pulsing / shaking happens when apply the brakes at speed, perhaps even worse.
I've also checked the rear rotor and wheel runout with the dial gauge and I didn't have anything over 4 thousands on the rotor or wheel when rotated. My jig for the dial gauge was not the best since it was hand made and was attached to the ground instead of the car, so any dial gauge measurements could be off, but I would think they tolerances would be even better if I had a proper jig mounted to the car (not floor). The only thing that I haven't replaced is the lug nuts. Tightening them did seam to change the brake pulse behavior for the worse but did make the car run smoother. Could it be possible that the lug nuts are stretched and this is producing the behavior I'm seeing? I've head the ABS can cause a shake if the speed sensor is damaged.
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When coming to a full stop, there is a growling/grinding sound from beneath the floor behind the brake pedal and I can feel the growling./grinding in the pedal as well. Used to happen occasionally, now is happening more often than not. When the Service ABS System/Service Traction System message is displayed (occasionally) on the message center, the growling/grinding doesn't occur and the brakes work. Like normal. When I turn the car off and restart it, the messages are no longer displayed and the growling/grinding sound and feel returns.
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I have a 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier. I've been getting a pulsing vibration which feels like the left front. It starts at about 40mph and gets worse the faster I go. The vibration completely goes away with the slightest left turn on the freeway. It vibrates on acceleration and deceleration, in neutral and in gear (5spd manual). I've currently replaced the front struts, strut mounts, pads and rotors, left front wheel bearing, tie rod ends, had the front end aligned and the tires balanced.
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My wife has a Sierra 1500 2WD 6cyl that is doing the low speed ABS pulsing. I read this forum and performed the sensor cleaning as described in the TSB from GM. The problem did not go away, so I pulled the ABS fuse for now. When I was cleaning the sensors - which were covered with crap - I noticed a lot of grease between the lobes on the reluctor ring in the hub. I cleaned it as best I could, but I could not get all of it. My question is - should there be any grease visible on that ring at all? If not, then do I need to replace the hubs? If some grease is ok, then I guess I will do a voltage check on each sensor, but I don't want to change the sensors if they are just going to get dirty again. The problem is on both sides.
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Some of you might remember I've pondered here before about the strange pulsing that occurs on my steering (on the V10) when maneuvering at low speed. It's always done it. Well, for the 18 months and 15k miles I've had the car.
Nobody (including Phaeton technicians) who have heard it/felt it have had any useful advice or insight (save offering to take the engine out to check on various bits).
I had always assumed that it was something like the load when the car is being parked etc was sufficient such that some relief valve was lifting momentarily and repeatedly. However I've come to realize that it is not just the slow vehicle speed, but engine speed too. Of course, nearly all parking maneuvering is done at tick over. But if I raise the revs just a little, the phenomenon seems to go away. Not easy to isolate maneuvering speed from engine speed... which is why I'd not really noticed before.
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I have a 2009 Ford Focus and have been having a problem with the brakes. When I hit the brakes at any speed there is a feeling of pulsing as I slow down. It is proportional to the speed I am going. It feels like there is an unevenness to the rotor or brake drum that makes one spot on either of those hit the brake pad/shoe more severely than the rest of the pad/shoe and thus I slow down more during that one spot. Maybe the best way to describe the feeling is like this: While the brake pedal is pressed down it feels like I am slowly pulsing the pedal even though the pedal is steadily pressed down. This pulsing feeling slows down as I slow down until I stop. What might cause this?
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So my 07 with 125k miles has had new rotors for about 50k miles or so, but for a while now when the brakes get hot it gets a violent shudder on braking at highway speeds....the odd part to me is nothing at lower speeds, and not always at higher speeds....do I just have warped rotors again? The rest of the front end I good and tight....
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