Scary Amount Of Vibration Under Braking

[RazRazor]

Hi all

A while ago, my car started to vibrate alot while braking normally between speeds of 30mph - 60mph anything above or below seemed to be fine.

All the vibrations came throught the steering wheel, which LED me to believe it was worn Front brake disc's (i had, had the rear ones changed about a year ago, but fronts were fine at the time)

So took the car to ABM to get new discs fitted. After picking the car up it felt very good no steering wheel wobble, but slowly over the last month the same vibration has been coming back, and now its worst than ever, and starting to get very scary. The car also feels like it pulls to the left.

Im using my car alot at the mo. clocking up 600miles a week, driving on Motorways and mad open country roads. so car needs to be in good working order.

What could be causing the problem?

I look forward to reading your replies.

Many Many Thanks

[Steviewevie]

Sticky brake calliper ? It's a common problem on the IS200. It could be that you have a sticky calliper and the new discs were initially fine, but then after a while the sticky calliper caused them (one ?) to warp.

[DJ Wozza]

I would check wheel nuts for tightness first of all (not as silly as it may sound), then it's down to warped brakes

or faulty suspension I'd guess (so long as Tyres are ok with no bulges including inner edges).

[Parthiban]

I've currently got a similar problem which I need to get to the bottom of...........no idea yet what the cause is but will be interested if you find a solution

[spikes]

if its pulling to one side it could be the brake calliper sticking as stevie has said :)

[micromarc]

I ve had a similar problem recently........finally got to the bottom of it last night.

Passenger front lower ball joints majorly gone!

Have a look at them, might be the problem?

[RazRazor]

Great advice so far lads.

How would i check for some of these probs. checking tyres i know

But sticking calliper, faulty suspension , lower ball joints (tho i did get these done when i first got the car about 2 and half years ago

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Wheel balance to check as well, the weights can come off or wheels go out of balance.

[FLEXUS K]

alright mate i,ve had this problem as well,although my steering wheel shimmyed when driving between 50-70mph but was worse when braking between the same speeds.

my car failed its mot on lower near side ball joint so i had it replaced plus a track rod end.

this made NO difference.

i had wheel balance checked at two places both said balancing was ok.

in the end i took it lexus manchester and had the tracking done due to having a new ball and track rod end.

they also checked the balancing and they said three wheels were out.

they also cheched the disk and calipers which were ok.

the vibrations now have gone from braking although there is still a very slight steering wheel shimmy at 60mph(barely noticeable)

i mentioned this to lexus and they said it could be the front tyres which are only budget.(bad move)

when i can be bothered im gonna swap fronts for backs.

hope this helps

[RazRazor]

Just a quick update.

Took my car into ABM beckenham yesterday morning (really good of them to fit me in with 24hrs notice)

They got one of the techs to look at my car, put it on rolling road , jacked it up etc.

Then got told it was my wheel hubs that were mishaped. and that this is very costly to replace! great stuff , just what u need before xmas.

But was given to choices, either replace the hubs, but the cost was massive or ..... get my brake discs skimmed?!?

Now i've never heard of getting discs skimmed before , but kevin at ABM said they used to do this alot while at Lexus Croydon, but not so sure on the IS.

Lucky enough i found an advert in local paper with someone offfering to do skimming. And the price

.

.

.

.

£25 per disc plus VAT !!!

Now that sounds really cheap, and its a while you wait service!

Can anyone tell me if they think this will help the problem, or any more info on the skimming?

cheers

RR

[ormi]

Just a quick update.

Took my car into ABM beckenham yesterday morning (really good of them to fit me in with 24hrs notice)

They got one of the techs to look at my car, put it on rolling road , jacked it up etc.

Then got told it was my wheel hubs that were mishaped. and that this is very costly to replace! great stuff , just what u need before xmas.

But was given to choices, either replace the hubs, but the cost was massive or ..... get my brake discs skimmed?!?

Now i've never heard of getting discs skimmed before , but kevin at ABM said they used to do this alot while at Lexus Croydon, but not so sure on the IS.

Lucky enough i found an advert in local paper with someone offfering to do skimming. And the price

.

.

.

.

£25 per disc plus VAT !!!

Now that sounds really cheap, and its a while you wait service!

Can anyone tell me if they think this will help the problem, or any more info on the skimming?

cheers

RR

i work for a main dealer(toyota)in edinburgh and we use the skiming machine a lot warranty will not allow us to replace disks for corrosion unless we've try'd to skim them first.it's safe unless you take the disk to below min thickness... but in truth that is only a short fix as you found out after replacing your disks the skim'd ones will do exactly the same and you'll be left with the wobble again and be well out of pocket!!try breakers and eBay you might get a bargin!!!

[johny105]

....Then got told it was my wheel hubs that were mishaped. and that this is very costly to replace! great stuff , just what u need before xmas.

But was given to choices, either replace the hubs, but the cost was massive or ..... get my brake discs skimmed?!?

....

tbh mate that makes no sense at all(to me anyway), if its the hubs that are warped (which i very much doubt) then skimming discs would do sweet FA.

[ormi]

....Then got told it was my wheel hubs that were mishaped. and that this is very costly to replace! great stuff , just what u need before xmas.

But was given to choices, either replace the hubs, but the cost was massive or ..... get my brake discs skimmed?!?

....

tbh mate that makes no sense at all(to me anyway), if its the hubs that are warped (which i very much doubt) then skimming discs would do sweet FA.

warping hubs are more common than you think a lot of the older toyotas suffered bad from this.

[johny105]

really? fair enough. but what would skimming the discs do to fix it?

johny

[Steviewevie]

really? fair enough. but what would skimming the discs do to fix it?

I don't really get that either ? Is it because a warped hub could lead to a warped disc, and skimmng the disc could temporarily fix the problem although the disc would end up getting warped again ? Or is it just bs ?

[johny105]

i cant see how it would do anything.

[Parthiban]

Hmmm, mishaped hubs, never heard that one before so that could be my problem as well. Will have to get it checked out..........

Agree with the others though, how could damaged hubs be fixed by skimming discs?

[RazRazor]

Update..

Car was taken to "orpington saab" for disc to be skimmed + for them to have a good look and see if there was any other reason for car to be juddering.

They checked it out, and said nothing else was wrong, suspension , ball joints etc all okay.

So they went and skimmed all 4 disc's (bit annoyed as they never called me to advise about this, was only expecting fronts to be done)

But..... Problem cured. Car drives like a dream. No judder at all, plus seems like handling has improved (tho that may be me feeling more confident knowing the car is safe)

Only problem i have no, is the brakes feel more "Spongie" ? i guess this is coz the disc's have been thinned out. Any way to make them sharper??

cheers

RR

[ormi]

Update..

Car was taken to "orpington saab" for disc to be skimmed + for them to have a good look and see if there was any other reason for car to be juddering.

They checked it out, and said nothing else was wrong, suspension , ball joints etc all okay.

So they went and skimmed all 4 disc's (bit annoyed as they never called me to advise about this, was only expecting fronts to be done)

But..... Problem cured. Car drives like a dream. No judder at all, plus seems like handling has improved (tho that may be me feeling more confident knowing the car is safe)

Only problem i have no, is the brakes feel more "Spongie" ? i guess this is coz the disc's have been thinned out. Any way to make them sharper??

cheers

RR

your pads will need to be bedded in mate as you have a new braking surface,you could remove the pads and skuff the pads up with sand paper.remember this may only be a short term fix bud but if it cures it for good you were misdiagnosed at the garage because you cant fix a warped hub with a skim.

[Lexus_GR]

Its a great coincidence that while I was looking for solution in the same problem i found this thread to be 1st in the list :)

My car was exhibiting the same behaviour and I decided to skim the brake discs. I assumed that it was my fault that the discs wrapped due to water that came in contact with them while I was washing my car although all the times I recall i washed my car discs weren't so hot.

After the skimming all went ok, i payed like 30 or 40euro (Greece) and everything was fine. Now the car is starting to do the same things and my dealer told me it might be due to a bend suspension part (i don't know the equivalent english word for the part). In the past i have damage the front-right rim in a bump and i had to repair it and balance/align the wheels. It was after that the problem started and I feel it might the cause (a bend suspension link).

You had the vibration-under-braking experience after a crash/bump and the repair of it or started out of nowhere?

[Steviewevie]

After the skimming all went ok, i payed like 30 or 40euro (Greece) and everything was fine. Now the car is starting to do the same things and my dealer told me it might be due to a bend suspension part (i don't know the equivalent english word for the part). In the past i have damage the front-right rim in a bump and i had to repair it and balance/align the wheels. It was after that the problem started and I feel it might the cause (a bend suspension link).

Are you sure you haven't got a sticky brake calliper which is warping your discs ? So after the skimming the problem was temporarily cured, but the calliper is still sticking and warping one of the discs again ?

[Lexus_GR]

i used the brakes while stationary (to jam them if they are sticky but without generating any heat because the car was immobilized)

then i drove a distance of 5 km without applying the brakes and i felt the discs with my finger and they where quite cold.

So i am suspecting that the part that holds the wheel and the disk in place is bend after the awfull bump that almost destroyed my rim some months ago.

i am refering to the part between the upper and the down ball-joints. you know the part that the ball bearings are nested, i thing its called "hub".

and this is the only possible logical cause of disc warping, because its the only part that its bending can cause displacement of disk relative to the calipers.

1) is this deformation of this "hub" part (or whatever is called) a common cause of disk warping?

2) can u give me a rough estimation of the cost of a new "hub"

3) lexus IS200/altezza is a quite rare car in greece (nobody buys japaneze cars over 1600cc <_< ) so a used part is difficult to be found, is there any crashed IS/altezza car owner here that you are aware of in UK and can sell me the part?

Thanks for you time :)