Why Does My Car Shake When I Brake?
Usually that's caused by an issue in the brake system, which we discussed earlier in THIS BLOG. Warped brake rotors are usually the cause for a shake while braking. The reason a brake rotor becomes warped can be a few things. Holding your foot on the brakes for long periods of time, pushing very hard on your brakes, or even overloading your car or truck's weight rating can all cause excessive heat in your brake pads and rotors, which in turn warp your steel rotors.
What does warped mean? Normally a brake rotor is a nice flat surface that allows your brake pad to clamp down smoothly when braking. When excessive heat builds up on the rotor, the flat surface starts to form waves. Those waves are what we refer to when we say, “warped” rotors. Now when you step on the brake, the pads and rotors start to shake because the surface isn’t flat anymore.
High performance and race cars have improvements to the pads and rotors to keep this from happening. Those use larger pads and rotors, cooling slots, and different types of material.
These upgrades can even be done to your vehicle to improve braking, even beyond the factory specification. This also will help with hauling heavier loads.
You can keep this from happening to your car by not riding your brakes, giving more time to stop, and stopping less aggressively at stoplights. It is also important to not overload your car or truck, so that the brakes don’t have to stop with more weight than they are designed to do.
What do you do if your rotors are warped? Typically new pads and rotors are required once a rotor has become warped. In some special cases the rotor can be machined flat again, but not often.
We have all the tools and knowledge to service the brake system on your car or truck.
At Crabtree Automotive, we work on all makes and models, even European. From Honda to Audi and everything in between! So give us a call or schedule an appointment today with the link below.
https://www.crabtreeautorepair.com/appointments