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Steering Wheel Vibration When Braking

jguzek

Full Member
Joined
May 13, 2002
Messages
24
Location
Maryland
I just purchase my Av about two weeks ago and I have been noticing some disturbing behavior went braking. The steering wheel vibrates (sometimes violently) when I?m braking. And it appears to be isolated to just the steering wheel and not to the rest of the truck. The vibration occurs when breaking from highway speeds (55-70mph). It also occurs slightly when breaking from 30-40mph to a stop.

Has anyone else notice such an occurrence.

My first thought is the rotors?however they only have 900 miles on them. And don?t even do much ?stop and go driving?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
 
I would say your rotors, but could also be loose lugs on your front wheels. :eek:
Do you Armor All your tires? Sometimes overspray can cause a similar effect.

Rotors can warp in no time. To be bad in 900 miles is unusual, but possible.
GM rotors notoriously stink.
I would make the delaership replace and not resurface the rotors. It is too early in thier life to have these problems.

Ron
 
???I agree with rbbrmade, i would definitely check the lugs on the front tires, all the way around for that thought. Have you wet the front rotors while they were hot? like just got home and started to wash it instead of letting her cool down a little.
Our company had ford tauras's for company cars and they were the worst
i would definitely go for replacement and not turning the rotors if that is the problem
I have not had no such problem since purchase in febuary and a little over 10,000 miles and have gone through some high water with it.
 
I concur with Zeeya and Rbbr. Sounds like a bad front rotor.
 
I would concur with your rotors theory. When we got our new Grand Am in 3/2000, the brakes started pulsing a little over 1000 miles. I know brakes should get you to at least 30k before any work should need to be done. In our case, it felt as if there were 30k plus miles on it. We took it to the dealer and I was somewhat prepared for a fight. To my surprise, they replaced the rotors and pads without questioning it. We were totally surprised and glad that it didn't take any arguing or talking to the service manager.

Jamie
 
I have similiar problem. Thanks for all the advise ... keep it coming. and I'll update this thread if I have any action on this issue.
Damon
 
What everyone above said about ROTORs....Probably someone drove it hard from the lot and then they washed it.
 
It would induce warping...then more braking would cause the warping to progress.....Rotors get very hot under braking. Either that or he has a stuck caliper?
 
One more vote for the rotors....I had the same problem on my old car and it turns out the driver front rotor was indeed warped.... :B:
 
I am a very hard driver, make the dealer replace the rotors & the pads. They did it on my 97 suburban, 2001 Tahoe & the dont know it yet but will be changing the 2001 Avalanche ones as soon as I have the time to lay it up for a day. At 14k on the clock, it starting to vibriate.
About normal for me.

Also my neighbor had the problem at 3500 miles & they replaced both front rotors.

Make sure they replace them NOT cut yours. At $38k, it the least they can do.

Just tip the Service Manager well & the problem is gone.


 
I just had a similar braking problem with mine. Under medium to hard braking, my Av would take a nose dive, turn hard to the right, and make a loud clunking noise. Took it to the dealer last night (they're open til 2:00 am), and told them the prob, and that they could have it until 5:00 this afternoon. The service rep called me back this morning, and said that my right front caliper had lost a mounting bolt. They fixed it, and performed their second free alignment. He also said that all 4 brake calipers now had lock-tite on the mounting bolts.
 
OK - here's the deal. The owner's manual states that you should avoid any hard braking during the first 250 miles you drive your Av. Doing so can greatly shorten the life of your brakes.

What you are describing is classic symptoms of warped rotors. Specifically your front rotors because you only feel this in the steering wheel and not in the seat (your butt) which would indicate damage to your rear rotors.

Now due to the age of your Avalanche you need to consider some things:

1) Did you drive your Avalanche through a car wash immediately after doing some heavy braking in say stop and go traffic?

2) Did you drive your Avalanche through deep water after heavy braking?

3) Did you do any heavy braking or trailering during the first 250 miles - especially a panic stop?

If you can answer yes to any of these - this is probably what warped your rotors. This isn't a common "Avalanche" thing - this is a disc brake thing.

The good news is you probably can get the rotors machined back into spec (my wife just had to have this done on her Thunderbird). The vibration will go away.

HOWEVER - while you're at it you should make sure that you're rear brakes are operating properly. Wouldn't normally consider this an issue but because your Av is only two weeks old this could be due to too much stress on the front brakes.

Having your rotors turned is cheap - doubtful even with it's young age it will be covered under warranty unless a defect is detected (say a faulty anti-lock sensor that froze a caliper).

Now here is the bad news. Continuing to drive that way will chew up your pads, calipers and rotors worse - so get it fixed ASAP.

Hope this info helps!
 
Thanks you to everyone for your valued input.



Just a few comments and a quick update,

As far as the driving conditions go,....I have yet to take my Av through any high water, or expose the breaks to any other water source when they were hot. And I have yet to do an (emergency) hard stop while driving. I also checked the lugs on all 4 wheels, and they seem to be torqued properly.

I did made an appointment with the dealer for this weekend to have the breaks and my ?Dash-Wire wall rattle? looked into. Problem is, the breaks are only coverd by the warrenty for the first 1200 miles. Today,...I'm at 1201!!!. So unless a defect is found, it looks as if this is going to cost me $$.
Chevy!! Can't live with'em,....can't live without'em.



I will let you know what they discover.

J
 
jguzek said:
Thanks you to everyone for your valued input.



Just a few comments and a quick update,

As far as the driving conditions go,....I have yet to take my Av through any high water, or expose the breaks to any other water source when they were hot. ?And I have yet to do an (emergency) hard stop while driving. ?I also checked the lugs on all 4 wheels, and they seem to be torqued properly.

I did made an appointment with the dealer for this weekend to have the breaks and my ?Dash-Wire wall rattle? looked into. ?Problem is, the breaks are only coverd by the warrenty for the first 1200 miles. ?Today,...I'm at 1201!!!. ?So unless a defect is found, ?it looks as if this is going to cost me $$. ?
Chevy!! ?Can't live with'em,....can't live without'em.



I will let you know what they discover.

J

Horse hockey - when I owned my Pontiac they replaced the material on my driver's seat under warranty - six months and 9,000 miles after the fact. I can't imagine a dealer splitting hairs on a single mile...and if they do...they don't deserve yours (or other club members) business!
 
I hate to disagree with people, but everyone has their own opinion. I personally ( I learned this the hard way) never get rotors turned. Sure, it doesn't cost much, but what it does do is thin the rotors. The more warp in the rotor, the more they have to be machined down which makes them thinner and will definitely cause them to warp a lot quicker the next time they get hot.

I always just buy brand new rotors. Since you are driving a brand new vehicle, I wouldn't accept anything less than brand new front rotors. If you caused the problem then you may have to argue with the dealer, but if you didn't then I would demand new rotors if the dealer doesn't in fact just put new ones on. Just my 5 cents. (Inflation). ;D
 
Alrighty...here's the news

I took my Av to the dealer today to have the brakes checked.

According to the dealer, they were defiantly out-of-round, or warped as some would say.

Their first solution was to have the rotors turned. (I expected this). However I ask the dealer if they could just install new rotors and pads.
For 34K out of my pocket! I would think another 100 bucks out of theirs wasn't going to break the bank.

My service agent finally agreed to have new rotors installed; however we stuck with the existing pads.

No word on what may have caused the warping in the first place. My Av did have 43 miles on it when I purchased it. And who knows how it was driven during that time period.

Good news is everything seems fine now. I took her out for a normal drive with a few stops here and there.

Smooth as a babies bottom. (y)


Thanks again everyone for all your advice.
I will update this link if anything changes.

J
 
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