Bad strut = Vibration when braking?

[99Saturn]

Are worn struts sometimes a cause of vibration while braking?

I've had some vibration when braking, and was assuming pads or rotors to be the culprit. Two weeks ago I replaced the rear shocks, then this past weekend I replace the front struts with Monroe Quick Struts. After I replaced the struts, the vibration has pretty much disappeared.

Not complaining, just wondered if I stumbled on my problem via a happy accident or if I somehow am masking it instead.

 

[The_Jeff]

Where are you feeling it, pedal, wheel, or floorboards/seat?

My wife's HHR has a bad steering intermediate shaft that rattles under braking. The pad deposits on the rotors are not quite perfect and this pulls to the left then right very quickly, a couple times per tire rev.

I would suspect a tie rod end, bearing, steering u-joint, or something in the rack.

 

[99Saturn]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Where are you feeling it, pedal, wheel, or floorboards/seat?

There was a little vibration in the wheel and could feel some feedback in the the pedal, at least that's how it seemed to me.

Honestly I didn't think much of it as it felt very similar to bad rotors on my Saturn SL2 a few years back. What surprised me was it seems to have disappeared after swapping the struts.

Neglected to mention this is an '06 Cobalt LT 116K - I bought at 111K in May '14. It wasn't babied by the previous owner.

 

[The_Jeff]

You could have changed the resonant frequency of the knuckle/ suspension etc back to one the engineers designed, so the "sticky pad transfer" your car is cursed with is now isolated away from your feeling of it.

 

[barkingspider]

On my beater, the cause of the vibration when braking was the wheel bearings. I replaced them w New bearings and the vibration was gone completely