Had Firestone Destination tires installed a few months ago by Firestone. They tell me that I need a wheel alignment due to my toe in being slightly off....I never had a wheel alignment done before on the Jeep. I opted not to do it since I never had a problem with uneven wear on tires ever. I figured they were trying to make an extra buck while I was there...$79.00. Anyway, just a few weeks ago I replaced my worn front rotors and pads with a set from Napa and ceramic pads. All is well for the first 1000 miles then I notice my steering wheel shaking at 50MPH when braking and depending upon the braking situation it sometimes shakes violently. Here's the weird thing: if I break really hard there is no shaking. It's usually only when I'm driving over 50MPH, start breaking lightly and when I reach 50MPH is when it starts to shake, sometimes violently. I have to take my foot off the brake until its below 50MPH (like 45-40) then brake again and it goes away. Seems like there a certain speed zone where it shakes. I was thinking I got a bad set of rotors from the start so I went back to Napa and they gave me a new set, Walker rotors this time, and I went with OEM semi-metallic pads from the dealer. I installed them just this morning and I made sure I broke them in (bad them) correctly as I always do. The shaking is gone. My question is if I do indeed have a slightly off toe in like Firestone said I do, can it cause new rotors to warp eventually this fast? Or is that I probably just got a bad set of rotors from the start? Thanks.
Violent shaking.
- Thread starter jeepzj
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The toe in is not the problem. Its the brakes.
There are a few things that cause rotors to warp; improper wheel lug nut torque, heavy brake usage causing heat to build up and warp rotor. poor steel in the rotors.
I good friend owns and opeates an shop and he will only use certain brake parts. He has told me on countless occasions that there is a lot of poor qualtiy parts out there preying on people looking for low prices. He claims to avoid store brands as they tend to be the imported from China parts. While they may not always be cheap by some people standards, they are made cheap. For instance NAPA here sells a rotor for my Lumina for about $40, he will not install it. Says its cheap junk, the good one cost 2x that and more. Sounds likes you had poor quality rotors. I bet NAPA knows that but people are always looking for low cost so they sell that to compete.
Earlier this spring I needed a tie rod end for the Lumina. Went to several parts stores and none had 'Made in USA" parts, even brand name were imported China parts. The last stop was NAPA, I told the guy I wanted US made parts. He says, $35 and as the slip was printing I notice made in china on box. I refused to take it, said he made mistake and grapped wrong one. He comes back with a well know brand name part made in USA, prices $80. YOu know 95% are going to take the $35 part. You could tell the difference in the qualtiy.
You have to really pay attention, just about all parts stores are dealing in Made in China parts and many are sub-standard. Cheap is what the only attraction is..
There are a few things that cause rotors to warp; improper wheel lug nut torque, heavy brake usage causing heat to build up and warp rotor. poor steel in the rotors.
I good friend owns and opeates an shop and he will only use certain brake parts. He has told me on countless occasions that there is a lot of poor qualtiy parts out there preying on people looking for low prices. He claims to avoid store brands as they tend to be the imported from China parts. While they may not always be cheap by some people standards, they are made cheap. For instance NAPA here sells a rotor for my Lumina for about $40, he will not install it. Says its cheap junk, the good one cost 2x that and more. Sounds likes you had poor quality rotors. I bet NAPA knows that but people are always looking for low cost so they sell that to compete.
Earlier this spring I needed a tie rod end for the Lumina. Went to several parts stores and none had 'Made in USA" parts, even brand name were imported China parts. The last stop was NAPA, I told the guy I wanted US made parts. He says, $35 and as the slip was printing I notice made in china on box. I refused to take it, said he made mistake and grapped wrong one. He comes back with a well know brand name part made in USA, prices $80. YOu know 95% are going to take the $35 part. You could tell the difference in the qualtiy.
You have to really pay attention, just about all parts stores are dealing in Made in China parts and many are sub-standard. Cheap is what the only attraction is..
Cool, let's hope so. The Napa rotor said "Made in China". This new Wagner rotor I just installed this morning says "Made in USA".
Ok, so far so good. The vibration when braking is gone after installing new rotors and pads. I'll have to wait and see if it lasts after a few thousand miles. One thing that I have noticed is that I have much LESS brake dust with the Wagner rotors and OEM semi-metallic pads. The Napa rotors and their ceramic pads produced MORE brake dust. I found that odd since all I've been hearing is that ceramic pads are silent and produce MUCH less dust. They also squeeled sometimes during low speed stops.
I have always found NAPA to have high quality parts. It's only been in the past 8-9 years that I've seen them carry 2 "levels" of quality for the same part. COMPETITION is the only reason they're doing it (my opinion) All of the mass-merchant auto part chains -- Pep Boys, etc. all have ads shouting these low ball prices for starters, alternators, etc ... and they are all pieces or crap. I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for, but these large parts stores seem to be sucessful, so SOMEBODY is buying these cheap auto parts!
Conversely, Napa may be raising the bar when it comes to the value stores. 10 years ago if you were to get a part from ADV or AZ it was usually junk made overseas, but significantly cheaper than the US made Napa equivalent. Now a lot of those same parts are made here and the econo parts stores selling them at prices that are still cheaper than Napa, who have in turn started selling the same cheap junk at premium prices that the value stores quit selling. Case in point; I went to purchase a water pump from Napa who offered me a remanufactured mexican made version for 30.00 bucks. Advance and AZ had a brand new US built water pump for 17.00 that had a lifetime warranty, something the Napa pump lacked. It's little instances like these that steer me away from Napa, where I used to exclusively buy my parts and accessories. Also, a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil is a 1.12 a quart higher than AZ, who is in turn .60 higher than Wal-mart. Napa, I think, just won't be able to survive much longer in areas where the competition is thick.
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