I have given this car to my son who lives in DC. When he came here to visit yesterday, he complained about brake judder. I had driven this car about three month ago and brakes were fine. When I drove it yesterday, I realized:-
1) Brakes are very weak and feels mushy
2) The parking brake almost reaches to the end of the travel and is not grabbing hard (rear disc caliper has rotating mechanism for parking brake). It holds the car but can not really stop it if it is moving.
3) I can feel the thumping all around in the car and not only while braking but also driving alhough there is no objectional feel in the pedal or in the steering wheel
4) The brake judder is there all the time even at the slow speed
5) I can not get ABS to engage at all at any panic stops. It does feel as if left front is locking up based upon the typical rubber sliding on the road noise but no ABS action whatsoever. The ABS self-test passes and the ABS light comes on and goes off as expected during the ignition.
6) brake fluid condition and level is fine
I am thinking that this looks like multiple issues.
- a bad tire or at least no longer round or out of balance tire
- fully frozen caliper?
- one of the disk has "uneven thickness"
- at the last service, wheel were installed by the gorilla
- the problem more likely at the rear wheel than at the front? I re-torqued the front wheels before driving. I have yet to do the same on the rear.
My son is driving back tomorrow, so I really don't have much time to thoroughly and logically investigate this as I would have if I had the car for longer time. I also have to get another car inspected this weekend.
Please provide some guidance. 2000 Maxima with 187K.
Thanks,
- Vikas
1) Brakes are very weak and feels mushy
2) The parking brake almost reaches to the end of the travel and is not grabbing hard (rear disc caliper has rotating mechanism for parking brake). It holds the car but can not really stop it if it is moving.
3) I can feel the thumping all around in the car and not only while braking but also driving alhough there is no objectional feel in the pedal or in the steering wheel
4) The brake judder is there all the time even at the slow speed
5) I can not get ABS to engage at all at any panic stops. It does feel as if left front is locking up based upon the typical rubber sliding on the road noise but no ABS action whatsoever. The ABS self-test passes and the ABS light comes on and goes off as expected during the ignition.
6) brake fluid condition and level is fine
I am thinking that this looks like multiple issues.
- a bad tire or at least no longer round or out of balance tire
- fully frozen caliper?
- one of the disk has "uneven thickness"
- at the last service, wheel were installed by the gorilla
- the problem more likely at the rear wheel than at the front? I re-torqued the front wheels before driving. I have yet to do the same on the rear.
My son is driving back tomorrow, so I really don't have much time to thoroughly and logically investigate this as I would have if I had the car for longer time. I also have to get another car inspected this weekend.
Please provide some guidance. 2000 Maxima with 187K.
Thanks,
- Vikas