Steering wheel judder on braking

[Milothicus]

1985 n/a mr2...

whenever i brake at motorway speed, the steering wheel shakes back and forth. i just had new pads and discs on the front and had the rears serviced...

took it back in and nothing's wrong with the brakes. what else could cause this?

any ideas?

[Terry]

Could be a number of things, but I would check the steering and suspension geometry, if the thrust line is out the car can do some funny things during heavy braking..

[Milothicus]

er.....thrust line? that's a new term for me...

[Terry]

Sorry, meant thrust angle not line.

This relates to the angle the rear wheels are pointing with regards to the centre line of the car. Its not very important to understand but bad allignment of all four wheels can cause wheel wobble. Your tyres will need to provide more grip when braking, mainly because of weight shift.

I would take the car somewhere that can perform a good four wheel laser allignment (good means the person operating the equipment aswell).

Most places will only charge for what they have to adjust and will also give you a before and after print out. If you can get hold of a workshop manual it will give you the exact spec for allignment and you can also compare this to what it is set to.

So if allignment is ok you shouldnt have to spend much to rule it out.




p.s. If none of this makes sense I do apologise, I've been at work for 14hrs and can bearly see the screen let alone think......

[Ian Geary]

Worth checking the front wheel bearings also perhaps?

Any movement or play here would be transmitted back through the steering when braking.

Easy to check too - just get the wheel off the ground and waggle top and bottom. They could be worn, but also may just need some adjustment.

HTH

Ian

[tomo]

Check brake disks aren't warped aswell, i've had this on a couple of cars.