[sonic2wb]

ok so get in the car yesterday and notice a viberation at 40mph and above and its worse when applying brakes at these speeds as soon as the car is under 40 it quits viberating.

Any ideas?

Bad tire

bad tie rod end

bad wheel bearing?

now this morning got ready for church driving the church has a nightmare its even worse. and i noticed a "hot" smell from the car like hot brakes or hot rubber.

 

[TedL]

I find hot brakes to be a distinctive smell, not easily confused with hot rubber. But if your nose is less discriminating, and smelling close to each wheel and feeling the radiated heat from the brakes (don't touch!) doesn't find it for you, you s/b be able to easily check for dragging brakes by lifting with a jack and checking for free spinning of each wheel.

If the vibration and smell are unrelated, the vibe could be as simple as a thrown wheel weight. Bad CV joints can also give vibes, particularly starting at speeds in the upper 30's (mph).

 

[sonic2wb]

OK heres the new crap going on. jacked up car and checked for wheel bearing (not sure if my test works on theses cars) (trying to move tire from top to bottom looking for play) I didnt find any.

The smell is deffently brake pad smell dunno if the vibes are causeing the pads to drag. going to get up at 7am to pull tire off. started to do it this afternoon but in direct sunlight here (no shade trees ) temp was 115F on the concreate drive way. I was going to do it after the sun went down but its been lighting and thundering all evening so ill try to attack it in the morning.

 

[The Digital MagE]

from what you're saying my bet is a bad tire. you may well have thrown a belt inside the tire. jack the car up, spin the wheels and look for wiggling tread. if you find it, that's the bad tire.

 

[fourwheeler]

shake from side to side felt in the steering wheel is usually a tie rod/end.

shake 45 mph + usually wheel balancing issue.

whine/groan going down the road usually wheel bearings.

vibration 50 mph + that comes and goes, bent wheel.

sometimes when manually spinning the tire with the car jacked up, you can feel a bulge which would be a belt let loose inside the tire.

Hope it helps. Let us know what it was.

 

[The Digital MagE]

while i agree with what you said, fourwheeler, only a tire and a bent wheel happen suddenly... and he should know if he bent a wheel. that sure isn't hard to do on my '97. more "make money after the sale engineering" ...

 

[sonic2wb]

ok swaped front passenger side tire. the vibes are still there BUT not as bad. did notice some weights missing off the inside of the tire. hot brake smell is still there its coming from the drivers side of the car lol. so im wondering if the brake caliper may be stuck causeing it?

 

[sonic2wb]

well heres the thing about it may be a bent rim or thrown weights the day before this started i let my brother inlaw borrow the car. and hes not known for treating things nice lol so u dunno.

 

[The Digital MagE]

sonic - did you try to turn the rotor on the driver's side with your hands, when the wheel was off? was it stuck? did it stick in one place, and turn free in another?

 

[sonic2wb]

rotors

not yet being lazy the rotors are new i just put them on 2-3 months ago.

 

[TedL]

not yet being lazy the rotors are new i just put them on 2-3 months ago.

You could have done the suggested test while the wheels were off for the swap. It wasn't a suggestion to machine the rotors. It's the fundamental test for pads that are staying in contact and overheating. It's also a test for warped rotors. The contact for less than 360 degrees of the rotation is indicative of a warped rotor. But I don't recall your reporting a pulsing pedal, so warping doesn't seem to be a problem.

It's a small investment of time and materials to take off the offending caliper to clean and lube it's slides and pins, if you didn't do all that when you replaced the rotors (and pads, I assume.)

 

[sonic2wb]

Ok new update. found the stuck rotor/brakes its the Passenger side rear. not sure if its the caliper or the E-brake sticking I can really tear into it untill i have the funds to get the parts. the viberation is from the alignment im pretty sure so i got to come up with $122 + alignment and brake parts.

Im starting to feel like digital mage here LOL its always something. and i still have that screwed up a/c issue.

 

[sonic2wb]

Ok new update. found the stuck rotor/brakes its the Passenger side rear. not sure if its the caliper or the E-brake sticking I can really tear into it untill i have the funds to get the parts. the viberation is from the alignment im pretty sure so i got to come up with $122 + alignment and brake parts.

Im starting to feel like digital mage here LOL its always something. and i still have that screwed up a/c issue.

 

[TedL]

Ok new update. found the stuck rotor/brakes its the Passenger side rear. not sure if its the caliper or the E-brake sticking I can really tear into it untill i have the funds to get the parts. the viberation is from the alignment im pretty sure so i got to come up with $122 + alignment and brake parts.

Im starting to feel like digital mage here LOL its always something. and i still have that screwed up a/c issue.

Driving in that heat without A/C must be clouding your mind.

Seriously, if the brake problem is just pins/slides/contact surfaces needing cleaning & lube, parts cost could be zero if you have the lube, or 99 cents if you have to get the small pack at the register at AZ et. al.

You s/b able to distinguish between the service and parking brakes as the problem by removing the wheel and spreading the pads away from the rotor (wood wedge or real carefully with a screwdriver), then turning the hub/rotor. If the problem stays, it's in the PB. Else, it's in the service brake. Assuming not the hub bearing, which can get burned out by the heat from a bad brake.

 

[sonic2wb]

yea i was just sitting here this morning thinking about that. i may go out there today and mess with it.

 

[sonic2wb]

Horray!

OK so today i get pissed and went out and jacked the avalon up and got the rear passenter side tire off and guess what the brakes were stuck. NOW im a big guy and with a breaker bar and my fat ass standing on the i couldnt turn the rotor with the wheel off so i take the caliper off and find this

They turned to ash lol. apperently the caliper has been stuck for awhile. so i break out my caliper push back tool and some greese and take my time pushing it back and to my surprise it does go back.


The rotor is warped in one spot but we dont have the funds for me to replace it at this time. so i get a set of rear brakes and change both sides. for compareison i took a pick of the pads from the drivers side lol

So after I got them all done i took the avalon out for a test and wouldnt u know. the vibs i was feeling have stoped! yay so I can put my nice rim and tire back on the front of the car and get that ugly spare off the front since now i belive it was the brakes being stuck all the time was causeing the vibs.

so next on my list is to replace both back calipers ( this car is from WI and everything has a good coating of cancer on it) a,k,a rust.

 

[fourwheeler]

Sonic, I'm glad you got the problem figured out and fixed "good enough" for now. Let me know what you end up doing with the rear calipers and what brand you end up going with. I too would love to just replace everything with OEM parts, but frankly, the family budget just wont allow that right now.

Did you end up replacing the bad pad too, or are you just going to run it for a while until it wears flat?

Ah, the joys of working on cars from the rust belt. I can relate, I'm from MI.

Glad you let us know what the problem and solution was!

 

[TedL]

Figure on needing to overhaul the brackets, too. Speaking from rust belt experience. I did the same job on my daughter's '99 last Thanksgiving weekend, while she was home from school.

 

[sonic2wb]

my brackets are good the pins were still greesed and moving well. Yea i replaced all the pads because those were just to far gone. pads i got from advance auto for $18.99 so if it hangs again and eats them up its not a big deal.

Autozone has the calipers for $59.99 + 65core charge so when i get the cash ill be replacing them. along with the rotors and E-brake shoes.

 

[TedL]

See my PM.