Q: Brake Pulsation

asked by on February 15, 2018

Since about 40,000 miles ago, my brakes have been pulsating in the car. Because of this, I've replaced the rear rotors and pads but it didn't help. Whenever I come to a stop, the pulsation rate slows down as the car's wheels slow. In short, the pulsation is dependent on front wheel speed.

Today, I replaced both the front rotors and pads. Upon spinning the rotor freely by hand with the caliper installed, to my surprise, I hear the pulsation. On one side of the rotor, I hear the scraping of pad to rotor contact, once the rotor turns 180 degrees, the pad isn't touching the rotor and it spins freely. So it sounds like shhh-silence-shhh-silence-shhh-silence, etc. I have cleaned the wheel hubs very well before installing the rotor and they don't have any hints of rust. They're still shiny. If I look at the rotor while its spinning, I can see the outer edge moving a little bit as it turns but only very slightly.

My car has 244600 miles.

You may have a bent rotor hub. This can be checked with a dial indicator gage and if hub is bent more than 10 thousands of an inch it will cause the rotor to move back and forth and cause pulsation.

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