Wheel Shakes Violently with Brake Pressure

[militiamaiden]

I'm kinda experiencing this same problem myself on my 90 DD. Its got 287k miles, and the only things I haven't changed yet are the lower control arms and the rack and pinon. Did upgrade the front brakes to Legend 2 piston calipers and Wagon 25mm thick rotors with 25T brackets. Stops well, just shakes from highway speeds when braking

when I first got the car, at 247k, it was puking out literally a pint of fluid every week. I didn't really fix the problem, just used this NO LEAK steering treatment made by Stabil, cured the leaking problem completely in about a 100 miles, where this more expensive Lucas crap didn't do anything. I doubt I'm ever going to do the rack since it took me an entire day on my 2dr coupe back in 2010. And I live in an apartment now so I can't do that much intensive labor anymore.

I can visibly see that the inner lower control arm bushing on my car is shot, can take a screwdriver and move the entire arm. So i'm thinking that's my braking problem. I'll most likely do this first since it only takes an hour or two and I can do it quick in my garage without anyone complaining really.

Idk, just throwing those two things out there.

I'm running ChromeBrakes rotors that meet OEM sizing, and like you said, stops fine but shakes like mad.

I have no leaks whatsoever, and with the small apartment thing I'm totally there with you. Unfortunately there's not much I can do in my tiny space that I have, I barely have room for the small tools I do own. I usually end up having to take it to my friend's house 2 1/2hrs from me, which doesn't always work depending on the nature of the repair and what's exactly going on with it.

My control arms look great, but the bushings on the other, absolutely not, hm.

[oni_cb7]

I'm stumped... if it did it on the old rotors, and they were resurfaced; then it did it on the new rotors... it has to be something else. Did the shaking change at all when doing anything with the rotors?

Honestly, maybe one of the tie rods or wheel bearings you got was bad and didn't fix the problem with the old one. However, I feel like these would cause an issue while accelerating as well. Hopefully someone else can help you get to the bottom of this.

[militiamaiden]

I'm stumped... if it did it on the old rotors, and they were resurfaced; then it did it on the new rotors... it has to be something else. Did the shaking change at all when doing anything with the rotors?

Honestly, maybe one of the tie rods or wheel bearings you got was bad and didn't fix the problem with the old one. However, I feel like these would cause an issue while accelerating as well. Hopefully someone else can help you get to the bottom of this.

Shaking neither progressed or improved, it's always done it.


Hm, that could possibly be an issue. I was checking them out the other day and it seemed fine but I'll deff double check.

Steering rack has been mentioned a few times on this website and from people who help me work on it, but it's never actually been looked at before.

[oni_cb7]

When I had an issue with my power steering rack, it would cause a clunk while turning. However, if something is loose/broken in the rack itself; then I feel like this could be an issue.

How old is the rack on your car?

[militiamaiden]

When I had an issue with my power steering rack, it would cause a clunk while turning. However, if something is loose/broken in the rack itself; then I feel like this could be an issue.

How old is the rack on your car?

Honestly I could not say. Not sure if the owner before me ever had to replace it or not ;\

[cb7 calling]

My car too does this. It was perfect for about a month after I put new rotors on then it came back. So I guess they warped again really fast but that's not really how rotors warp so I'm thinking it's another issue that new rotors band-aided.

[militiamaiden]

I am so stumped. Tell you what, I am going to replace all the bushings in the car anyway since they all need to be desperately replaced and upgraded. I'm going to do some research as to what bushings will fit me and my car the best before I do so also. This will probably be happening soon since I pushed this project off way too far anyway, I will come back to this post when they are in and have been in long enough to tell if they helped or not. There's really not much else I can think of that would cause this to be such a weird issue, other than the steering rack of course, since my other parts that may have caused the issue are new and fine.

I'll come back soon(ish) with results.

And of course, any suggestions or personal experiences with it are still useful to me

[h22sparkle]

Its your rotors you probably didn't break them in correctly or you warped them again after replacement.

[SunkistCB7]

Some things it does need in the undercarriage is bushings in general, along with sway bar bushings. Could bushings really cause the wheel to shake that bad?

Yes

I can visibly see that the inner lower control arm bushing on my car is shot, can take a screwdriver and move the entire arm. So i'm thinking that's my braking problem. I'll most likely do this first since it only takes an hour or two and I can do it quick in my garage without anyone complaining really.

Similar on both my Crx and EF hatch in the past.. New bushings!

My control arms look great, but the bushings on the other, absolutely not, hm.

Are you saying they're shot? Not to say the rotors/brakes couldn't be a contributing part of the issue, but bushings, sway bar links, etc can have a detrimental effect on comfort/drivability (or even safety)..

Good Luck with whatever you find!
(bushings are a PITA lol )

[Losiracer2]

Well, replaced my LCAs in my DD last sunday and drove the car for a week.

The car definitely drives better, a lot less slop, but there's still a vibration.

The rotors I bought were from O'reilly auto, so they couldn't be the best either. Most likely some high quality rotors would cure it. Brembos?

When the wheels and all were off, i spun the assembly and could audibly hear the rotor unevenly rubbing on the pads. So I don't know if its due to the shitty Autozone bearings I installed, since I was an intern and couldn't afford shit, or if something else is misaligned.

The Coupe on the other hand, exhibits no vibration whatsoever. But in that one, I recently put Honda OE bearings in and have Driveshaft shop Level 2 axles in. Has the same O'reilly rotors though, so that's what confuses me. Identical setup also, Legend 2 pistons, Wagon 25T rotors and 25T brackets. So i've got no clue how one can shudder and the other doesn't.

[SunkistCB7]

@Losi -

Hard to say what it is, inner tie rods or possibly that the main source IS due to the worn rack (purely assumption based on your earlier post (PS stop leak etc..). How old are the rest of your chassis parts? Ball joints etc.. a lot of people ignore the damage of the upper but at 287k she might be a little weak

[Losiracer2]

@Losi -

Hard to say what it is, inner tie rods or possibly that the main source IS due to the worn rack (purely assumption based on your earlier post (PS stop leak etc..). How old are the rest of your chassis parts? Ball joints etc.. a lot of people ignore the damage of the upper but at 287k she might be a little weak

UCAs are new, lower balljoints have maybe 20k, replaced 2 yrs back, outer tie rods same time

I'm thinking its the rack as well, sad to say its never going to get replaced though. I'm not willing to spend 220 bucks from NAPA + the 6 hrs of labor it took to replace the one on my coupe, then add in an alignment for 60. Unless something catastrophic happens and the current rack spills its guts suddenly.

The only other rather economical thing i could do is replace the radius rod bushings that go into the front cross member, but it's starting to get hot here in AZ so I might put it off.

[SunkistCB7]

I'm not willing to spend 220 bucks from NAPA + the 6 hrs of labor it took to replace the one on my coupe, then add in an alignment for 60.

x2

..But I tend to just be cheap sometimes. I've done a rack on a CD, but somehow older Hondas always seem to be more of a PITA so I haven't even looked into replacing it on my CB yet. For the time being, I just ran some thicker fluid through the pump, cut the belt, and drained the fluid so it doesn't go shooting out the reservoir. (Personally, power steering makes me uneasy - I'll swap the rack eventually)

Good luck on finding the issue though, update the thread if you find something ( P.S. Check your mudflaps, maybe they are digging into the concrete when you brake, OE Honda is beast )

[oni_cb7]

I'm thinking its the rack as well, sad to say its never going to get replaced though. I'm not willing to spend 220 bucks from NAPA + the 6 hrs of labor it took to replace the one on my coupe, then add in an alignment for 60. Unless something catastrophic happens and the current rack spills its guts suddenly.

The only other rather economical thing i could do is replace the radius rod bushings that go into the front cross member, but it's starting to get hot here in AZ so I might put it off.

The radius rods will only cause a clunking when you are coming to a stop. The whole wheel shifts forwards and clunks back and forth. I had a radius rod nut come off, so I know how it sounds when it is at its worst.

Rockauto sells powersteering racks for $100-120, as long as you send your old one back to them (if you don't, they charge you a $125 core charge). That's what I did. Even saw some refurbished units for $75 on ebay and they are sold by a member on this forum.

The install isn't that bad at all, and does not take 6 hours. I've only done it once and had it done in 3 hours. Just make sure to count the number of turns for each tie rod, write it down and put it back on the same amount of turns. It gets it pretty close to what the alignment should be. And you'll want to make sure that the rack is turned all the way to the right, otherwise it won't fit in on the driver's side. If I were to do it again, I could easily do it under 2 hours.

[Losiracer2]

another thing I could try is adjusting my rear drum brakes. I've only done drums probably 2 times in my life so I'm not sure if I did it correctly when I replaced them about 6 months back. Not to mention I'm not sure if the O'Reilly auto parts guy machined them to spec and not beyond the discard spec.

It could be causing my front brakes to overwork, thereby getting hot and causing the shudder. Reason I believe this is because I just replaced some rear drums on my parent's toyota van and it made a HUGE difference in brake feel. Having more material there for the shoes to work on makes the pedal travel less and the brakes feel more confidence inspiring.

I know I had to adjust them to make it catch after 2 spins, so that could possibly be why mine are shaking so bad, the rears may not be functioning as they should.