2001 ford explorer front-end shaking

Feb 12, 2007 1 Replies

Last week I had the brakes replaced in my 2001 Explorer Sport...new pads all around, new rotors in the front, and turned rotors in the back. The first time I got on the interstate (60+ mph), I noticed a vibration and a low-frequency noise coming from the front end. The vibration and the noise both increase significantly when I hit the brakes. Also, the vibration gets worse if I am turning slightly to the left (still at highway speed only), but not to the right. The vibration is not constant; it only happens for the first 20-30 minutes after I get up to highway speed, then it goes away and driving feels normal.



I've talked to a few people, and gotten a different possible explanation from each of them.


  1. separated belt in a tire
  2. bad bushing
  3. something wrong in the steering linkages...ball joints, tie rods, etc.

I guess it could be any of these things, but one thing doesn't make sense...why did this suddenly start after I got my brakes replaced?



Any thoughts on what could be wrong?



I had the same problem with my 2001 SportTrac. Both times after I had the pads replaced, I had shaking in the front end. It went away after some low speed street driving, about 20 miles. After that, I was able to take it back on to the freeway.

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