Brake judder

You don't get things flat with a brush although it's obviously a good start. What I use on anything I want perfectly flat is an oilstone although it does rather help being an engineer that I've got a workshop full of things like that. You've only got to leave one tiny high spot of rust somewhere and the job's stuffed. It's also easier if there are no studs sticking out of the hub.

If it were the disks wouldn't you think the judder would start immediately after they were changed rather than soon after?

It's a decent figure but you might be able to do a bit better. I suggest you whip the wheels and calipers off. Clean the hubs and disks again with 80 grit and an oilstone if you have one, mount each disk on its own with spacers if needed if the nuts won't hold them without a wheel on and check the runout on both sides of the disk with the disks in different positions on the studs until you get the lowest readings. Sometimes just moving the disk round relative to the hub studs will even things out. Then mark your chosen mounting positions with a pencil. A small sharp chisel helps find any high spots if you have no oilstone. A very light smear of copper grease will ensure things don't corrode together.

If you have a micrometer check the disk thickness at different places although an error here with a new disk is very unlikely.

If you didn't also change the pads then the situation might not be ideal. Pads and disks invariably wear at a slight angle (higher surface speed out at the periphery) and with only one new component the pads won't be making full contact.

Make sure the pads are properly seated in the calipers.

Then check wheel bearing play carefully. This can exacerbate other problems as can play in suspension bushes. I had an old Marina 30 years ago which went through a godawful bout of wheel wobble at 60 mph which no amount of balancing would cure. My mate at a tyre place even tried balancing them on the car but no joy. It was play in the wheel bearings which a quick clean, regrease and tighten up properly fixed completely.

Once you've got it all together find a quiet stretch of road and in second gear give it full throttle and use the brakes with your left foot to hold the speed steady for 10 or 15 seconds if you can to bed things in. Make sure you then don't have to brake again at a junction and hold them on until they've cooled a bit. Then try a high speed stop and see if things are improved. However with runout as low as you already have it's unlikely to be the disks or at least just the disks. Problems can often be a combination of smaller faults in more than one place.

Reply to
Dave Baker
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LOL. Main dealer mechanics/technicians are barely one step up the food chain from chimps. I could tell you about the 7 year time served one I had working in my workshop once who was the worst mechanic I ever saw in my life but it would take too long. You have no idea what horror these people wreak on the £50,000 cars they get paid to work on.

My motto as a precision engineer for 30 years is rather like the hippocratic oath "First, do no harm". Never damage anything just to make something else fit. In fact never damage anything ever. The motto for main dealer mechanics is "If it won't come apart or go back together use a bigger hammer. If that don't work use a hammer and chisel. If it runs ok for more than a day before he brings it back to complain then he thrashed it and its dahn to im, innit?"

Instead of just repeating things morons have told you without thinking any further about them how about applying logic and knowledge to see whether the theory is even vaguely reasonable and stands up to intellectual scrutiny?

Reply to
Dave Baker

"Dave Baker" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

No, because not even the shittiest quality disks are actually sold pre- warped.

Reply to
Adrian

Sounds like good advice - I'll give this a try at the weekend.

I've had another thought. I had great difficulty getting the old discs off, so much so I ended up belting them for a while with a mallet.

Is it likely I've knocked something out of kilter while doing this?

Reply to
xscope

Nope, if it was a vauxhaul or a Nissan then you tend to end up using a sledgehammer&/or an anglegrinder. If the hubs wrped then the wheel bearings are lot fussier than the brake disc.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

For some equally unknown reason the Ford ones where only a tenner more than pattern ones :-)

Reply to
Duncan Wood

Oh I'm sure it varies with maker. ATE from Eurocarparts is about half the BMW dealer's prices. Basically on my car I can save over 500 quid for a complete disc and pad change over dealer price. Not bad for an easy morning's work.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Not a chance, and the over-torqued bolts thing is bollocks too. I've had wheels done up so tight that it's split a decent socket (thanks, kwik fit!) without affectring the disc. At the end of the day the disc is a hardish, cast item clamped against another one, and the wheel and bolts are softer.

I've changed many VAG discs over the years, belting them with a big F.O. hammer is standard practice- and a VAG master technician who genuinely does know his way round the cars says so too. Often you have to drill the retaining screw and hammer the disc past the remains of it. The last set on the wife's Lupo took a good belt even though though the screws came out. I've never had to resort to measuring run-out: just make sure it's all clean (wire brush in a drill works for me), coppaslip the contact and all has been OK.

As others have suggested, check your suspension bushes, especially the rear ones in the lower arm.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

Yep.

I'll bet ATE *are* OE for BMW at times. Just a different box and price.

Indeed. Anything OE quality from GSF/Euro does the job.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

I'd say so too. But the dyed in the wool 'must use genuine parts' types will say they're rejects...

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

An update.

I changed the discs and pads yesterday.

I made sure I cleaned up the hubs this time, as suggested with a chisel - there was a little surface rust in places.

Good news - brake judder gone.

Lets hope it stays that way.

Thanks for the advice.

Reply to
xscope

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