Brake shakes

EF9

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Mazda2
Hi guys! First time new car owner here with a deuce question. Car has 251 miles on it and I'm trying to figure out if there is something wrong with the abs or the actual brake equipment. All previous cars owned in the past 6 years are all non-abs so I'm not sure what I'm feeling here. Brakes are fine on normal braking from 65 to 0 upon halfway travel of the brake pedal. Now when braking from the same 65 mph with more than half of the pedal travel, the cars shakes ridiculously until around 40 when the shaking stops. Now I've felt warped rotors which shake the same amount as experienced. Brake distance is about the same if not less when pushing the pedal more. Anyone got ideas?
 
If its a crunching push back you are feeling in the pedal thats the ABS. Def couldnt see a new 2 have issues with worn out brakes already... unless they forgot to put a pad in or something...
 
Don't think I'm feeling the pedal "pushing back". Its more of a "the whole car shakes like a 5 year old on 20 lbs of sugar" sort of thing
 
Hot spot on one rotor most likely. Swap rotors from side to side and then go do some hard braking. :-)
 
Hot spot on one rotor most likely. Swap rotors from side to side and then go do some hard braking. :-)

Will do. If it really is a hot spot/hardened spot, wouldn't the shaking persist regardless of how much pressure is applied? I had to replace rotors on the family's cr-v which had this problem so I'll look for the odd areas on the surfaces first.

Did you ever make a major application to the brakes (Emergency stop)?

Haven't done so yet. Have done quite a number of hard stops though. Thing pulls up close to how my non-abs mr2 does which puts a grin on my face. Not used to this whole computer aided system though
 
If you heated the brakes so that they warped, then the brake chatter is expected and you will have to mill (turn) the brakes true again.
 
If you heated the brakes so that they warped, then the brake chatter is expected and you will have to mill (turn) the brakes true again.

Balls. I guess a visit to the dealer is in order to see what they "think/make" of it. I'll give the brakes a check in the morning for the hard/hot spots and post back with results
 
The can't "See" hardspots.
If they are warped,
you are paying for it.

That is technically "Driver Abuse"
not warranty item.
 
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Hot spot on one rotor most likely. Swap rotors from side to side and then go do some hard braking. :-)

Will do. If it really is a hot spot/hardened spot, wouldn't the shaking persist regardless of how much pressure is applied?
No. The brake system has a proportion valve wich distributes fluid to each brake equally and more fluid to wich ever brake needs it most at that time, example: high-speed corner braking. When extra force is applied to the brake that is in trouble the system will balance it equally, but the extra clamping force on the one rotor will cause irregular heat making small deposits. Happened to me at the track.:)
 
If it occurs on a heavily sanded road, its probably the ABS kicking in which can shake the car. Or, in a situation where one wheel goes light and ABS kicks in, like braking at the crest of a driveway that drops off sharply.

If on level, dry, clean road it may be deposits from the brake pads on the front rotor. I'd suggest a search on this part of the forum for "warped" and review the posts about brake pad deposits.

John
 
The can't "See" hardspots.
If they are warped,
you are paying for it.

That is technically "Driver Abuse"
not warranty item.

The problem with the stock equipment isn't warpage, it's deposits left on the crappy rotors by the crappy pads. I had the same problem for the 40K mile life of the stock brakes. Every 2 weeks or so it would start to shake. I'd go out and do 3 hard stops from 60mph to 30mph followed by 3 hard stops from 40 to 0. The setup would be smooth as butter again until the deposits started to build back up. Rinse. Repeat.

I've since switched to hawk pads with Centric rotors. 10K miles with no shakes at all. It's definitely sub-par materials, not driving habits.
 
Hi MazdaTwo,

What kind of driving do you mostly do? City, country, spirited, laid-back?

I do a combination of city and highway (high speed, hard braking for exit ramps) and haven't had any issues (yet <LOL>).

On the other hand, I have seen other cars with the deposit issue which were mostly city driven. Fixed with a series of hard brake applications.

I'd think just changing pad type and brand followed by a proper bedding would solve the problem. When I eventually change pads (next spring), I'll probably go with Hawks myself.

John
 
The problem with the stock equipment isn't warpage, it's deposits left on the crappy rotors by the crappy pads. I had the same problem for the 40K mile life of the stock brakes. Every 2 weeks or so it would start to shake. I'd go out and do 3 hard stops from 60mph to 30mph followed by 3 hard stops from 40 to 0. The setup would be smooth as butter again until the deposits started to build back up. Rinse. Repeat.

I've since switched to hawk pads with Centric rotors. 10K miles with no shakes at all. It's definitely sub-par materials, not driving habits.

I'll agree with this.
Long story warning.
2006 Honda crv owned since day one. Original Honda pads died around 60/70k and dad cheaps out by buying vatozone "premium" pads thinking that they're the highest tier. WRONG. The rotors were decent with no shaking or anything funny of the sort. Vatozone pads on and 10k later a slight shaking is noticed. By 120k the shaking is so bad that a considerable amount of braking force is lost. When I say lost, you can literally stand on the brakes and get no more clamping force since the rotors have developed actual hard spots! That's dangerous stuff right there guys! I said screw it so I went and did a test. Went to a shop and had the rotors resurfaced since there were grooves in it like an old vinyl. Went to vatozone and used the warranty to get new pads. When I got the rotors back, the hard spots were raised spots on the surface. Put it all together and bam, almost had 4 near accidents. Went and got some pads from a shop I have dealt with before. New rotors on the front, resurfaced rotors in the rear since they were still fine and posi-quiet pads all around now. Break in the setup properly by doing several low speed then a couple high speed stops in a safe place with cool down times. Car stops better and now has that "brake as hard as you dare" feeling to it. This setup I have used on my previous daily drivers which saw lots of spirited use on mountain roads with several track days without a single problem.

I suspect that may be the case with this car as well. Its pretty sad though that it already off the bat may have this sort of problem.

Have not had time to do a drop by the dealership due to time constraints
 
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FWIW:

There are abrasive, non-woven, nylon pads that can be used with an electric hand drill. I have used them to re-fresh the surface of the disk brakes on our racing karts. They might work well with car rotors.

John
 
Hi MazdaTwo,

What kind of driving do you mostly do? City, country, spirited, laid-back?

I do a combination of city and highway (high speed, hard braking for exit ramps) and haven't had any issues (yet <LOL>).

On the other hand, I have seen other cars with the deposit issue which were mostly city driven. Fixed with a series of hard brake applications.

I'd think just changing pad type and brand followed by a proper bedding would solve the problem. When I eventually change pads (next spring), I'll probably go with Hawks myself.

John

Hey, John. It's honestly about a 50/50 split between city and non-city/Highway. It might lean slightly more to the highway side. I don't brake very hard for the most part. I try to coast up to lights and stop signs as a general rule. My original vibration wasn't preceded by an sort of panic-stops that I can remember. Spirited or Laid-back just depends on the day, but I can probably describe my commutes as "suburban," in that I don't spend a ton of time on the interstate, but I do hit a lot of traffic lights.
 
Last summer I worked on a friend's Scion that had a LOT of brake shudder. No run out on the rotors but they were slightly 'blotchy' looking.

I took it out on the thruway and did a series of heavy slow-downs from high speed. After about the third braking process the problem started to go away. By the 10th it was gone and the brakes were back to being smooth.

Don't know if that will work on an M2 and if you try it, be awfully careful and don't do it when anyone is around you. You're on your own in terms of safety so be careful.

Other issue:
I live near the Canadian border and a lot of salt gets used on the roads. As a result, lots of people also have problems with calipers seizing up. I believe that it is possible to be too gentle with brakes and that results in problems. The brakes need to be worked every once in a while.

John
 

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