Not sure whats wrong

markbehr

Member
:
2012 Mazda3 skyactiv
Whenever i drive somewhere especially on the highway i feel alot of vibration in my front end through my steering wheel. mostly when im slowing down, so i'm thinking something might be wrong with my brake pads or rotors. I recently had a front end alignment also.
 
Check the pavement.

At a stop light before hitting the freeway, the road looks fine, but it's actually fairly uneven and it sends a ton of vibration through the brake pedal and the steering wheel. This is if it only happens on specific roads near you.

Otherwise, just pop off the wheel and caliper; it's super easy.
 
If you only feel it when braking, then it's likely a warped brake rotor. If you feel it mostly when cruising on the freeway (not so much on city streets), and whether you're braking or not, then it's more likely to be a wheel out of balance (which isn't related to your alignment).
 
If anyone took your wheels of when putting them back on they could have over tightened the lugs resulting in warped rotors, they need to be torqued to proper specs. I had this problem on my Mazda5 when I replaced shocks guys at shop hammered down on lugs with impact and warped my rotors but they made it right.
 
No such thing as warped rotors; please stop perpetuating this false information.

You might need to do the front brake pads and rotors because there are pad deposits on the rotor which now means that you have an uneven braking surface.
 
Hi

See the thread below titled "Front Rotors Warped?"

Covered in detail. Rotors can warp, just not very often. Usually brake deposits.

John
 
Phone:5973701 said:
No such thing as warped rotors; please stop perpetuating this false information.

Look the widely accepted term here is warped rotor. I know its not specific, Example: Rims being accepted as the name for wheels and not recognizing that it pertains to just one part of a wheel. I know for a fact you can screw up by over torque on lugnuts I've done this my self. I know this because I spent 10 years working for a national tire company. In my career thousands of cars later I've witnessed first hand the importance of useing the torque wrench (properly).
 

StopTech said:
In fact every case of "warped brake disc" that I have investigated, whether on a racing car or a street car, has turned out to be friction pad material transferred unevenly to the surface of the disc. This uneven deposition results in thickness variation (TV) or run-out due to hot spotting that occurred at elevated temperatures.
http://www.stoptech.com/technical-support/technical-white-papers/-warped-brake-disc-and-other-myths

The Mazda/FoMoCo rotor design isn't so thin that it will cause lateral runout on the rotor under normal driving conditions (read: stop and go traffic, freeway driving).
 
Its like that on every road i drive on

Bmore roads suck! Lol....

But seriously if I were you I would just check out the rotors/pads and possibly have the shop that did your alignment check it out if nothing is wrong with your brakes.
 
I'm going to start a game, and I hope you guys will all play along. There's only one objective: If someone mentions "warped rotors" in a thread, the first person to beat Phone to being a pretentious prick about it wins.

Go!
 
roger that.

but...no matter what you call it...getting the rotors turned willalmost always fix the problem on braking vibration when an alignment has already been done (assuming all lugs are back to correct torque)...so at the end of the day wgara.
 
Speaking of which: what's the correct torque specs for the lug nuts on M2?

I'd assume something like 80 lbs/ft would do, but does anybody know what the manual says?
 
In 16 years of driving I've yet to have a rotor turned. Seems to me if it got warped from overtorquing you'd likely need a new rotor. That's never happened to me though, and its possible if it didn't get warped bad (from overtorquing) turning down the rotor would help. If it were me...I'd try to do numerous hard stops (on a closed course with professional driver) from a decent speed until I got some brake fade to really try and cook off any pad deposits, essentially re-bedding the pads. Just make sure you don't come to a stop for the next few minutes to let the brake system cool. If that didn't work, I'd bring it in to have the the wheels/tires balanced.

This is all assuming your lugs are torqued properly to begin with...actually you might want to check that first.
 
I'm going to start a game, and I hope you guys will all play along. There's only one objective: If someone mentions "warped rotors" in a thread, the first person to beat Phone to being a pretentious prick about it wins.

Go!

I'm going to start a game, and I hope you guys will all play along. There's only one objective: use ad hominem attacks against anybody who decides to use primary sources to back up his or her claims.
 
Manual says something around 70-85, I just torque them to 80...Its in there somewhere if you want the exacts.
 

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