Shudder in steering wheel while braking

[whoareyou4]

When I apply my brake at high speeds generally 40 to 50 mph I get a shudder in the steering wheel. Is it the genaeral consensus out there that this means a torn bushing in the lower control arm?

My first thought would have been brake rotors, but that does not seem to be the case.

Any thoughts?

The lower control arm does not seem that difficult to remove, the really tough part is getting the bushing out, but I can handle that also.

[Po Pimp]

Of course check the stupid stuff first. Tires, pressure and ailignment. To rule out the rotors you will need a micrometer set. Rotors can get wore out in more ways then one if you have had a couple other problems. You will have to measure the rotor at various points around the whole circle. If you do not have a set get one. I bought mine second hand at a pawn shop. I got a deal on those and a set of feeler gauges for a little over $20. That is a damn good deal as far as I am concerned, still had the box they came in. Might want to go this route.

The bushing could be a consideration too. I have never did the bushing on the control arm of a catera but other various cars. I had to use a table vise and ratchets. The ratchets where used to push throught the hole (along with the old bushing) and a slightly bigger size was used to push the new bushing in to the hole. If you are uncomfortable with this you could set-up something with a local shop to save some money. Have them on stand-by, remove the control arms, bring them to the shop, have them deal with the pressing of the bushing, take them back and reinstall them. I have did this with ball joints in the past because I hate drilling out rivets.

[dwheeler]

if it is only during breaking, then it would seem that the rotors are a good guess. If you've been breaking hard recently, it may be a heat related warp rather than just normal wear.

I think I have a bad bushing and I get a wheel vibration around 72 mph and a pretty loud clunk when breaking hard. $400 in bushings will hopefully fix it up.

[GreyEagle]

My rotors warped on a trip to the mountains. The vibration started when my wife drove down a long mountain road while riding the brake. Where the vibration occured the worse was exiting an expressway or interstate highway and coming to a stop at the end of an exit ramp.
Front rotors were warped.
Replacements were $65.00 each.
Not sure if they can be resurfaced, but a local machine shop said they will do them for 20 bucks each...
I bought the new stuff for the warranty and for the quickness of the repair.

[whoareyou4]

Thanks for all the responses, but I still have a hard time believing its the rotors. The brake pedal feels fine all the while no pulsating, nothing, just a good feel.

My steering wheel shakes/shudders and the gear shifter does the same. It could still be the rotors but I have never seen a car act like this.

I just don't have time to deal with this issue on my own, as my other car has some other problems that I need to address, and that is a much easier car to work on, so I am taking my Cat into my mechanic on Wednesday and have him look at it.

From reading some other posts on here it looks like it may be bushings in the lower control arm, I just don't know, this car is totally foriegn to me, I guess I'm spoiled from working on my Saturns and Chevy Blazer.

[Warez]

Originally Posted by whoareyou4

My steering wheel shakes/shudders and the gear shifter does the same. It could still be the rotors but I have never seen a car act like this.

I have the same issue, most likely the brake rotors.

[Elo]

I had the same exact issue...until I put new rotors on.

35-50 mph range, while braking, shudder in steering wheel and gear shift. The lighter you brake, the rougher the shake, but if you simply decelerate without the brake, your shudder shouldn't happen, either. I also found that a firm press of the brake greatly reduced the shudder.

Again, new rotors fixed it for me.

-Elo

[whoareyou4]

I finally took my rotors off on Monday and had them turned and that took care of the shudder ... completely.

Last week I made an appointment with my mechanic to look into the shudder, check the alignment, and do a tranny service. At the last minute I decided to pull the rotors. Whenever I have had bad rotors before in other cars I felt it in the pedal, but not with this car, felt totally different

[2001CatOwner]

its trickery. . . a rotor cut fixed mine.

[waldo]

I am having the exact same problem in my 2002 Escalade. What is the cost of the rotor repair?

[darksky47]

You can get the bushings off of ebay for $44.00 i did

[Lo-C]

I have a similar problem but I feel knocking coming from the front end as my steering wheel shakes.