There are a number of symptoms and causes for shaky braking. Shaky braking is best described as a pulsation or dramatic vibration in the steering wheel or seat.
If you press the brake pedal while driving and feel a vibration, you aren’t alone. Here we will describe the most common symptoms and causes of brake vibration we see, as well as their ordinary cost and remedy.
Believe it or not, the most simple, most common culprit for shaky braking is ice, snow, mud or dirt, deposited in the rims!
This is so common and it is on the top of our list because it happens so frequently.
Other causes for wheel vibration are worn parts: Warped rotors, thin rotors, damaged pads or calipers, worn or broken suspension parts.
You can easily diagnose rim deposits with a visual inspection. If you find deposits, we suggest a THOROUGH car wash with underbody treatment.
When does snow lead to shaky braking?
If you drive through newly fallen snow, it can get packed rims. Going in the ditch or driving through berms will pack snow in your rims.
Wheel shaking shows up usually while driving at specific speeds, depending on how uniformly distributed the snow-pack is.
Garaging a vehicle partially melts snow, forming ice on the bottoms of all four rims.
Once you back the vehicle out, your rims cool off and ice forms a weight on one side of the tire. This ice can weigh up to one pound.
When you apply the brakes, the rim imbalance causes a pulsing or shimmy felt in your seat or steering wheel. The fix for this problem is to garage your vehicle at a temperature that will thoroughly melt snow.
If your garage is kept at 45 degrees, or poorly insulated, the floor may never get above freezing. The bottom of the rims will never clear of snow or ice.
You will have to scrape the accumulation out with a screwdriver or pry bar. However, you must be careful not to remove the weights glued to the inside of the rims.
When does dirt in rims become vibration?
Alaska is filled with unpaved surface roads as well as highways. Many of these roads are chemically treated with a bonding compound to dampen dust. The compound unfortunately acts as a bonding agent that adheres to metallic surfaces like vehicle rims.
Fine dust builds up quickly over time. Moisture from rain turns the dust into mud.
The fix for shaky braking associated with muddy rims is to carefully spray the mud from the rims, taking care not to pressure wash the weights off the inside of the rims.
When does mud become shaky braking?
April in Alaska is prime time for mud. Most of us are mired down during break-up. Mud is an easier fix usually than snow, ice or dirt. We can easily remove mud with a garden hose or trip to the car wash.
The more expensive causes of shaking rims have to do with worn brake or suspension parts.
Drivers with aggressive habits, who tend to charge intersections rather than slow down gradually, damage rotors. This causes shaky braking. Hauling water or a trailer also wears out brake parts.
Worn suspension parts cause braking sensations similar to those of worn brake rotors. In order to diagnose pulsing or shaky brakes a technician has to drive the vehicle and then visually inspect the vehicle in order to verify his hypothesis.