For all the car guys...

[Wintermute]

Interesting issue with my wife's Infiniti G35 Sedan ('05):

Forever, when we slam on the brakes at higher speeds in that car there's a stutter KIND of like an ABS braking system, but I always thought it felt more like warped rotors. So this weekend I changed out her pads on all 4 wheels- the rotors were fine- and when I took it out for a test drive, everything worked fine, but the stuttering when stopping was gone. Anyone hazard a guess as to what it was? I know her front pads have been changed, but I don't know about the back ones, although I can't imagine they're the originals after 180K miles, but they WERE almost down to the metal.

My best guess is that they wore unevenly and were bouncing the caliper but I have no idea.

 

[Deleted member 1]

How did you determine the rotors were fine?

 

[Wintermute]

Mechanic checked them out beforehand.

 

[ThatOneDude]

How did he check them?

 

[Wintermute]

Oh, I dunno, I assume he did Mechanic Stuff.

...but if they were warped, wouldn't the stuttering continue after I changed the pads?

 

[Wild]

The rotors on my wifes Explorer are warped. It shakes like hell when she brakes. I'll be changing them out next week.

 

[ThatOneDude]

How worn out were the pads?

 

[Wintermute]

The front ones had some meat left until the wear strip wasn't visible, the back ones were pretty far down. Little more than 1/16" left? Took a LOT of penetrode on the bolts to get the back caliper loose. What are you thinking?

 

[lookoutawhale]

if everything ok after changing the pads then it gotta be the pads i guess. Maybe there was some uneveness to them or something was warped. If they wear out too much then you would have heard screeching and then continuing to drive could have caused a rotor issue.