Juddering under breaking foot

I have recently had my 1997 Discovery 300 tdi serviced with new brake pads being fitted on the rear and have noticed over the last few days that when breaking from relatively slow speeds that I can feel movement/slight judddering under the breaking foot. Nothing major, but nonetheless noticeable. The ABS light extinguishes at the correct speed and when applying the breaks quite hard, I do not seem to notice any movement. It seems to be when breaking more lightly. I would be grateful for any ideas.

Kind regards

sounds like your pad's bedding in..

when new pads are fitted they need time to settle to the disk's(which will be worn at verying degree's, run your finger over them when cold and see what i mean)

this will cause a slight juddering due to uneven pressure being exerted by the pad's on the disk's till worn in

btw this would have been better placed in the discovery section and not here as the mods wont be pleased your making em work

Many thanks Spudy. Having spent approx £1,000 in the last three months I am becoming paranoid. It is just over a month since the pads were fitted, so I guess that is still quite recent, albeit I did not notice any movement for the first three weeks.

Apologies for the misposting.

Regards

just over a month ??

they should have bedded by now unless its been sat most of that time ?

pad's useually take a couple of day's under normal use(my normal is 200-1000+ mile's per week)

my suggestion is to remove the tire's on the rear(get it on good axel stands please don't risk it) and take a look at both the disks and the pads make sure there's no stone's or other foreign body's in there(like polish peeps you may have run over)..check to see if you can see any physical defect's to either pads or disks.

if you can't see anything out of the ordinary then i suggest you take it back to where you had the work done and ask them to check the work done(giving the reasons you have stated in here).. they should check it for free and if it is down to their work then you want to request it is sorted at their cost not yours..if they start griping just state you will take it for a test at a gov listed sva center as you are not happy that it is safe..that should move them quickly for you

Marc Potter said:

Many thanks Spudy. Having spent approx £1,000 in the last three months I am becoming paranoid. It is just over a month since the pads were fitted, so I guess that is still quite recent, albeit I did not notice any movement for the first three weeks.

Apologies for the misposting.

Regards

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Juddering after a month is NOT good news.

I think you must begin to suspect something is LOOSE, and get it seen to.
You say you can feel it in the pedal. Start worrying just a little.

Get the front wheels off and find someone good to make sure the discs are bolted on tight, the calipers are bolted on tight, and the disc pads are properly fitted. Then make sure all the front suspension bushes and steering balljoints are in good condition.

Brakes are too important for taking any chances.

CharlesY

if all is tight when yer folow what charles just told yer, is there any chance you went a bit hard on the brakes when they where new? could have warped them?

A couple of aother things that might cause the juddering.

1. The caliper bolts have not been tightened fully, and had thread locker put on the bolts.

2. The wheels have been swopped over when the pads were changed.

3. New pads have been known to warp the discs.

4. The pad retaining clips have not been put back (i did that once with exactly those symptons).

5. They have sheared one of the caliper bolts when removing.

Many thanks to everyone for the responses. I have spoken to the garage and they will be taking a look on Monday. They thought it might be an ABS sensor, but the light is not coming on, so I do not think it is that. One point suggested by locket is that the wheels were changed. In fact, that is what happened as I also needed two new tyres and the spare was new, so they put that one on. What would be the effect of that.

Kind regards and thanks

Mine does exactly the same. When I had it looked at he said it would be the back brakes as there is no juddering through the steering wheel (???) - only the pedal. After stripping them down he suggested new calipers.

I'll be having a look at it myself when the gearbox is fixed - that broke straight after the head gasket being done..... problems are never ending!!

Marc Potter said:

Many thanks to everyone for the responses. I have spoken to the garage and they will be taking a look on Monday. They thought it might be an ABS sensor, but the light is not coming on, so I do not think it is that. One point suggested by locket is that the wheels were changed. In fact, that is what happened as I also needed two new tyres and the spare was new, so they put that one on. What would be the effect of that.

Kind regards and thanks

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There are several problems that can occur when you swop over wheels from one side, or if you use the spare.

The wheel is balanced for the side it was on, swapping over can cause problems with vibration when braking, this can be due to the natural frequency of the wheel and disc occurring at the same time.

A build up of residue/corrosion on the flange at fixed points changes when you swap over wheels, this will cause vibration through the pedal when braking.

Are you sure that the piston is not seized in the caliper, if that is the case, spray lots of WD40 around the piston and work in and out with the pads removed.

Obviously the garage that fitted the pads could do this for you if that is the problem.

Keep us informed as to your progress.

locket said:

There are several problems that can occur when you swop over wheels from one side, or if you use the spare.

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Also radial tyres become "handed" in the direction of travel, and swapping from side to side is therefore not recommended as it leads to faster wear. It shouldn't cause your problem though. Rear tyre wear causes vibration on early Freelanders, but I've not heard of a problem on Discos.

As advised, the Discovery went back to the garage today and was taken on a test drive during which the brakes were apparantly applied heavily on a number of times. The chap said that he could initially tell that there was movement under the pedal, but after some hard braking, this had virtually gone. He thought that as the brakes had not really been applied heavily since the new pads were fitted, they may still be bedding in. He checked that all fittings were tight and they were. He was more concerned that it may have been an ABS problem.

He did mention that the discs are becoming very worn, but do not need replacing yet, but said that that may contribute towards feeling movement when braking.

I have tried the brakes tonight and they definitely feel much better. Perhaps, hard braking may have cleared any "foreign bodies."

With regard to replacing discs; will vented ones make a dramatic difference, as when towing a large caravan, the brakes seem to struggle to cope. I have noticed that there is not much difference in price.

Kind regards and thanks

Not wishing to doubt the garage you use but I have seen many a large screwdriver using the disc as a fulcrum to push back stubborn pistons leaving the disc slightly warped!

regards

Dave

Marc Potter said:

With regard to replacing discs; will vented ones make a dramatic difference, as when towing a large caravan, the brakes seem to struggle to cope. I have noticed that there is not much difference in price.

Kind regards and thanks

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I haven't tried vented discs, but it could certainly be a good idea. I had the brakes fade on my 200TDi when towing a biggish trailer - was in a hurry going down the steep hill approaching Goathland and used the brakes rather than the gears. Braking suddenly disappeared completely without warning and it was a mixture of luck, frantic gearchanging on a dodgy box and heavy use of transmission brake that got me round the bend at the bottom. May be why my gearbox seized shortly after. Not an experience I would wish on you (or anyone else!)

Are you describing juddering, ie lateral movement shaking the steering wheel, or are you describing movement on the pedal, ie, the pedal moving up and down under your foot slightly. The two symptoms are very different and not to be confused.
If you are describing the latter, it is not un common for new pads to distort the old discs if they are getting a bit thin. Most garages if fitting new pads to old discs, will remove the worn part of the disc to ensure the pads sit square to the disc and dont risk damaging the pad whilst they bed in.

Discs are so cheap, you are best having these changed every 50-70, 000 miles any way.

If you are describing a shuddering sensation under braking, you should get the vehicle checked out straight away. There could be a loose bolt on the caliper etc.

Swapping wheels which were not originally balanced to the relevant position on the vehicle, will not cause your symptoms under braking. If a wheel is not balanced, you will notice it at speed wether you are braking or not!