- Joined
- Jan 24, 2018
- Messages
- 8,443
- Reaction score
- 4,691
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Tallahassee Florida
- Vehicle Year
- 2001
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- Born with a 3.0, looking for a donor V8
- Transmission
- Manual
- 2WD / 4WD
- 2WD
- Total Lift
- Stock 2"
- Tire Size
- Stock
- My credo
- Doing things wrong, until I get it right.
Did it pulse BEFORE you slapped pads in it?I replaced the front pads a few months ago with NAPA semi-metallics. Brakes were fine for a few days then they started to pulse a little and it got worse. I took the wheels off this weekend and cleaned up the rust on the steel wheel hub and back of the aluminum alloy wheel and re-installed. I've never done this before on any car but I read that it might help. I used a wire brush followed by a Scotchbrite pad on the steel and just the Scotchbrite pad on the aluminum. I followed up wit ha very light coat of high temp brake grease on the areas I just cleaned up.
Afterwards I was very careful about torquing the wheels - first to finger tight, then to 50 ft-lbs on the jack stands in a star pattern. Then I lowered the car and torqued them to spec (100 ft-lbs) in star pattern on the ground.
On the test drive the pulsing was almost gone. Now after driving the car 3 days its back and getting worse - just like before. What could be causing this that removing the wheel and putting it back on improves for a few days? Everything except the pads is original (22 year old) stock parts. Not sure what to try next other than bleeding the brakes.