Hello,

My stock rotors are warped. The steering wheel shakes when braking. However, I also feel steering shake between 45-50mph. I got the wheels balanced twice, but I still get the shaking. I finally realized that it might be the warped rotors. Can rotors cause steering shake when not braking?

I wanna stay with the warped stockers for another 3000miles, as the pads are still healthy and I wanna save for nice rotors. Am I damaging anything if I drive another 3K with warped rotors?

Thanks,
Mike

 

Warped rotors will eat the pads faster and the wobble from it could cause other issues later. Worn out bearings in the suspension, steering, braking distance extended, etc.

Change them now!

 

But can you feel it when not braking? Good question, because I have had my tires balanced twice now and they still shimmy a little at highway speeds, and I know my rotors are a little warped. Nothing bad, but just a little.

 

I had a previous vehicle that would vibrate around 60 mph and during braking. Turned the rotors and put on new pads fixed the problem.

 

If you had the wheels bal, 2 times and still have a vibration between 45 to 50 may have a bent wheel or a bad tire? rotate front to back and see if the vibration is felt more in the back of the driver seat if it does then you know it is in the the wheels and tires you rotated to the rear.

 

Warped rotors cause the slide pins on your calipers to move horzontally in and out to compensate for the rotor deflection. This will be most prodominant at a certain speed because the frequency at which the pins move in and out build what is known as a harmonic wave. Like music and sound energy, physical energy travels in waves under harmonics.

When you say the wheel shakes, if it is more than a millimeter or two while you are not holding the wheel, then it will create other issues as others have stated.

If it is a simple wiggle, all the Mustangs have that at some point as the steering geometry is set up with caster. When the vehicle speed begins to pull the wheels out there is a point where the car will wiggle. You typically drive through this. Engineers are supposed to design this harmonic to a point where it doesn't make issues (i.e. 1mph or 180mph) for normal driving.

I have found the Mustang to wiggle a bit between 54 and 58 mph. Seems most factory cars are aligned the same. I've seen it in 4 cars off the lot.

Most likely you should put the rotors on credit and avoid other issues.

 

Get the rotors you have now and have them cut down. Cost about 10 bucks a piece. that way you can still use the same pads.

 

Thanks for all the input. Guess I'll have to change them soon.