97 legacy braking vibrating

recently i found when i apply the brake from around 70 mph to get off the highway, my sterling wheel vibrates a lot for a short time:mad:, when i drive locally, around 35mph, this problem is gone:rolleyes:.

another thing, when i turn the sterling wheel hard at the low speed, just like we do in the parking lot, little "pengpeng" sound come from the front wheel, and the car is not turning smoothly.

 

are these b/c the rotor need resurfaced or replaced? or the axle pros?

 

really appreciate advice and help!~

It sounds like you have two different issues going on. The first is because you have a warped rotor. It probably isn't too bad since the problem doesn't seem to persist at low speed. Nonetheless, the problem is still present, you just don't notice it because it is so minor. I would say just replace the rotors, as they are about $30 a piece and if you spend $15-20 to turn them down (Resurface) you're just making them thinner and more prone to warping again in the future. For the extra $10/rotor you can get new rotors with perfect friction surfaces that are the maximum stock thickness. Their pretty straight forward to replace, but you want to replace the pads with the rotors. I just did all 4 rotors and pads on my car for about $170 including brake fluid and a spare caliper bolt (Since one broke on me).

 

The noise when turning sounds like tie rod ends. Not sure if it's the inner rod ends or the outer rod ends. These are pretty straightforward to replace also, but you want to find out which one is messed up. Inners are about $25 and outers are about $30-35. It's a good idea to replace them in pairs. If the inner tie rod end is making noise, might as well replace both. If the outer is making noise, might as well replace both as well. If you want you can replace them all at once and save yourself the trouble of doing it later. Mine went on me and were making the same sound. The boots on the inners were broken, so before I replaced them I sprayed them with PB Blaster to remove any old contaminated grease, let them dry, then lathered them with white lithium grease. This loosened up the steering considerably and made the noise go away until I got a chance to replace them.

 

To see which rod end it is, get under the car and check the boots. If the boots are broken chances are all the oil has spilled out and a thin layer of surface rust has made the surface of the ball imperfect, causing friction, inconsistent operation, and undesirable noise. The PB loosens the rust, and the white lithium grease sticks to the ball and acts as a temporary fix until you can get the parts. If the boots aren't broken (Or cracked, you have to look hard) you can remove the outer tie rod end from the knuckle and move it around. If you hear the noise or have a very hard time moving the tie rod around it's the inner. If there is only a little bit of resistance, or the tie rod will fall under it's own weight )Without making any noise) then it's either the other side of the car, or it's the outer rod ends.

 

It could also be ball joints, but from personal experience it seems that rod ends go more often than ball joints (Although it is not uncommon for ball joints to fail, and they make similar noises). If the noise only happens after you've turned the wheel while accelerating it's most likely a CV shaft.

 

Good luck!

hmm that's funny...I have a low speed turning shake that only happens every once an a while...it's a nice grinding shake though...could it be this as well for me? how do I tell if the tie rods or ball joints are bad?

Another thought on the braking at 70 mph you could have brake pad deposits on your rotors. Just search or lurk around for "Bedding Process".

 

All it consists of is 3 or 4 hard breaking runs from 55 mph to 5 mph and letting the brakes cool in between braking. You would also have to do this if you got new rotors.