Just got done working on my front end.

I had to replace a broke cv axle so I decided to put the new rotors/pads/calipers I had sitting there on too since the year and a half old 4 wheel brake job was shaking the hell out of the truck. In the process, I found a really rough driver's side lower ball joint that was ready to seperate, and some cracking in the upper control arm bushings so I replaced those parts as well. I also put new shocks on and disconnected the end of the sway bar that still had a bolt in it.

Ok, so the test drive went smooth for a while, then got real rough. The truck started shaking on the return leg home. I was getting a feel for the shake when I suddenly noticed my temp gauge had spiked and the check gauges lite came on. So i killed it and coasted into a parking lot. I couldn't find anything wrong, so I just headed back home after it cooled off. Well on the way home, the truck was shaking off and on below 30 mph and above that would shake all the time. The brakes seemed to get worse and when applied they would lock hard and fast with the abs and feel/sound like they were hammering (I'm on ice BTW). By the time I got home, half of this mess was working right again. The abs was back to normal, and the shaking had dissapated quit a bit.

I let my wife take it out at this point as she is this trucks main driver and knows how it feels better than I do. This truck sometimes exhibits a rough shake at highway speeds after the parking brake has been used. It usually goes away after about a half mile and all is good again. I wanted her to tell me if the shaking that was left in the truck felt like that. So on her drive, the shaking only happened twice, and not for long. So now we have about 30 miles on the trip meter. We decide to use the truck as is the next day and to bring it to a shop to have my work looked over.

The next day, I follow her in the ranger about 30 miles. She said it shook one time in that distance and that was it. She continued to drive it after that the rest of the day with no exhibitions from the truck. Same with the next two days.

That brings us to today, when it's back to -30 degrees at my house and my ranger wont put out heat. I drove the f-150 to work, a 55 mile trip one way. Truck felt so good and smooth at first. Much of the way is covered at 75 mph, but at one point, I decided to mash the gas and took it up quite a bit faster. At the fastest point, I noticed a very distinguished shimmy appear and I quickly backed off and applied the brakes just a tad to slow back down. Here is where braking actually started shaking the truck again, just like before the new parts. I have 220 miles on the trip meter now, and shaky brakes again.

Any ideas? The rotors are from napa and the pads are the blue carquest ones. The rotors came from napa also and are bosch units.

The blakes were bled as good as we could at -30 and to tell you the truth, the pedal felt better than ever and still feels good. Stops pretty firm halfway down, but if pressed hard I can put it on the floor.

The rear brakes were not touched in this episode, but the rear discs and pads were replaced about 20k ago. The calipers were cleaned but not replaced at that point.

Looking for ideas whats going on here. Just ask if you want more info.

Thanks for your time!

 

Sounds like you have a sticking caliper somewhere.

Also you need to check and figure out why you threw a code.

 

Are you suggesting the new calipers are sticking?

And yes, I think I found the probable answer to the overheat was low coolant. It took almost a whole gallon of coolant to bring it up to level. No problems since.

Thanks!

 

It is completely possible a new caliper can stick. Also check your parking brake.

 

I would always recommend changing the brake hoses anytime you change calipers. Have you looked at the front wheel hubs? When they go bad the rotors shake when you apply the brakes. Salted roads will eat wheel hub bearings up.

 

The hoses are on my list of needed parts now.

When I had everything off, I spun the hubs and they felt ok. I was going to just replace them anyway because of all the miles and I just wanted it all new up front, but that was before I found out they are 250 some bucks a piece. And that was with my killer discount. I was already spending more than I wanted after buying a compressor and some other tools to do this job.

Any suggestions on where to get wheel hubs cheaper? They are the only moving parts I don't either have new on the truck or sitting on the table waiting to go in come spring.

 

Might look here for the hubs, little cheaper: http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...=1&catalogid=1

 

This may not help, but needs to be mentioned, my buddy used to work at autozone, and he said that most of the rotors that had been sitting on the shelf for some time were already warped because they dont take proper long term sitting care for them, and they set stuff under them but leave half hanging off. He said while he was there he sold like 12 of them, and every single person who bought them came back in for the same problem warped rotors. And Im sure the rest of them are the same, so they might already be warped.