Shudder When Braking

[murpheeee]

Hey guys,

I have a 2005 XLT with around 27k miles

We are on a trip for labor day weekend, and I noticed a slight shudder while braking. The harder you brake the worse it gets. You can feel it right up through the steering wheen so seems to be coming from the front end somewhere.

One stretch of road was a steep winding decline down a hill and as I was braking harder into the corners the shudder was terrible, so its definitley worse when turning the wheel.

The problem is I am 400 miles from home and its Labor Day weekend.
I am worried about driving this all teh way home, but no shops are open to look at it.

Any ideas what it could be?
Should it be okay to drive home?

If you are sitting on highway it feels fine, only when braking it shudders.



UPDATE:
Just to close this out, one of the rotors was warped and the caliper was seizing. Ka-ching!
Thanks for the comments guys.

 

[X6StringerX]

Have you visually inspected the undercarriage for debri? Have you tightened your lug nuts and checked your suspension parts for "play"?

If you've done the above and everything checked out, it sounds to me like your rotors are warped. Warping commonly happens when you brake a lot and get them hot and then suddenly brake hard.

You can feel a warped rotor at practically all speeds, but they're more pronounced at higher speeds because you're feeling the high/low spots on the rotor many more times per second.

It should be relatively safe to drive home as long as you take it easy. I've driven on warped rotors for months, but I wouldn't encourage this. Your stopping power is decreased, so keep that in mind and adjust your speed and distance to other drivers accordingly. Some machine shops will "turn" your warped rotors and make the smooth/even again, but I've always just replaced mine when it occurs. I would highly recommend replacing them when you get back home. Also change your brake pads at the time of rotor replacement. If the rotors are warped, the pads will wear unevenly as well.

Don't lose any sleep and enjoy your weekend.

 

[Dradien]

Have you visually inspected the undercarriage for debri? Have you tightened your lug nuts and checked your suspension parts for "play"?

If you've done the above and everything checked out, it sounds to me like your rotors are warped. Warping commonly happens when you brake a lot and get them hot and then suddenly brake hard.

You can feel a warped rotor at practically all speeds, but they're more pronounced at higher speeds because you're feeling the high/low spots on the rotor many more times per second.

It should be relatively safe to drive home as long as you take it easy. I've driven on warped rotors for months, but I wouldn't encourage this. Your stopping power is decreased, so keep that in mind and adjust your speed and distance to other drivers accordingly. Some machine shops will "turn" your warped rotors and make the smooth/even again, but I've always just replaced mine when it occurs. I would highly recommend replacing them when you get back home. Also change your brake pads at the time of rotor replacement. If the rotors are warped, the pads will wear unevenly as well.

Don't lose any sleep and enjoy your weekend.

Not Explorer related, but I had the exact same problem on my old F250, and it was indeed warped rotors, so Iwould go with the above guy. A warning though...If you brake to hard, something about the rotors and pads getting to hot and making the brake fluid get unusually hot, making it thinner and less able to help stop, so go easy on the brakes if you can.

Like the guy above, I drove with then for more then a year, and losing braking power in a old huge truck nearing a highway is not fun...thank god for down shifting (Manual)