Problem. Help Please?

[Kiriyama]

I've noticed recently that my IS200 'judders' when I'm braking. AS almost all of my driving is on dual carriageway and motorway and I tend to slow down from about 90mph very quickly at roundabouts, someone suggested that I might have warped my brake disks.

Over the last week, however, the car has started to vibrate quite severely when driving at anything between 50 and 70mph. This made me think that perhaps I'd thrown a weight or 2 off my wheels so I popped into Kwik Fit to get all 4 tyres re-balanced and to make sure the tracking was ok.

Still no better :(

Any ideas?

[Steve_D]

When at 50-70 do you feel the vibration through the steering wheel or is the whole car?

[TigerFish]

Could be a sticking caliper, usual tell tale signs are feeling the wheel centres when you have stopped, if one is significantly warmer than the rest then that caliper could be sticking. Or if one wheel seems to get a lot more brake dust accumulating on it than the rest, that can highlight a sticking caliper.

[sparkystav]

Sounds to me like a sticking caliper as well mate.

Stav

[TomCooper]

yea i was getting that, jack front of the car up and see if the wheels spin freely, or after a run check tempreture of the wheels,if 1 is noticelbly hotter than the other then that caliper is seized up

[Kiriyama]

When at 50-70 do you feel the vibration through the steering wheel or is the whole car?

Because of the severity of the vibration, the whole car shakes a bit but mainly it's through the stearing wheel.

[Kiriyama]

Sounds to me like a sticking caliper as well mate.

Would the solution to that involve a large hammer?

[TigerFish]

Sounds to me like a sticking caliper as well mate.

Would the solution to that involve a large hammer?

Nope

Some grease and patience pushing the pistons back in and out a few times can clear it. Worst comes to the worst, a refurb seal kit for the caliper might be in order.

[sparkystav]

No,take the offending caliper (the hot one) off and try freeing it up by pushing it in, and out a few times.

if that doesnt clear it then you need a piston repair kit from lexus or a new caliper if you cant be bothered taking it apart to fix.

Stav

[TomCooper]

nope, but its pretty simple to fix. yea my car was juddereing so severaly i thought the wheel was gonan full off, and my left brake was glowing red..

Solution: I took the caliper off, and 1 of the pistons was stuck fast, so i used 2 g clamps, 1 to compress to ok cylinder and then 1 to compress the seized 1... basically to free it up, then i opened the g clamp up kept it in position and got my dad to applpy the brakes to bring the cylinder out (not all of the way out) i pulled back the rubber seal and cleaned out the rust and filled it with copper greese, then repeatedily compressed that cylinder with g clamp and then applied the brakes over n over till it was easy to press in with the g clamp... i haven't had a problem since...

oh and to apply the brakes you'll need the engine running, just make sure the car is jacked up securely.

[TomCooper]

damn i was a bit slow with taht 1

[TigerFish]

damn i was a bit slow with taht 1

It was worth the wait though

[Kiriyama]

damn i was a bit slow with taht 1

lol, yeah, you have to be pretty quick with this lot around!

Thanks all. Your help is appreciated once again.

Come to think of it, I HAVE noticed something smells a bit 'warm' when I pull up at work sometimes, would make sense in that case.

I'll let you know how I get on with it :winky:

[TomCooper]

your best to do it sooner, dont leave it as it will get worse, and not sure what would happen if it actually seized at 70mpH!!!

[Rob's Lexx]

I had a similar issue and it was caused by 2 'warped' discs.

although a caliper sticking may be most likely, don't rule out the possibility of the discs being 'warped'

[Kiriyama]

not sure what would happen if it actually seized at 70mpH!!!

I can hazard a guess! lol

[Steve_D]

I recently noticed I had two seized front pads took everything apart cleaned,

lubed up with anti seize grease & now perfect.

[Steve_D]

I recently noticed I had two seized front pads took everything apart cleaned,

lubed up with anti seize grease & now perfect.

[loggyboy]

although a caliper sticking may be most likely, don't rule out the possibility of the discs being 'warped'

Almost without a doubt.. You will still need new discs and pads, the seized calliper is not necessarily the cause of the warping, if they were shaking before under braking alone, but they are warped now so theres nothing you can do about it! even if you do free the calliper, it will still wobble under braking, so might as well swap them all while you have the callipers off.

[TigerFish]

although a caliper sticking may be most likely, don't rule out the possibility of the discs being 'warped'

Almost without a doubt.. You will still need new discs and pads, the seized calliper is not necessarily the cause of the warping, if they were shaking before under braking alone, but they are warped now so theres nothing you can do about it! even if you do free the calliper, it will still wobble under braking, so might as well swap them all while you have the callipers off.

I would partially agree with that. The minor wobble before could've been caused by the onset of the sticking. I have had some serious caliper issues on my GS, to the point where you could barely hold the steering wheel it was shaking so bad. Not to mention the smoke billowing from the front wheel when I stopped. As soon as the caliper was sorted, the vibration stopped instantly and braking returned to being super smooth.

On the subject of warped discs, which I'm not discounting in this case, it might be worth checking the torque on you lug nuts. If they have been over tightened (especially if you hve been in for balancing) then this could also cause some problems. My brakes can get a judder if they have been over tightened. Lexus cars seem hyper sensitive to this compared to anything else I have owned. I had new tyres fitted the week before last, only when the last wheel was being put back on did I spot what the fitters were doing. They were letting the air ratchet chug away for a good 10-15 seconds tightening up and then they were getting a two foot breaker bar and doing them up some more, :tsktsk: idiots. I could feel the judder driving home after a couple of miles. Undid and re-torqued everything once I got home. One wheel nut even broke my socket trying to undo it!! Considering they should be torqued to 76ft lbs, they must've done them to 3 or 4 times that. Worth checking.

[TomCooper]

i never replaced my discs and there fine? no wobble at all under braking

[sparkystav]

the you were lucky, i had the same problem and my discs werent warped but they well could have been.

Its just the luck of the draw.

Stav

[Kiriyama]

Just got home from work (25 miles of dual carriageway from my house) and felt the drivers side wheel, fine. Felt the passenger side, red hot!

Pretty safe bet it's the caliper then I guess.

Got a friend of a friend sorting it out on Thursday for me. Not being lazy, he's cheap and I'm busy, lol.

[sparkystav]

Hope exercising it clears it up mate.

Stav

[Unregistered_User]

24 Valve Vibrator!? Sounds rather powerful :)

Hope you manage to get the problem sorted...

Jamie