Brake shudder after 30 minutes of no braking on the highway.

[dkl1449]

2008 Eddie Bauer Edition, only 40,000 miles on it and I bought it new. Most of my driving is in the city and I experience no problems there. I usually don't do any hard braking, so I doubt it is brake rotor warping. I drive defensively, leaving plenty of room in front of me so I hardly ever brake. However, after about 30 minutes on the highway without ANY previous braking the Explorer shudders badly when I apply the brakes for the first couple of times. If I brake hard, the shudder goes away, only to come back the when I brake again the first time in about 30 minutes. The only thing I can think of is some type of buildup on the rotors? Anyone else heard of this or have any ideas?

 

[matsavol]

I had similar few months back after driving on highway for longer distance. Once slowing down slightly breaking there was quite noticeable shudder.

You may want to check the rotors if you can see any rust buildup, or if you can see brake pad imprint(s) on them? I had pad imprints and it seemed that they were caused by my habit of washing the car and then driving it in to the garage, so that the rotors were wet and developed rust spots around the brake pads. What I did was to lightly sand the spots away and it improved significantly. (In fact I had ordered new rotors already but just for curiosity did try to see if I could fix them... While not perfect, it is definitely good enough so that I have not yet installed my new rotors.)

 

[2008explorer4x4]

From what you describe, It is almost definitely the rotors. I had something similar on mine. I had new rotors, new pads all done by my Ford dealership on the front axle, about two years ago. After only around 8,000 miles I developed a shudder while braking above 35-40 mph, but not when I applied the brakes firmly. I suspected everything, but not the front brakes, up to maybe even bad ball joints ? After pulling all wheels, I could find nothing wrong. I finally convinced myself that the only thing I hadn't replaced was the rear rotors. I replaced them with new pads. Nothing changed, I still had the shudder getting off the highway, but not during hard braking. My Ford dealer said that they couldn't duplicate the problem ? I had to show their mechanic myself what it was doing. Finally they checked the front rotors for run out and they exceeded the limits. They turned the rotors, at no cost to me, and the problem was solved. I don't know why they started to shudder after 8,000 miles but they did. I would suggest that after 40,000 miles, you should just replace your rotors. By the way, I only have 56,000 miles on my 2008 as of today.