2008 HHR Brake N Shake
 

I have a 2008 HHR that I bought used in 2010. It had 24K miles on it. It now has 208,000 plus miles on it. I love my little truck (LT).

A few months ago, it started braking funny so we had new brakes put on the front. Then the upper and lower arms were replaced,,, all the mounts and bushings were replaced,,, and finally new rotors were installed. The problem has got worse.

Driving the vehicle at any speed, its great but as soon as I brake, the steering wheel shakes, and it feels like something is loose and going to fall off. I am at the point where I'm afraid that something is going to fall off and the front end will just sit on the ground.

The dealer said they can't find anything wrong and the wheel specialist that did most of the work on it says he can't find anything wrong with it either after everything has been replaced. Something is definately wrong with it and I am looking for suggestions.

We thought it might be the wheel bearings going out but everyone says that if its the wheel bearings, it would shake all the time, and not just when I brake. It only happens when I brake. Everything on the front is new,,, all the tow bars, upper and lower arms, etc etc etc.

The only thing that we have not replaced are the wheel bearings. Any suggestions?

A. could be bearings
B. no such thing as Upper control arms
C. what about rear brakes?
D. what does "the dealer" mean? A genuine GM dealership Service Department? Or, the guy that sells bought at auction cars?

Also, nothing called a tow bar either. If they have replaced all the parts you stated, I would take a look at the tie rods and the rack and pinion unit. With that number of miles just about any component could be worn or worn out.

One other thing to look at could be the steering column shaft. It has a joint in it. I'm sure our moderator Oldblue will see your thread and fill in some details. He's had to replace that shaft before on his car.

Yes the lower control arm bushings can be the problem , you claim they were replaced so that eliminates the ball joints to, so the intermediate shaft from the steering column to the steering rack could be the issue the joints dry out and can shake during braking

Welcome to the site

Mine does a similar thing with "normal braking"... It goes away under hard braking. All my front suspension parts are new as well.

You say the problem got worse AFTER parts were replaced... possible that someone put the wrong parts on or installed incorrectly. I can't remember which parts, donbrew knows, the parts books have wrong.

Agree, you need to look at the rear brakes, many times people have had problems they thought were front brakes, turned out the rear brakes were the problem.

Bad lower control arm bushings and/or bad outer tie rod ends can allow play that will magnify the effect of the slightest brake pulsation and cause shaking and noisy rattling.

A new rotor might not help much; it doesn't take much junk on the mounting surfaces to have the rotor surface running out beyond spec, and even with near-perfect brakes, with loose steering parts you can still get the rattle when braking.

If everything's tight, you can often get rid of minor nuisance brake pulsation with a couple of hard stops from 40 MPH or so. This clears the rotors of spots of crud and minor rust.

Worn front sway bar bushing or link ends can rattle like crazy on bumps but shouldn't cause shaking when braking, only maybe clunk with firm braking as the nose dives.

i had a brake pulsation issue that was fixed by shaving down my rear brake pads a little bit.
My rear brake pads were intermittently getting caught on the caliper mounts which would cause very uneven brake pressure and wear. The pads I were using were just ever so slightly too big in some spots. I shave a bit off of each pad with my dremel and my front shake went away.

Rear pads, you mean the discs in yours or do you mean rear shoes as in drum brakes?

Good info fongue in regards to a SS. But, the OP has a regular HHR with rear drum brakes so it doesn't really relate to their issue.
Might help some of the SS owners if you could move that post to the SS section of the forums.

Plus. The OP hasn't come back to the site.