fwiw: if my E-Brake needs more than 2-3 clicks to hold my truck stopped on a slope in gear, I give the rear brakes an adjust..

Just sayin..

 

X 2

 

The E-brake only adjusts the rears if you have disc brakes, drums you gotta go old school.

 

The Thump is on bumps, only on the right side, I do plan to check the bolts on the bushings, everything was worse on right side (link and bushing) with all the pot holes here near the edge of the road,it is not surprising. Also the right strut is leaking, and I imagine that once it's apart, changing the control arm bushings wont be too hard. Anybody tried the Monroe complete strut units? Also the brake vibration is only when they get good and hot after repeated use. Thanks, Gary

 

Strut leaking=bad strut. There is a whole thread about the Monroe Quick Struts. Also probably need control arm bushings (if not complete control arms, that's easier).

 

adjust them back brakes first then see if the shudder is gone, I followed 843de's advise and cleaned and lubed the rear brakes and no more brake shake!!

 

I've never bought into most of the theories around why the brakes shudder. But I suppose like so many things, there may be multiple causes. Certainly its not rotor warpage. Its actually pretty rare to see true rotor warpage. Lots of discussion on that in the past. The most likely cause is either cheap factory pads, or failure to bed the pads properly. Probably a bit of both.

I started pressing the pedal a little firmer and earlier and got rid of most of the shudder. Then I put on on cheap semi-metallic pads as a temporary crutch until I could buy new rotors and good pads. The cheap semi-metallic pads have been working so well I'm not taking them off. I put them on nearly a year ago. First time I got more than 10k out of a set of pads and rotors.

 

I ran my original brakes on my 06 LT1 for 92,000 miles with no issues. They were still good when I had them changed. But after 92K miles, and no new car in the near future, I pu $ into the HHR.

 

Thanks everyone, I will keep you in the loop, Old Lar, I think the mileage on brakes is a relative thing, I first rented, then had to had an HHR in Florida running the I 4 and I 95 corridors, it is a lot less braking use than the NY metro area where you are on the brakes constantly, but thanks for the info!! Here it's been 85 down there!!