Front end shudder
 

Hi Everyone.

This is my first post so I hope someone can help me.
I have a 2007 LT. Sometimes I have a real bad shudder in the front end when I apply a hard brake. (it seems to come from the drivers side). It will almost pull the steering wheel out of my hand. It nearly always occurs when I come off any dirt roads.
If I reverse and do a hard brake it fixes the problem. There is always a light bumping from the front like a flat spot. Maybe this is the problem?
Any ideas?
I need a basic idea of the problem before I get to a dealer.

Bruce

Most likely you need your brakes turned down, I just had mine at the dealer on Friday with the same problem, and the dealer turned them down for me under warranty.
Once the warranty is up I plan on purchasing better rotors and brakes

If you take it to the dealer don't for get the recall (only if you don’t have side curtain airbags)

My 08's been doing the same thing since about 6000 miles, have 8600 miles on her now. Just ordered the EBC rotors and red stuff pads yesterday (7-12-08) from HHRBoutique.com. Not even going to bother with the dealer. It's cheap $%&# metal in the rotors. :( Get em turned and remove more metal and it will just come back and sooner.

TomR

My 08 was doing it when I picked it up with 104 miles on the odo.

Crappy rotors. I wanted to wait until I got home from Ohio to get the dealer to service it. Now I have 1533 miles on it, and the brakes are smoothing out. I'll keep an eye on it, but I agree with Tom. Better rotors and pads are in order. If you get them turned, the thinner metal won't handle heat as well, and you'll just have to get them serviced again. No big deal under warranty, but new stuff will go on mine after the warranty is up.

Also, IIRC, there's a TSB that addresses rotor problems with dirt and particles catching between the rotors and pads.

My 03 Cavalier did the same thing, then I went to ceramic pads. Big mistake. I hated those ceramics. I just went back to Bendix Metallic and new rotors. Brakes were never better.

If you put a lot of highway miles on it, make sure you keep the rear brakes adjusted. The front brakes they use on new cars just won't handle all that braking if the rears aren't kept up to snuff.

I had the same thing with 50 miles on it. It’s what they call Lot Rot( sitting too long on the lot and getting rusted). They turned them down the next week, and they were smooth. I was concerned that they turned down brand new rotors, but the dealer assured me that the amount they had to turn then to get rid of the lot rot was very little. Now I only have 15000 miles left on my warranty and if I get the shutter back before the warranty, I’ll go back to the dealer and have them fix it again, if it’s after then I will buy some good aftermarket rotors and brakes.

That's good to know. I suspected as much, and it looks like the pads have done a decent job of smoothing out the rotors. Most of the miles have been highway miles.

On another note, I had some thoughts about brake cooling when I ordered smoothie full wheel covers. I'm going to keep an eye (foot?) out for problems with the front brakes now that I have the full wheel covers on.

Isn't the method of "hard brake in reverse" for adjusting the rear drums??

Sounds like your brakes just need a new cleaning, but maybe the added parts listed in the TSB will help prevent/curtail the problem while driving on the dirt roads.

Thanks for all the feedback.
We do quite a lot of dirt roads as we travel around the country. We flat tow the HHR behind a motorhome. The problem always occur when we come off dirt roads and head down hill. So it is either the dirt or dust or that fact that we are hard braking going down hills. The problem is worse here in Colorado. We drive in the high country. When we return to the black top it is always down hill. Either way I always fix the problem by reversing and applying a hard brake.

Bruce