Hello, my first time on this Forum.
I'm a Dodge fan having had a Ram 4x4 and two Mini vans.
My friend's 2000 conversion van shudders like crazy when the brakes are applied at highway speeds. Not so much at lower speeds. It certenly feels shaking in the front and the steering whell vibrates along with the dash. I thought is was warped rotors and much to my surprise the runout is less than .004 inch. Wheel bearings seem not to be loose and the pads are plenty thick.
The ABS light only comes on during start up and then goes off. We found that the van has RWAL and found that we couldn't find any codes using a OBDII tester.
Could it be that the last repairs,5 years ago, the caliper piston were just pushed in to install new pads?
Your thought will be greatly apprciated.

 

An OBD-II reader does not read ABS codes, so you can stop wasting your time trying. The shuddering problem is the rotors, regardless of the runout reading you're getting.

 

Alloro, thanks for the quick reply.
Bill283

 

Yep, resurface or replace

 

For the price of new front brake pads (about $60) I would also replace the current ones with Ceramic pads. After using Ceramics I would never even consider going back to Organic or Semi-Metallic pads ever.

Good idea to replace all the front bearings (again, cheap item to buy) and get some fresh wheel bearing grease in there. Also replace the inside rotor seals.

 

Because they have better stopping power, or less dust?

 

A lot of times pulsing pedal is thought to be warped rotors when it is in fact pad deposits.

Getting the brakes really hot and then sitting at a redlight with them clamping the rotor leaves some pad material on the rotor, and then later when braking each time that area passed the caliper it grabs a little more than the rest of the rotor.

I have a lot of hills with lights at the bottom. I stops a few yards short and keep rolling, but if I have to wait longer, I use the parking brake as the drums are not as suceptable to pad deposits, or at least they are less noticeable

 

Way better stopping power. I switched earler this year on my van and really enjoy the performance of them. Two of my customers insisted on having them installed on their vehicle and one of them showed me on a test drive how well they performed. I was impressed and decided to give them a try myself, have not regretted it since. Early next year I am going to put them on my car. I won't run any other type of pads ever again. Now just wish someone would come up with ceramic shoes.

 

Thank you all for your suggestions. I will, indeed, replace the pads with ceramics, have the rotors machined and replace the wheel bearings and seals when the owner has the finances.