i have a 98 dodge ram van 2500. 5.2liter

i think i have a warped brake rotor. it vibrates the sterring wheel when i apply the brakes .it is barely noticeable untill i get to fifty. it is really bad around fifty MPH.

is a warped rotor the only thing that will make it shimmy when i hit the brakes?
the wheel bearings were fine when i changed the brakes.

i put new pads and turned the rotors in feb. and i can't figure out why the rotors could be warped .

and if it is a warped rotor. do i need to replace the rotors on both wheels?


would air in the lines cause it to shimmy? i don't think it would. but i don't know what air in the lines would cause.

 

Hi Dewayne13,

I bought my 99 5.9L last August and it had a shimmy as I slowed down to a stop. I had slop in the steering so I replaced the worn ball joints and the tie rod.

That reduced the simmy greatly, but it ws still there slightly.

I've been towing a boat this summer with it and had to jump on the brakes a couple of times to avoid the highly skilled thoughtful drivers in my state that like to cut in front and hit the brakes to turn off. The shimmy seems to have gone completely now.

I had a large sedan that had the same shimmy as you have at about 50. Turned out it was the after market alloy wheels. They had the wrong offset.

The only way you are going to know for sure is with a dial guage to measure the runout on the rotors.

As you mentioned that you switched them around, are you sure that they beaded completely and there was no dirt that fell in behind somewhere?

Just a thought.