Re: Front-end shimmy-dance when I brake 5KCSTQ

[Todd Young <tyoung@wamnet.com>]

I had the same problem as Phil with my '93 90S. When I first boughtit it had a
bad shimmy when braking lightly. I can be a little hard on
brakes sometimes and after using the brakes for a couple months, I
noticed that the shimmy went away.  I think it also helped to make
sure the wheels are torqued properly. Although, I also told the dealer
that I wanted the brakes checked before I bought it, and from just
recently looking at the front right, it looks like they just put new pads
on and didn't condition the rotors. I plan to pull the pads and scuff them
with some 400 grit emery cloth and then put a non-directional scuff on
the rotors (and take of any rust ridges around the outer/inner edges)
3M makes a special product called Scotch-loc, you can use various
abrasive pads on one arbor, the pads just screw into the arbor. Saw it
in use a the garage I worked at, finally bought my own. Don't buy the
cheap 2inch plastic version, get the 3inch rubber version.


> Hmmm. I was able to quote the Bentley "advice" because my recently acquired
> '91 200q (100K) also suffers from some steering-wheel shimmy (only during
> braking at moderately high speeds). I have a spare, new set of rotors that
> came with the car when purchased, but haven't installed them. The shimmy
> decreased a lot as I began to drive the car and regularly used the
> brakes--hard. I think the rotors may have a bit of residual warp which
> possibly is being amplified by some front-end slop. But from where?



--
Todd Young              WAM!NET Inc.
tyoung@wamnet.com       6100 West 110th Street
612-886-5051            Bloomington, MN 55438-2664
800-585-1133 ext.5051   http://www.wamnet.com/