Intermittent vibration front left wheel at speed

[tmoffitt]

Hi all,

 

I have a 2009 Dodge Journey 2.4SE (I live in the UK - Northern Ireland), 43k miles on the clock from new, and have an unusual very intermittent vibration.  I can't remember when it started though.  My wife thinks it might have been after the tyres were replaced about 2 years ago, but can't be sure.  On the other hand, it might have been when I replaced the brake disc & pads about 6 months ago.  The vibration feels like it's from the front left wheel, and happens pretty rarely, and usually when traveling for some distance at 60-70mph.  One day it happened on the motorway with a slight vibration (and noise) which seemed to get progressively worse the further I went.  I slowed down and could feel it "grab" at the disc as I braked.  I got out and looked at the tyre as I thought we maybe had a puncture, but it was fine.  Upon moving off again (carefully) after a minute or so, the vibration had disappeared and didn't return until maybe a week later.  It never seems to happen at low speed.

 

One thing I've noticed though, is that after about 10 or 15 minutes of driving at any speed, there is a slight "squeal" from the brakes (not sure if it's front left, right, or both), which stops if I brake gently, or if I move slightly left or right, although it eventually returns again.  It doesn't seem to make any difference if it's wet or dry weather.  I'm wondering if this could be related, i.e. could it possibly be heating up and temporarily warping the disc slightly, causing the vibration, then after stopping for a minute would it have "unwarped" after cooling a bit ?  The squeal does tend to get worse, the further I drive.  Another thing I wondered is if the pads aren't fully retracting perhaps ?  Or maybe just bad pads/discs (they didn't come from the Dodge dealer, but from a local car shop) ?

 

Any suggestions ?  The tyres seem to have even wear across them and the tread is still about double the legal limit, although they will all need replaced in another 6 months or so I reckon, or less (I do about 5k miles per year).  As I say, it's very intermittent but I'd love it to disappear !

[NiceTrip]

I see this is from September, so you may have solved it by now, but it sounds like you have a sticky caliper causing some brake drag.  I'm dealing with the same issue right now.  You don't notice it at slow speeds or short distances, but if you travel at freeway speeds for 10 or 15 miles, the brake will heat up enough from the drag to begin to warp the disc, causing the vibration.  Once the disc is warped, the vibration will be very noticeable when you apply the brake.  Usually the issue subsides when the rotor cools, but if it gets hot enough the rotor can warp permanently and the only solution is to replace it.  To check for this, next time the vibration happens, stop the car, and check the temperature of both front wheels.  If one wheel is noticeably hotter than the other you definitely have a brake drag.  Use caution, as a dragging brake can make a wheel hot enough to cause burns.  Other symptoms of this issue include faster brake wear on the side that's dragging.  You may notice more brake dust on that wheel, an if you remove the wheel, you'll see the pads more worn on the dragging side.

 

To further test and diagnose the issue, with the car parked, engine running, rear wheels blocked, parking brake set and transmission in neutral, stomp the brake pedal a couple of times as hard as you can.  Turn the engine off but leave the car in neutral.  Jack up the front of the vehicle on both sides, then rotate each wheel one at a time and compare how easy it is.  The one that's sticking should be noticeably harder to rotate.  Now remove the wheel on the sticky side, and trace the rubber brake hose back to where it connects to the steel brake line, and crack that connection loose with a wrench.  If the wheel rotates freely now, the problem is upstream of the brake hose/brake line connection.  Trace the steel line back to the ABS Hydraulic module.  If you don't find any kinks in the brake line, suspect the ABS module.  If on the other hand the wheel/hub does not rotate significantly easier, the blockage is downstream of the point you opened the line.  Tighten that one back up and then loosen the bleed screw on the caliper.  If that frees it up, the brake hose is the likely culprit.  If it's still stuck, the caliper is at fault.  Check the caliper slides to see if that's where it's sticking, and if not, replace the caliper.

 

When done testing you are going to want to bleed that wheel just in case you introduced any air into the system when you opened the line.

 

In my case, I've changed the caliper and the hose without solving the problem. (I didn't take the time to diagnose, thinking it was much more likely to be a caliper).  This weekend I'm changing the ABS module.