Hi All. Our Honda Jazz has developed a ‘shudder’ when braking. It only happens when the brakes are applied and it is noticeable past 40km/h. As an example: If I am driving down the highway and apply the brakes (even with light to medium pressure), the front of the car shudders/shakes. There are no abnormalities in the tyres so I’m thinking the discs are warped? Is there any other reason for this shudder? The car has done approximately 167,000kms and runs like a dream. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.
Brake Shudder
In my experience 99.9% of the time this is caused from warped rotors. The other 0.01% is caused from tire wear. The important thing here is to determine why the rotors are warped. Was there a panic stop where you had to slam on the brakes at a high rate of speed? Is one of the calipers sticking causes the brake pads to continuously rub on the rotors causing them to get excessively hot? Are the brake pads just worn out?
In any case it is best to replace the brake pads at the same time as the rotors. This will give the brake pads and rotors new clean surfaces to work with. Otherwise you may end up with some unwanted brake noise.