Ford Falcon: Brake shudder
Asked by Chris Langford
I read the e-mail from Trevor Brereton (Carsguide, 5/04/13) about the intermittent shudder in his 2005 BA XR6 and thought it worth sharing my story, as I had the same issue. It became so bad that you would have sworn a tyre had de-laminated. I took the car to my dealer and they had no suggestions at all. As an ex-mechanic I replaced the brake rotors and pads as they were worn, balanced tyres etc. ?? By chance I spotted a comment where a guy had found that his brakes where getting hot on a long run when he wasn't using the brakes at all. Ford had told him to replace the brake booster, but the clever chap tried backing off the rod between the booster and master cylinder a few turns and it fixed the problem. I did the same and the problem was solved. It's dead easy to do, just undo the two nuts holding the brake master cylinder on, undo the lock nut on the push rod and wind it in a couple of turns, do the lock nut up and refit the master cylinder. You don't need to remove the brake pipes. ??
Answered by CarsGuide
17 Apr 2013A number of people contacted us about this issue, all pointing to the brakes as the root cause of the issue. From what we know the brakes don't fully release after they've been applied and this leads to them heating up and the disc distorting causing the vibration. Some suggested replacing the brake booster, others, like you, suggested adjusting the rod between the booster and the master cylinder.
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