The Hippy Hippy Shake
 

No, not the Hippy Hippy Shake recorded by Chan Romero in the 50's.
(http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/ss/11/ss11873.mp3)

I'm talking about the hippy hippy shake my sterring wheel does when I brake. It does it when I'm slowing down from a good speed (55-60+) or when I do a hard\quick braking. The worst is if I do a hard brake going 60+. What the hell is it, and should I be worried about it?

Have you done some hard braking at some point? Like coming down from 100MPH when you see a cop?

More than likely some warped rotors in the front from some excessive heat build at some point.

depending on how bad you can usually hit your brake pads with some sandpaper to take the glaze off and have the rotors turned down at a decent auto parts store but inevitably they will warp again b/c now they will have even less material to keep them straight. The best route is to throw on some new rotors and pads.

I agree warped rotors I have the same problem and need to get it fixed as well

Thanks guys. Guess I'll get my regular shop to check it out this weekend. Got any guesstimates on cost, by the way?

Yep warped rotors... You MAY be able to have em turned and that would be a temporary fix. I CONSTANTLY drive 80 or better and hit the brakes hard pretty regular. My stock rotors didnt last long. When I replaced them. I didnt want that crap to happen again. SO I went ahead on and dropped the cash on my Bear Decalla drilld and slotted rotors. not only do they look bad ass behind my FR500 rims but I have had them for almost 50k miles and not a hint of pedal pulse or steering wheel shake. I say those were worth the money IMO.

Now I will say that before this car I would just go get the cheapest thing Auto Zone would quote me. So before this I have never spent any money on upgraded parts. My parts before this car never lasted long. So with saying that... there MAY be cheaper but still good alternatives for rotors out there. I just know that for MY driving... those 40 dollar rotors just arnt good enough for me.

You can do the job in your drive way. If you can change a flat tire than you can do this. There is REALLY no sense in paying somebody to do this. Our rotors just slide on over the hub and studs.

Jack car up..
take wheel off
Take the calliper off (2 bolts) set aside but dont disconnect the hose
use needle nose plyers to twist the lil metal clip thing thats on one of the studs that holds the rotor in place.
slide old rotor off
slide new rotor on
You may as well replace the brake pads while your there
squeeze callpers down... replace pads
put the calliper back on
put wheel back on
repeat these steps on each corner of the car.


Its SUPER easy... simple hand tools and just a bit of common sense will get ya by on this jub.

Well shit, thanks 02SilverBullet. For both posts. I've got them already printed out and in my pocket. Guess I've got an excuse to stay home while the wife & kid go to the in-laws over the weekend!!! :D

You may always want to buy or rent a square block brake tool, it makes it easier when trying to change the pads/calipers instead of using needle nose plyers!

LOL you misunderstood I think.....
The plyers was for twisting that lil flimsy metal clip off the stud thats there I GUESS to hold the rotor on. You dont need it for the new rotors. But yeah... you can do the loan a tool from Auto ZOne for compressing the callipers or you can pay like 8 bucks for the lil cube tool. I think the loan a tool thing is easyer IMO.

The only problem I can tell you to look out for is on the Back passenger side wheel.... the way the e-brake cable connects gets in the way of putting the calliper bolt back in. That was the only PITA I ran into doning my brakes. But still.... a simple set of tools and just a bit of know how....you can do it fairly easy!

In the interest of keeping something besides dust and an old condom in my wallet, how much of a need or requirement is there to do all 4 at the same time? Can just the front ones be replaced?

Also, I looked online at AutoZone, and they have one listing only for front and rear replacements rotors, from Duralst. They're solid rotors, as in no drilled holes, slots, etc. But, when I checked some other sites for more info on doing the job myself, I found a couple of sites that referenced this info;

The standard four-wheel disc brakes have the biggest rotors and stiffest calipers ever fitted to a mainstream Mustang. Twin-piston aluminum calipers clamp down on 12.4-inch ventilated front brake discs on GT models – an increase of more than 15 percent in rotor size. The V-6 Mustangs get 11.4-inch ventilated rotors that also are 30 mm thick.

In the rear, the brake rotors are 11.8 inches in diameter – more than 12 percent larger than on the 2004 model. Rear rotors are vented on the GT and solid on the V-6.

I haven't looked myself on my car yet, but if these sites say the stocks are vented, and the replacements from AutoZone aren't, I'm assuming that's something that I should be worried about.

I see says the blind man...

Hmmm I must be honest here.... Dont know much about the vented vs. non vented thing. I would ASSUME that for a daily driver that it wouldnt make THAT much of a difference. If the cost of the rotors are an issue then see if the ones you have can be turned. Local shops normally charge like 12 bucks per rotor and I think some AZ (auto zones) do it too. Once ya get em off just take em to see if they can be turned. If they have never been turned before then most likely they CAN be.

As far as only doing the fronts.... yeah you can get way with that... chances are your rear pads are still good anyway. I know mine were still good @73k miles when I done my first brake job on my car. The only reason I replaced em was I was doing the drilled and slotted rotors all the way around so I went ahead and put new stuff to go with the expensive ass rotors. IMO you can get away with that with no problem at all.

You must use vented rotors if the car came with them from the factory. Dont confuse vented with Drilled/Slotted. Vented looks like two rotors with fins in between. See pics below, first is vented second is solid. Then there are the drilled and the slotted which dont matter much on a street car(they just look cool).

02SilverBullet, once again, thanks for stepping up with some usefull info. 99Stang, thanks to you too, for the clarification between vented and drilled\slotted. I checked AZ's site again, and they have a straight on side-view of the Duralast Rotors, and they are indeed vented with the fins that you described and showed.

Once again, the AmericanMuscle community floors me with their knowledge and helpfulness.

Thanks.

While you're at Auto Zone, pick up som edisc brake grease (they sell it in small tubes) and make sure to lube up the pins that the calipers slide on just as a general maintenance thing

Will do, thanks for the tip cobra.