[]I was going down a mountain on a highway with my 07 Z71 4X4 pretty loaded down with 6 passengers and luggage. I felt the brakes shudder when braking going down hill and it seemed to get worse little by little but there was not that much effect on braking itself. It got better as the road leveled off and then the brakes were back to normal. I don't know if it makes a difference but it happened with an outside temp of 34-36 degrees and we leveled out about 2000ft of altitude downhill. This doesn't seem normal, has anyone experienced this? How to avoid?
Thanks.

 

Yeah mine do the same thing except where I am at it is not that cold yet. Mine do that when I do some braking at traffic lights or right when I make turns. Almost like the disc is warped or something. Don't know how to fix it other than take it to a brake specialist. I have actually thought of getting vented disc brakes, just costly right now. Good luck, let me know if you find out anything.

 

One thing that may cause this are improperly torqued wheel lug nuts, have these checked and re-torqued to 140 lb/ft.

If this does not resolve the shudder then have the rotors checked for warpage.

 

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to have them checked out. I also wanted to mention that it was a pretty intense downhill run (including plenty of truck run-off ramps when it happened and after we leveled of I had no more problems for 1200+ miles. The truck was also at about the max capacity during that trip.

-Al

 

It may have just been the result of heated rotors then.

 

Try downshifting on steep declines you wont ride your brakes as much and they will last longer, and ya you prolly heated them up pretty good.

 

Is the word "prolly" Canadian?

I know that "ya" is Swedish.

 

Thanks I will have them checked out. Hey ZX what do you think about the slotted/vented rotors or just one or the other, plus any particular brand. By the way I can't wait for the new camaro to come out in 09

 

The stock brakes are large and seam to get the job done nicely, the OEM front and rear rotors are vented.

At a younger time in my life I would modify my vehicles in nearly every way conceivable, what I learned was that if I was modifying a vehicle that was my daily driver (I had a couple of race cars) I always regretted latter as it seamed that the modified parts were a constant source of grief and unreliability, so now I tend to shy away from performance parts that aren't offered from the car maker.

 

Soooo much wisdom in what ZX said! I too used to modify my cars in my younger days. Most of the time, just for the sake of modifing it!

At this point in my life, i go as far as rims and lowering, and thats about it. I stay away from performance modifications.