OK that sounds logical. But why is my brake peddle getting really really stiff.

 

A warped rotor when spinning creates a geometric condition of behaving like a thicker rotor. The pads and caliper can not clamp down as much as because the rotor keeps pushing back with every rotation. As a result, the caliper is not moving as much, which means your pedal won't move as much either.

 

Ok thanks. I will pull off rotors tomorrow and take them in to get checked.

 

did the steering colum fix it? sounds like a bad wheel speed to me cause the traction to put on ABS if you pull off and the brakes are stiff that would be a sign of ABS. worn out struts can cause a wheel to hop at high speeds, which could also cause your shake which if i think about it may cause a wheel speed signal being off from the other that would kick in traction control. i hope this helps a bit. im a mechanic in training just some stuff off top my head.

 

check and make sure your tie rods are good too thats an easy thing to check just make sure theres no play

 

My car does the same thing, I thought it was the brakes at first (warped rotors) so I changed them. I have a rattle in my steering wheel, but everyone states that the rattle in the steering wheel should not affect brakes of the car's performance. I replaced my first set of rotors with stock rotors and pads, the problem went away for about a month, then same thing. Next were rotora rotors and green stuff pads (which lasted longer than the stock ones) but wound up with the same steering wheel shake and pulses in the brake pedal when I applied them maybe 3-4 months later. So I changed them out for stock rotors and some decent pads from autozone. The thing is when I took the rotoras and ebc off the pads still had more than half the life left on the outside pads on both sided and the inside pads were almost completely worn. I figured maybe the caliper isn't sliding so I had a friend pick me up and went out and bought brake lube to lubricate the sliding pins. I installed the new stock rotors and pads from auto zone with the slide pins lubricated and STILL got the vibration/pulses in my pedal back about 1-1.5 months later. Now I just deal with it because nothing I have done has fixed this issue for me.

 

Well i replaced the steering column today with the abs module. We will see tomorrow if it fixed it.
Hey tpete763 does your brake peddle get really stiff when the vibration starts.

 

NO the pedal doesn't get really stiff, I don't have ABS if that matters at all. I just get a really bad vibration in my steering wheel when I brake. If I was going 65 and hit the brakes, y wheel shakes very badly. If I;m going slower (like 40 or below) and hit the brakes I slow down without the wheel vibrating, but the brakes pulse as I come to a stop. I'm 100% sure my rotors were just warping really quickly everytime I changed them, but I don't know why. But this past saaturday I just swapped over to LSJ front brakes and 5 lug drums on my LS (hopefully this fixes my warping rotors and vibrations while braking). So far I'm slowing down great with the new brake setup and I haven't had any vibrations while braking. But I do get the clunk in my steering wheel. Did replacing your steering column fix the clunk for you?

 

I didn't have a clunking.. but the column didn't fix the problem I was having. So I guess I will pull rotors off and have them checked.

 

I misstated that, not really a clunk per say. It sounds just like the noise coming from the steering column in this video and with the warped rotors the noise was bad, so far with the new setup, I only get the noise when I turn the wheel from side to side, no more shaking from the brakes.

Sounds like this:

STEERING NOISE ON 06 COBALT - YouTube

 

My car has never had that noise. I am just gonna have to pull rotors off and take them in. I can't figure out anything else. The only other option is replacing the pressure valve. I am also gonna flush brake fluid. Figure it is about time. 170,000 miles, and i doubt it has ever been flushed.