Mitchfin

I have about 8000 miles on my A4 and I drive a canyon most days so lots of uphills and subsequent downhills. The brakes are now pulsing pretty hard on the downhills, was I supposed to bed the brakes when I got it? Any solution for this on a new car, I have a service appointment next week, wondering if I should mention this to them, seems a little early for this to be happening on a new car.

Mitchfin

PS. I mean brake shuddering.

adg44

Yes, mention this to the dealer and they will fix it.

Mitchfin

Should I just explain it as I did here or is there anything particular I should say? Thanks

adg44

Tell them you have a pulsation while braking. They will do a test drive to duplicate and then will likely look at your rotors.

Does the steering wheel shudder or is it a pulsation in the brake pedal?

Mitchfin

More of a brake pedal, but if its around a corner, it affects steering feel.

StKnowhere

If you hold the brake pedal down on a hot rotor, it can embed an imprint of the brake pad material on the rotor and cause the pulsing.

Sometimes you can resolve by bedding the brakes. In a place that is safe, do several 60 mph to 0 stops until you can smell the brakes. The drive for 15 min without touching the brakes to let them cool.

The dealer can turn or burnish the rotors to clean it up also.

gguy

Mitch fin, did you take your car to the dealer for this?

VipinLJ

Sounds like a case of warped rotors to me? I had a very similar issue with my VW (it was a documented problem but it being India, VW knew they could get away with it since the laws there are pretty much non-existent) where the rotors got warped early (I had to change three sets of rotors and four sets of brake pads before my car hit 40k kms). One thing I did was get the rotors skimmed and it worked for around 5000-8000kms before I had to change the rotors.
I'm saying it COULD be warped rotors because if it was the abs pulsing, I'm guessing it wouldn't affect steering feel whereas warped rotors can cause the steering to shake when decelerating from high speeds.

Edit - Just realised it was a very old thread!!!! Sorry

tekmo

There is a TSB for brake pads. Ask your dealer, maybe applies to you.