Rumble strip sensation while driving???

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Matt69olds

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Number one son called me from his truck (92 Yukon) saying his truck felt weird. When I go for a drive with him, occasionally, around 30-35 mph the truck feels like your driving on the rubble strip on the highway. It starts immediately, and and stops just as quickly. It doesn’t do it all the time, and there is no predicting when it happens. I see nothing obviously sloppy in the front end, the driveshafts are solid as well.

This is a sudden problem. We had put probably 3000 miles on this since we bought it. Without a doubt, this is one of the best 500 dollar vehicles I have ever bought (and I have had MANY 500 dollar cars!!). I’m scratching my head. Anyone in readerland have any suggestions of what I should be looking for?
 
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Matt69olds

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Well ****, I found the problem!!! His truck now has a 2 piece rotor!!!!

I have always made fun of people who say their destroyed rotor “just started making noise” but honest to God, this happed 2 miles from the house, 30 minutes ago.
 

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AuroraGirl

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Just like how my drum brake was working just fine before the other night. must have been the humidity. Lol jk
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WP29P4A

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Well ****, I found the problem!!! His truck now has a 2 piece rotor!!!!

I have always made fun of people who say their destroyed rotor “just started making noise” but honest to God, this happed 2 miles from the house, 30 minutes ago.
Any speculation on what would cause something like this? Can this be caused by braille parking.
 

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In my experience it can come from thermal shocking the rotor. Hard driving/braking followed by puddle diving. I've also seen it from hard hits like rocks. After reading the first post on this thread I was going to suggest checking the front brakes. Stuck caliper or worn/loose guide pins can cause it to bind on the rotor and cause that chatter. The chatter can then cause it to break the rotor.
 

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In my experience it can come from thermal shocking the rotor. Hard driving/braking followed by puddle diving. I've also seen it from hard hits like rocks. After reading the first post on this thread I was going to suggest checking the front brakes. Stuck caliper or worn/loose guide pins can cause it to bind on the rotor and cause that chatter. The chatter can then cause it to break the rotor.
That makes sense, lots of heat and a quick blast of water a few times. I just noticed the OP only needed 14 minutes to figure out the problem after posting. That's pretty fast.
 

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In my experience it can come from thermal shocking the rotor. Hard driving/braking followed by puddle diving. I've also seen it from hard hits like rocks. After reading the first post on this thread I was going to suggest checking the front brakes. Stuck caliper or worn/loose guide pins can cause it to bind on the rotor and cause that chatter. The chatter can then cause it to break the rotor.
if its not the OE rotor id not be surprised if its just a low build quality rotor and maybe an issue or 2 you mentioned. Overall maybe wouldnt have done anything but the quality meant buh bye

But if its OE, then im less inclined on that but its still wack
 

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Didn't those years of pickups, Blazers and Suburban have composite rotors?? Looks like the 2 pieces gave it up!!!!
 

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This truck had been sitting for 20 years before my son and I bought it. One of the first things we did (once we cleaned out 20 years of neglect!!!) was rebuild the brakes. New pads, new shoes, calipers, wheel cylinders and hardware, etc. I bead blasted the rotors and drums to clean off the rust, once cleaned up the miked within a couple thousands of a inch of new. So we decided to reinstall them. Once we test drove it, they truck stopped great with no brake pulse. I figured success!! The suspension was nice and tight, other than missing bushings on the lower shock mount and a broken sway bar link (all replaced now) everything looked good.

I had assumed this problem was somehow related to a half shaft or something with the 4WD. He said he felt a bang (he said at first he thought someone rear ended the truck) and a growling sensation. First thing I did was a quick inspection of the steering, since I noticed the truck suddenly developed a pull to the left when braking. I thought maybe something happened with the idler arm, control arm bushing, etc. when I didn’t see anything obvious is when I posted my first thread. We then raised the front of the truck so the wheels were free to turn. I heard something clanking, once again I assumed halfshaft problems. When I saw the rotor flopping around is hen I realized what happened.
 

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This truck had been sitting for 20 years before my son and I bought it. One of the first things we did (once we cleaned out 20 years of neglect!!!) was rebuild the brakes. New pads, new shoes, calipers, wheel cylinders and hardware, etc. I bead blasted the rotors and drums to clean off the rust, once cleaned up the miked within a couple thousands of a inch of new. So we decided to reinstall them. Once we test drove it, they truck stopped great with no brake pulse. I figured success!! The suspension was nice and tight, other than missing bushings on the lower shock mount and a broken sway bar link (all replaced now) everything looked good.

I had assumed this problem was somehow related to a half shaft or something with the 4WD. He said he felt a bang (he said at first he thought someone rear ended the truck) and a growling sensation. First thing I did was a quick inspection of the steering, since I noticed the truck suddenly developed a pull to the left when braking. I thought maybe something happened with the idler arm, control arm bushing, etc. when I didn’t see anything obvious is when I posted my first thread. We then raised the front of the truck so the wheels were free to turn. I heard something clanking, once again I assumed halfshaft problems. When I saw the rotor flopping around is hen I realized what happened.
was the caliper bracketed tightly still? or any issue with pedal return?
 

Matt69olds

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Nope. The brakes felt normal other than the pull to the left. I’m positive that was because the right rotor wasn’t connected to anything. I’m guessing the rumble strip sensation was because the rotor was flopping around. I’m a little curious why it would start and stop at around 30-35mph so predictably.

I guess the important thing is it’s fixed.
 

AuroraGirl

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Nope. The brakes felt normal other than the pull to the left. I’m positive that was because the right rotor wasn’t connected to anything. I’m guessing the rumble strip sensation was because the rotor was flopping around. I’m a little curious why it would start and stop at around 30-35mph so predictably.

I guess the important thing is it’s fixed.
Well if it still rotated with the wheel/hub very much close to 1:1 that could have been the special number for its point of resonance with your other components
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If you want to do some learning (you are kinda like me, so I offer it as a cool little insight as to maybe why you experienced that)
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The first 5 minutes will show you a lot helpful easy to digest info that may explain it and other related things. the vehicle in the video talked about is a buick century 1992-94
 

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