I get almost a pulsing from the steering wheel

2010 MAZDA 3
24,700 MILES
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AJBENTON
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
When braking from time to time, I get almost a pulsing from the steering wheel (shakes back and forth rapidly). I'm guessing that it's warped rotors, but I don't feel much (if any) vibration through the pedal. Any other idea what it could be? I have never had the wheels rebalanced, but have rotated the tires every 7500 miles. I'm not particularly hard on my brakes. Seems odd it would have warped rotors after only 25000 miles. Are the brakes fastened to the vehicle in an abnormal way? I've done brake jobs on other cars before (Mazda Protege, Pontiac Grand Prix, Chevy Blazer). The pads on the car currently are still pretty thick. I've head of people "buffing" the brake pads. Thoughts on this? How can one buff them? Grinder? Machine shop? I can have a local machine shop turn the rotors for $10 each, so if I can buff the pads, a front brake job will only run me about $20. Any input is appreciated.
Jun 5, 2012 at 1:45 AM
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KASEKENNY
  • CAR REPAIR CONTRIBUTOR
  • 18,907 POSTS
You can grind the pads if you want to but that is not normally successful when there is already an issue. So I would recommend replacing them.

Here is a guide that will help with this:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-front-brake-pads-and-rotors-fwd

Plus below is the process from the manual that will help with getting these replaced.

Let us know if you need more info. Thanks
Mar 15, 2021 at 6:18 PM
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