In Chattanooga yesterday and I noticed both times I was going down a particular hill - long, 2-lane, winding the following:

About 1/3 way down the brakes developed a SEVERE, INTENSE, SHUDDER.
The whole car shook. I had to use them sparingly and gear down the car for fear of brake failure.

This is NOT NOT NOT rotor warpage. I'm aware of what that is.

I do NOT NOT NOT ride the brakes on a downhill decline. I'm aware of what that is and does.

It's obvious that the brakes heated up (as they will do going down a long hill), but there is ABSOLUTELY NO ACCEPTABLE reason this degree of shudder should have happened with the car.

I will have to learn how to duplicate this on our regular flatter roads before I can take the car in.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

jerij

 

no..
there are some minor up , down hills when I drive to work and back home..
But, I already upgrade mine to all wheel disc with larger rotors.

 

Most of my driving is falt, but when we went on a road trip to Laughlin we had to drive up and down some hills and had no problems

 

Under search, I turned up "shutter" (our schools are obviously a mess...).

There was one mention of someone having the problem but the next day it went away. The problem DOES go away once the rotors have cooled.

Ya'll get out on those hills and ride those suckers! Let's get some "shutter" out of your HHR!

jerij

 

I've done several high-speed runs (100+), with deliberate panic stops after to check handling. I have never experienced anything similar to what you have described. My suggestion is to take it in to the dealr and have it checked out. Your rotors could have possibly overheated, which can add "hot spots' to them which cause problems. In that case you should have both rotors replaced.

Overtightening the front wheels with an impact can also cause problems with front rotors, so if you've had anything done front-end wise (tire rotation, balancing), a mechanic could be suspect.

Hope it helps,

 

Hills??
Sorry, the closest things to hills here are flyovers and bridges. And none of them here are long enough to do this test.

 

Found this on HHRORG.

http://www.hhrclub.org/gforum.cgi?po...=unread#unread

They were in the Blue Ridge mountains and experienced the exact same thing.

jerij

 

OK, forget the hills. Just drive carefully with your foot lightly on the brake pedal. That should heat them up!

jerij

 

Anytime you see TWO identical posts about a problem, you might want to take it into the dealer to have it checked out...vehicles are built on an assembly line and there's a high probability human error might be coming into play.

As an aside (from the manual);

Avoid needless heavy braking. Some people drive in spurts — heavy acceleration followed by heavy braking — rather than keeping pace with traffic. This is a mistake. Your brakes may not have time to cool between hard stops. Your brakes will wear out much
faster if you do a lot of heavy braking.

Know how to go down hills. The most important thing to know is this: let your engine do some of the slowing down. Shift to a lower gear when you go down a steep or long hill.

AUTO TRANS - INTERMEDIATE (I): This position is also used for normal driving. However, it offers braking from the engine for slight downgrades where the vehicle would otherwise accelerate due to steepness of grade.

Also, if you have a manual trans, engine braking can help prevent your HHR from gaining excessive speed on steep grades. Anytime you can use the engine to help slow the vehicle it will reduce strain and wear put on the braking system.

I DO AGREE - this should NOT be taking place on your HHR. Your safest course of action is to take the car in to your dealer immediately to have the problem analyzed. If they can't find the problem or reproduce the symptoms - try another dealer.

Hope it helps,

 

Jerig-does your car have ABS?

Near my houme, there is a slight down hill section with a traffic light at the end. If I am going about 40 and the light changes, I get a shudder as the car stops. I believe it to be the antilock brakes coming on.