After taking out of storage about a month ago I noticed a pulsation coming from the steering wheel. I brought to the dealer and they said they could not tell if the feeling was coming from the seat or wheel. They recommended replacing the front rotors first, then rear if necessary.

Using a toolmakers indicator I find the front rotors are off .003 in (yup, literally a hair) I have not measured the rears yet. While on the lift I checked the wheel bearings and they feel great, the pads look brand new and the rotors have no lip or obvious imperfections. So I believe my dealer is looking for extra revenue in this poor economy. However, my problem continues and appears to worsen the warmer the brakes get. I take my hands off the wheel while applying the brakes and see the wheel pulsing back and forth.

I have researched as much as I can with no luck. Any solutions or suggestions?

06' 997s 11,500 miles. pads & rotors never changed. I purchased the car with 8500 miles and the dealers mentioned he had to adjust the brakes because they were pulsating prior to me purchasing.

Thanks.

 

If your car was in storage, was it on jackstands? If not, and it was just on it's tires, you could have a flat spot in the tires- that happens when cars aren't driven. If so, you may need new rubber- have you eliminated that possibility?
CATTMAN

 

It was not on jack stands however the rubber was new last year and I believe I would feel flat spots even if the brakes were not applied.

Thanks

 

No deposits on the rotors?

 

Since the pulsating only occurs when you brake I would think it's either rotors/pads or quite possibly (not too common) front wheel bearings (being loaded when braking). If it's a bearing problem it might be worse when you turn & brake simultaneously.

Are the road surfaces smooth when you feel the steering wheel vibration?

Take it to another Porsche dealer or independent for a '2nd' opinion.

 

It sounds like the rotors could be the problem. Switching them out is a simple DIY project, it will lessen the cost to repair.

Another idea would be to machine the rotors a little, but I would not recommend this as the brake rotors are more likely to warp during heavy braking/cooling.

 

I guess I should check the rears before I get to aggressive replacing the front rotors. I am not sure what the tolerance is for the front rotors, but I would not believe .003" is unacceptable.

I will keep you up to date on my results. Thanks to everyone for their input and good points.

Thanks

 

I'm with Cattman. Unless there is some missing info here, rotors don't warp while stored, unless (and I'm reaching here), you pulled in with them extremely hot and just walked away.
The Occam's razor answer is the tires. Did you add air when you stored it (acknowledging that 1 month is not really 'storing')? How long have you driven it since you noticed the problem?
And I'm not expert on this one, but .003 seems really really small.

 

Verde, the car was stored for 6 month.. I took out of storage 1 month ago.

I to agree, I must have not been as observant the end of last year as this year and storage is probably not a factor in the diagnosis.

I stored the car on dollies with Styrofoam to distribute the weight in half evenly on each dolly. See pictures.

I removed the back wheel today and found the tolerance of the rotor to be at 0 . Absolutely no movement on the indicator. This would lead that the fronts also have to be at 0, and be replaced. I still wish I could get the play allowance number from someone. I understand that we all have amazing German machined cars here, but no tollerence, at all, I find hard to believe. But, I will keep looking.

I will be replacing the front rotors when they arrive and after getting all the torque numbers from each bolt I will be removing.

Thanks everyone.

 

Hondoo - I'd be looking at those tyres (sorry, tires) as well regardless of anything else you do. All you should need to do is take one them off and roll each one along a flat surface.

 

Thanks for the additional info but I'd still suspect the tires (tyres!). Is it possible for your dealer to swap a set (wheels and tires) from another car for a test ride before you spring for rotors? There's a good chance you will be flushing some money unnecessarily. Sorry for the counterpoint, but just trying to help.

 

I think I would go back to the dealer and ask the tech what "pulsating brakes" means exactly. Not sure I am aware of what that "technical" term might mean and rather than guessing what it might mean I'd ask the tech what he meant by it and exactly what he believes to be the cause. Then you can post the results and find out out if it was a crock or not. I would also love to hear exactly what was done to adjust the breaks as modern brakes don't require adjusting as they self adjust every time you back up the car and hit the brakes.

 

This is a relatively new car, low mileage and most likely still under original warranty. There should be no brake problems that are not completely covered, unless there is heavy brake pad wear from hard use.

The "brake adjustments", supposedly performed before you bought the car, are suspicious. There is nothing to adjust. The car should go back to the selling dealer and he should get it right. Take care of this before the warranty expires. If the problem is defective tires, you are probably on your own, but the suggestion about the dealer checking the car with a different set of wheels makes sense.

 

I found the quintessential element missing for the solution, the allowance. I found this on another website - keep in mind this is for the 996 but I believe the allowance would be the same. (see attached)

In addition, the following article sounds like what is happening to my car. Also good reading for anyone in the future searching 6speed for a problem like this. (Click here)

I will not be 100% sure until I replace the rotors, however I am confident that this is the problem and reading that .003" is unbelievably bad I am convinced enough to move forward with the replacement.

Thanks, I will keep ever one posted with the results.

 

I agree 100%. Before I even considered doing ANY of it myself, I'd absolutely give that dealer an opportunity to evaluate and if appropriate, correct this situation.