Wouldn't dirt and mud being dried on the wheel make it shake as bad as it does when hitting my brakes all the time as well as alignment?

 

Dirt tends to coat the inner side of the wheel evenly.

If it did dry unvenly (i.e. went mudding parked it for a few hours while you had a cold one and the mud dried at the bottom of the rim), it should vibrate itself off, but it would feel like the worst unbalanced tire in history

 

Wouldn't dirt/mud and alignment cause it to shake badly all the time and not just on brakes? Granted it shakes when I dive but it is very minimal. Almost unnoticeable. When I brake it shakes pretty bad.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to post that last one. The tires feel balanced. The very slight vibration might be one tire that might be slightly unbalanced. I'm taking it to the shop on Saturday and having them look at it because I'm out of ideas. I'll keep you guys posted on what they say/fix. Thanks for all of the opinions.

 

Please keep us posted on this. I have a 2012 Fx4. My wife and I just drove up from DC to NJ and I started to notice the same vibration while applying the brakes. I mostly feel it when the truck is slowing down through about 50mph - 40mph range and then it goes away.

There is also a very, very minor shake while at cruising speed (75-80 mph).

I've never used the truck off road. Never hit any curbs or major pot holes. The truck has just over 12,000 miles (I've barely driven it since I bought it 2 years ago). Tire pressure was checked and is good on all four tires.

The truck sits for long periods and I get the oxidation on the rotors. I had to have the rotors shaved once by the dealer cause the oxidation was causing some issues last year. Which were very minor shaking when applying the brakes.

But this time around it shouldn't be the case. I drove the truck 240 + miles to DC from New Jersey on Thursday and now three days later we drove another 240+ miles back home.

I'm curious to see how your truck reacts to balancing the tires.

 

Just because the rotor are new does not mean they are completly true. I had had 2 sets of "new rotors" shake after install and stop shaking after getting turned, have a fine cut put on them and you should be fine. A good brake shop always puts a fine cut on new rotors.

 

Run the palm of the hand around the tread. Does it feel uneven/cupped ? U probably have worn tie rods/ball joints. Or bearing preload wrong but this tears things up nicely. If U find nothing wrong, tire treads squirm an bad things happen to some.

 

Ok guys, I had the shop check it out and turns out that both hoses on the front going from the calipers to the master cylinder were vapor locked and caused my new calipers to get extremely hot and not work properly. This in turn warped my new rotors. Got a replacement set of rotors free of charge because they were in warranty. The hoses were expensive though. ($100 each) they power bled the system after they replaced the hoses and I'm good to go. No more shaking. The tires were fine, had them check ball joints and everything in the front and all was good.

 

Thanks for the update.
Anyone know how this vapor lock occurs ? And how to prevent it in the future.

How come they charged you for the new hoses if the work was guaranteed ?

 

Vapor lock happens when brake fluid absorbs too much moisture. As I'm sure you know, the brakes get really hot. That will turn the moisture(water) into vapor (steam). The steam pushes pushes against the brake fluid. Since brake fluid can not be compressed, it will push against the caliper and the master cylinder. Most of the time the only noticeable symptom is the pedal feels spongy, or goes to the floor because the vapor and any non-vaporized moisture can be compressed. Sometimes though it partially engages the calipers creating even more heat, and vapor. The heat will warp rotors and glaze the pads. This is one reason why it's important to bleed the brakes. Brake fluid goes bad (absorbs moisture) over time, not mileage.