Originally Posted by Henn28

My plan to take a couple hours and "pop" on new front pads and rotors in the driveway ended up being a bit of a hassle. The brake work went fine and aside from noticing the rubber dust boot on the right caliper piston was working itself free, the TRW ceramic pads and Zimmerman rotors went on hassle free. I'll need to address the dust boot with a rebuild eventually.

My initial runs up to 40 or 50 mph to bed the pads and rotors seems to indicate that the vibration on braking I was feeling between 60 and 30 mph or so was gone. I haven't had the car out on the hwy though to test for sure. Frankly though I'd be surprised if the brake job fixed the vibration since I wasn't feeling it in the steering wheel. It feels like a classic worn control arm bushing, however, both arms on the front suspension are new and I just had an alignment. The tie rods also check fine, but I do need new front struts soon. Perhaps worn struts can cause vibration on braking? The indy who works on the X occasionally also thinks that the lift, 275 tires, etc. may simply be overcoming the stock bushings. I'll update this when I get the car on the highway. Regardless, it isn't very livable and my plan is to keep replacing worn parts over the next several months (struts next probably) until and if I eliminate everything but bushings. At that point maybe I'll switch to stiffer bushings in tension struts first.

At any rate, true to form, the X decided to start rubbing the back of its calipers on the inside of the 16" wheels when I first took it out to bed the pads. I had already taken about 1/32nd off the back of the calipers with a grinder, but I supsect they got hotter than normal, and perhaps the brackets and calipers shifted a nano-fingstrom during the brake change. Back out with the angle grinder. Seems to be fixed, until and unless they get really hot ever I'm sure.