Brakes & lug nuts

[reb0957]

I have a 2011 1500. The last time I brought my truck in to have the tires rotated the service guy tried to sell me a brake job. Approximately 7.5k miles ago. I had started to notice a shimmy whenever lightly applying the brakes. So, I decided to change front pads and rotors. Vehicle has 71k miles. This did not fix the shimmy. Since it was due to have the tires rotated again, I got them to balance the tires also. Maybe this was the shimmy ( read as nothing violent but just not right). SO, when they rotate the tires they say the back looks bad now.
After rebalancing the tires, the problem still remained. #1. I did not feel a vibration in the steering. #2 I did not feel it in the pedal. Today I changed the rear pads and rotors and it seemed to cure the issue ( I probably just jinxed it)

After changing the rear pads it magnified another issue. I have always felt this truck had mushy brakes. Not really bad just the pedal goes almost to the floor. If I pump them they get firm but slowly release all the way down. I always contributed this to the ABS. Since all of my trucks in the past 10 to 11 years have been 2500's I just felt it was a stronger, safer ABS system. After changing the rear today it has become a lot less firm. My next step I guess is to bleed the brakes good. Anyone have any other thought on this?

Lug Nuts!!!! I have never seen such crappy lug nuts on a vehicle. Basically, they are thin piece of sheet metal molded over a nut. Since most tire places do not employ the most intelligent people, they are constantly getting destroyed. Can anyone give me the threads and acorn angle ( i think this is the right term) for the lug nuts that fit the the stock aluminum 17's. If you have a good source for solid lug nuts that would be nice too...

Thanks in Advance!

 

[msorbara10]

From what it sounds like I think bleeding the breaks is what you need to do.

On my mother suburban the breaks were terrible and the pedal felt mushy like you said. I was going to bleed the break for her but my father went and took it to the dealer anyway and got screwed $800 for the breaks. I drove it and they were still terrible and unsafe.
I bled the lines and now they are working like they are supposed to. So pissed at the dealer.

I would try bleeding the lines and then take it from there..

Cant help you on the lugs nuts though

 

[jlb]

After you bleed them, go out on a gravel road, and light up the ABS a few times. Sometimes you can get little bubbles forming in the valves that don't come out with a normal bleed job. Then check them again!