while pulling my ultra lite camper with my lr3 I noticed a vibration all of a sudden and then a strange smell that is the same smell as a burnt clutch. I have an automatic. Transmission didn't rev. It shifts just fine . I was about 20 miles into the trip and all of a sudden pulling my 4300 lbs camper the steering starts to shake and noticed the smell. Immediately I pull over look didn't see any leaks then I got back in the rover and continued to drive back home 20 miles back to park it and the camper. Any help on where to start and what it may be would be great. Brakes and rotors were changed about 20k miles ago with ceramic pads all around. Routine maintenance performed. Truck has 105k now. Please help

 

Parking brake not disengaging properly, maybe?

 

You know I had this same issue last month on the ac expressway, I was not towing

I was running like 70 and a horrible vibration came on , from right rear, I pulled over and could smell brakes And a ton of heat coming off the rotor compared to the other 3 Nothing I could do so I drove on

No vibration, got to 70 and after a minute vibration came back, pulled over again, my concern was the hub bearing , yes it shook that bad

Again I drive on and it was fine as long as I stayed under 65, has not happened again and I have been faster since

At the time it did not occur to me to try turning the park brake on and off in case it was dragging

I since have cycled it a few times

But my thought was a week before I was making the wife drive off road ( she is scared to drive off road does not want to break or wreck) and I had her turn on hill decent control which iirc uses the park brake

Could be unrelated

 

Oh sorry u said the steering was shaking, and smelled like brakes that's real odd unless u drive with one foot on the brake like an old lady

 

Pulled several times some of my trips were over 3000 miles round trip with the same camper. Just struck me as odd out of the blue vibrations and burnt smells of brakes/clutch with no transmission slippage .

 

You said brakes were done recently... did you re-lube the slider pins? Sounds like a stuck rotor to me... I've had it happen that the rotor would stick and then release awhile later. If you lubed your pins then idk.

Did you try backing off the star nut for the emergency brake to see if that helps?

 

Symptoms seem to describe exactly what happens with a stuck or out of adjustment parking brake. It rubs and when you get up to higher speeds causes severe vibration and lots of heat. You need the brake adjusted or fixed.

 

Sounds like something that happened to me.

The brake lining compound came off one of the parking brake shoes. This then jammed in the brake drum causing juddering (though mainly when at speed), over heating of the drum/rotor and burning of the brake material. The over heating was such that the plastic plug that goes into the brake adjuster access hole in the drum melted. So there was also the smell of burnt plastic.

 

What parts needed to be replaced?

I guess this failure mode is preferable to the failure mode on my other car (Volvo S60R). If the brake lining jams (which it usually does), it rips up all the parking brake hardware, springs, cable, etc., usually rendering the car immobile and means you need to replace hardware, disc, park brake shoes on that wheel.

It's a suggested preventative maintenance item for that reason.

 

In my case it simply needed new brake shoes fitted and adjusted. I suppose it all depend on what the lining material does after it breaks free, mine just caught up on its own shoe and started binding. from what I've read in other posts on the DISCO3.co.uk forum it is not an uncommon occurrence, but I've not read about an serious or other damage beyond fitting new shoes.