shaking while driving after changing brake pads
 

hello there! i recently changed the front brake pads only and now the car shakes while driving. the shaking appears to be originating from the front wheels. i'm thinking i may not have tightened the lugnuts enough or somehow the tires weren't put on correctly? i checked all the lugs before driving and they were all tightened pretty tight. it was a little difficult tightening them though because there was nothing stopping the wheel from spinning. i had to tighten them as tight as i could while the car was jacked up (about 50% tightened i would guess), then i tightened them real good like after i lowered the car.

is there anyway to apply the brakes while putting the tires back on so they dont spin, without having someone sit in the driver's seat and press on the brake?

Hand tightening the lugs with the wheels in the air, and then fully torqueing the lugs when the wheel is on the ground is normal practice. For the rear wheels you can use the E-brake, but that doesn't work for the fronts.

I seems that either you don't have the lugs to 100 ft-lbs, or you need to bed in your brakes.

My guess is that you need to bed in the brakes.

upon inspecting the lugnuts, they felt only hand-tightened, and one of them is even missing. i dont know how i didn't remember to tighten them again after i lowered the car. on top of that, i somehow managed to lose the lugnut key and I can't find it anywhere. today is not my day. :[

Well.....look at the bright side.....you at least have found the root cause of your problem (more than likely).

You still need to bed in your new brake pads though, if you haven't already done so.

Your lug nut key was probably left on the wheel when you left and if you're lucky you will be able to find it within one block (I've been that lucky :lol2: