When my brakes are applied lightly at high speeds (110+) or firmly at lower speeds (still 60+), the brakes seem to wobble and shudder a little bit. Almost sounds as if I am driving over several cracks or bumps in the road ("buh duh duh duh duh"). Time for new pads? Or is something else a little more serious to blame here?

cd

 

My brakes have been doing the exact same thing. When the car is cool..no shudder..but no sooner than the brakes get hot..they shudder the rest of the day.

 

that's not good..i don't have this problem on my S but on my old talon i did..i just brought it to a midas and they 're-surfaced' my rotors and pads and the car was fine after that..supposedly my pads were wearing unevenly or something..but don't bring your S to a midas tho..bring it somewhere else!..don't want them messing up your ride..

 

That's the classic symptom of warped rotors. The two most likely causes are (1) overheating the brakes, and (2) overtorqueing the lug bolts. I'd suggest retorqueing the bolts immediately, and maybe you'll get lucky. Otherwise, it's either resurfacing or new rotors.

 

Just get new rotors if they are whats warped. Costs are not huge for them.

 

Agreed, it's probably warped rotors and a resurface will help the problem short term.

On the other hand, new rotors are pretty cheap and turning a warped rotor is typically a very short term fix, especially if you're hard on the brakes.

 

I guess it's time for a set of brembos, huh.

cd

 

Improper torque + high temp causes the rotors to warp everytime. Get a torque wrench! Don't let the guy at the gas station get near your car with that impact wrench! The only rotors that won't have this problem is full floaters. All ya have to do is find someone that makes them for the S2000...Brembo maybe?

 

Agressive aftermarket pads and very hard braking will also contribute to warped rotors. I always mount my own wheels and torque them myself, yet I've suffered from warped rotors.

My next step will be getting some OEM rotors cryoed' and probably try some brake ducting.

 

It seems that Porsche and BMW do not use studs in their hubs because the process of embedding the studs into the hub/rotor can cause the rotor to warp or at least set it up for a higher likelihood of warping.