Disclaimer 1
Before I begin explaining my issue, I want you to know that I am definitely planning on taking my car to the mechanic. I just want to know what I am getting myself into so I don't get ripped off.
Discalimer 2
I am a car noob and not a mechanic by any chance. I am a pretty handy person, but definitely not a guy who can just look at a video and be able to figure it out easily.
The car:
I drive a 2007 Toyota Camry Sports Edition. I purchased it used in 2015 April. It had 72,000 miles when I bought it and now it has 137,000.
Car's history:
- I had a minor wreck back in 2015 when I rear-ended a car in front of me. My front bumper got pushed in to the car a little bit. To the point that, when I finally had the money to change my tires, the guy said he had to push the bumper out a bit because the new tire is thicker than my old worn out one (that was how bad my old tire was!)
- When I took it to the insurance inspector, he said that (and I am definitely not using the right terms here) "a metal beam thingie that is in the front of the car is bent and needs to be straightened out". I could swear he said "front axle" but my uncle, who is really good at fixing cars (just the old ones), doesn't know what that even means. So maybe I am wrong about it.
- In late 2016, I drove over a median. The median was one of those short medians, about .5 to 1 foot high. That scraped the bottom of my car.
- There was a period then where I couldn't afford to get the brake pads changed in time, so I drove around with a pretty much metal brake. That caused the entire caliper assembly to fall out and get stuck in the tire. I had scraped the all-metal on my rotor that it made a deep hole in the rotor! I had the rotors on the front two tires and all 4 brake pads changed then.
- Continuation on Point 4, the rotor and caliper rubbing each other caused a bunch of metal to get scraped off of either parts and get deposited on my rims. So my rims are practically rusty brown in color now.
Problem:
When I brake, my Camry vibrates a LOT! Like, it doesn't just feel like a normal vibrate. It feels like my front half of the car body is just going to get unscrewed and fly away somewhere. If you have a drink in the car, it will empty the cup for you. It is HORRIBLY bad. This happens more so when I brake from going at around 50 or over. If I am driving 30-35 and brake to 0-5, it doesn't vibrate. But if I come from 50 to even 49, as in, if I brake at all when I am at 50 or over, it does this.
Things I've tried:
- I read that the rotors get hot and get warped and that will cause the car to vibrate like this. So I bought 2 new rotors and 4 new brake pads, took it over to my uncle's house, and had him teach me how to change the rotors. I changed 1 rotor and 3 brake pads myself. This was no longer than 4-5 months ago. It drove fine for a month, and then it went back to the "a jet taking off" vibration.
- I thought maybe since I got my 4 tires changed in all different times, my front two tires are better at coming to a halt/slowing down than my back 2 are (I know it sounds crazy, but I am not that smart with cars). So I had all 4 of my tires changed in a one month window.
- Checked the brake fluid, which scares me a lot. Because, it has been about 2 years since I ever added any brake fluid in this vehicle. But the brake fluid levels were at close to maximum.
- Checked under the car to see if something is sticking outside/sticking inside/sticking into the tire area of the car. There is a small plastic piece hanging down, but I doubt that piece has the power to shake my car like this.
Questions:
- Is it normal for the brake fluid to not get used at all over a period of 2 years?
- The rotors I originally got were the cheapest rotors I could get. Is that a bad choice?
- Can anyone think of anything that is possibly wrong with this? I am hoping to see any possible issue with my car so I go in with an expectation of what is wrong.
- If the forums are right about rotors overheating, are there any suggestions for the kind of rotors I can get to reduce the amount of heat the rotor retains? Any rotor brand/style that would actually resolve this issue for me.
Thank you and sorry for the really long post. Just wanted to be complete.
Edit 1
Based on comments, removed some of the unimportant questions so as to be in agreement with the site's standards.