When the brakes of a vehicle are applied, large amounts of heat are generated on the surfaces of the brake discs owing to friction between the discs and the brake pads. A high temperature gradient on the disc surfaces leads to thermal deformation and severe disc abrasion. Ultimately, the thermal deformation and disc wear give rise to a thermal judder phenomenon, which has a major effect on the stability of the vehicle. To investigate and propose a solution to these problems, thermoelastic instabilities under applied thermal and mechanical loads were analyzed using the commercial finite element package ANSYS by considering the contact surfaces between the discs and pads. Direct-contact three-dimensional finite elements between the discs and pads were applied to investigate the disc friction temperature, thermal deformation, and contact stress so that the thermal judder phenomenon on the surface of the disc could be predicted.