Warped Rotors Help!!!!111
05-25-2007, 05:25 PM
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Warped Rotors Help!!!!111 I just put new rotors and pads on my car because the rotors were warped, the ones that were on there were not on for long, they seem to be warping really fast, i dont ride my brakes and i have never had a car that was this bad, anyone else have this problem??? Any Suggestions?
Thanks For Any Help
Thanks For Any Help
05-25-2007, 10:40 PM
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How do the pads look?
Uneven or premature/excessive pad wear?
Are any of the caliper sliding pins frozen?
Are any of the caliper pistons frozen or damaged?
A frozen sliding pin can cause uneven or excessive pad wear and warp rotors.
Uneven or premature/excessive pad wear?
Are any of the caliper sliding pins frozen?
Are any of the caliper pistons frozen or damaged?
A frozen sliding pin can cause uneven or excessive pad wear and warp rotors.
05-26-2007, 04:10 PM
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Originally Posted by cookba
did you properly break in the rotors and pads??????
Torqued lugs to appropriate specs as well.
Thanks again guys!
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05-27-2007, 09:06 PM
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YOU DEFINITELY NEED TO BREAK IN THE ROTORS AND BRAKE PADS. with new rotors:
get up to 55-75mph and use 40% of brakes to slow down to 20mph. do this 10 times
do the same stops but use 60% of the brakes 10 times. now drive for 10 minutes to cool rotors down. now use 85-90% (almost to the point ABS kicks in) of the brakes 10 times slowing the car down to 20mph. now drive around for 20 minutes. let the car sit over night. thats how ya break in rotors. i remember back with the Mercedes and BMW, they use to say take the car out on the highway go to 100mph and slam the brakes a couple times. HAHAHAHAHA hint "use to"
get up to 55-75mph and use 40% of brakes to slow down to 20mph. do this 10 times
do the same stops but use 60% of the brakes 10 times. now drive for 10 minutes to cool rotors down. now use 85-90% (almost to the point ABS kicks in) of the brakes 10 times slowing the car down to 20mph. now drive around for 20 minutes. let the car sit over night. thats how ya break in rotors. i remember back with the Mercedes and BMW, they use to say take the car out on the highway go to 100mph and slam the brakes a couple times. HAHAHAHAHA hint "use to"
05-27-2007, 11:46 PM
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Originally Posted by cookba
YOU DEFINITELY NEED TO BREAK IN THE ROTORS AND BRAKE PADS. with new rotors:
get up to 55-75mph and use 40% of brakes to slow down to 20mph. do this 10 times
do the same stops but use 60% of the brakes 10 times. now drive for 10 minutes to cool rotors down. now use 85-90% (almost to the point ABS kicks in) of the brakes 10 times slowing the car down to 20mph. now drive around for 20 minutes. let the car sit over night. thats how ya break in rotors. i remember back with the Mercedes and BMW, they use to say take the car out on the highway go to 100mph and slam the brakes a couple times. HAHAHAHAHA hint "use to"
get up to 55-75mph and use 40% of brakes to slow down to 20mph. do this 10 times
do the same stops but use 60% of the brakes 10 times. now drive for 10 minutes to cool rotors down. now use 85-90% (almost to the point ABS kicks in) of the brakes 10 times slowing the car down to 20mph. now drive around for 20 minutes. let the car sit over night. thats how ya break in rotors. i remember back with the Mercedes and BMW, they use to say take the car out on the highway go to 100mph and slam the brakes a couple times. HAHAHAHAHA hint "use to"
the advice you are giving will glaze the pads and rotors almost immediately
and will cause them to warp right away, and with these newly glazed pads and rotors you can enjoy once again the pulsating pedal, crappy pad life, and noise
05-28-2007, 12:02 AM
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Originally Posted by cookba
^ well thats funny cause those are the directions given by Baer. i'll go with them
BUT, we are talking about factory brakes here and i guarantee you that if you try that with those brakes you will end up with glazed pads and rotors that are warped
**** factory brakes on these cars seem to warp if you look at them wrong
05-28-2007, 12:10 AM
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well i mean, he just put them on and started driving and then there warped. if you heat them up and cool them down then that should protect them from warping. thats why i recommended the Baer break in procedures. everyone can do what they want.
05-28-2007, 10:44 AM
#13
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Other manufacturers have similar break-in procedures.
(some less severe than others)
Did the pads come with any instructions?
If not, check out the manufacturer's website.
(some less severe than others)
Did the pads come with any instructions?
If not, check out the manufacturer's website.
05-30-2007, 12:40 PM
#15
i'm currently doing the brakes on my 02, here's what i know (brain fart, no particular order)
caliper guide pins or slide pins, whatever you want to call them, need to be lubed so the caliper slides open and closed freely. Otherwise they can keep the pad against the rotor, transfer pad material to the rotor and cause problems and/or overheat causing warpage. My 2002 has 30k miles on it, garaged during the winter, and one pin on each front caliper was bone dry. So i wouldn't overlook lubing these pins. and it's special brake grease, either silicone based or PAO-oil based so it doesn't degrade the rubber seals on the caliper. Permatex and CRC has good "caliper grease", it's available at part stores for $10 or less in a jar, if you want the best. Otherwise spend a $1 or $2 on the individual packets at the counter.
what pads are you using? Some pads are very aggressive and eat/warp rotors as a result, so its important to know what pads you're using.
The lugnuts holding your rim to the wheel hub, is also what holds the rotor on. It's called a "hat design". If you tighten 1 lug different than the others, you can cause enough runout and that can cause the rotor to warp. So it's very important not so much to get all lugnuts tightened to a specific torque, but that all lugnuts have as close to the same torque amount as possible. It's supposed to be 100 lb-ft. Don't use an air ratchet with the rubber torque gauge thingies, use a reliable 1/2" torque wrench and do it by hand. I've had town fair tire repair a flat on my 99 ss years ago, watched them do it and use an air ratchet, along with rotate my tires, and had both front rotors warp enough in a few thousand miles. Spend $100 on a 1/2" craftsman tq wrench and learn to do it yourself if you can't find a decent shop that will tighten the lugs by hand.
some times the pulsation is misdiagnosed as rotor warpage when it's uneven pad material transfer to the rotor, then the pad slides/grabs at various spots causing a pulsation. Doubt that this is your problem, not with new rotors unless you heated them good then stopped and a hot pad stayed in contact with one spot on the rotor for too long. This is one way to f up your new brakes doing the 100mph slam on your brakes breakin procedure. When you do that, you heat everything then if you don't cool them long enough by keeping everything spinning, like get stuck in traffic or at a stoplight, you can have problems. Just drive easy and the pads will naturally break in over a few hundred miles under normal heating. You don't *need* to do a break in procedure unless you want to autocross the next day and you *need" maximum braking ability asap after a pad install... to win a race. This brake break-in procedure garbage is taken out of context way too much!
Other than tightening lugs evenly, the other big thing you either need to do or should do is check rotor runout when rotor is tightened on the hub, without the wheel. If you're certain you had a problem with rotor warpage before, and not uneven pad transfer and you know the lugs were tightened evenly, then you need to check for runout! You need a dial indicator and magnetic base. Sometimes you can have rust on the hub or on the rotor and they don't mate flat and cause runout. Or you may have a hub or wheel bearing going bad. Max allowable runout is typically 0.003". More than that and you'll most likely have a problem. 0.005" or more and you definitely have a problem and will feel pulsation. simple as that, things need to mate flat and rotate even.
Only other thing I can think of is you got bad rotors to start. I've had that happen with brand new rotors from jcwhitney for my f150 years ago, advertised as direct bolt on ready to run. That was pure B.S. and got JCW to pay me back for having the rotors turned. They were made in china rotors. And sometimes, for either some vehicles or some rotors, can require shims to compensate for some runout. Where the runout comes from I don't know, but my friend got rotors from summit for his eclipse and has that problem, summit specifically states shims may be required and user needs to check for runout. That of course is for a different vehicle, but it may or may not apply to you. You can search summitracing and look at rotors for this info. If you bolted brand new rotors on and you have pulsation the 1st time using the brakes, you have runout being caused by something and need to figure out where and why.
caliper guide pins or slide pins, whatever you want to call them, need to be lubed so the caliper slides open and closed freely. Otherwise they can keep the pad against the rotor, transfer pad material to the rotor and cause problems and/or overheat causing warpage. My 2002 has 30k miles on it, garaged during the winter, and one pin on each front caliper was bone dry. So i wouldn't overlook lubing these pins. and it's special brake grease, either silicone based or PAO-oil based so it doesn't degrade the rubber seals on the caliper. Permatex and CRC has good "caliper grease", it's available at part stores for $10 or less in a jar, if you want the best. Otherwise spend a $1 or $2 on the individual packets at the counter.
what pads are you using? Some pads are very aggressive and eat/warp rotors as a result, so its important to know what pads you're using.
The lugnuts holding your rim to the wheel hub, is also what holds the rotor on. It's called a "hat design". If you tighten 1 lug different than the others, you can cause enough runout and that can cause the rotor to warp. So it's very important not so much to get all lugnuts tightened to a specific torque, but that all lugnuts have as close to the same torque amount as possible. It's supposed to be 100 lb-ft. Don't use an air ratchet with the rubber torque gauge thingies, use a reliable 1/2" torque wrench and do it by hand. I've had town fair tire repair a flat on my 99 ss years ago, watched them do it and use an air ratchet, along with rotate my tires, and had both front rotors warp enough in a few thousand miles. Spend $100 on a 1/2" craftsman tq wrench and learn to do it yourself if you can't find a decent shop that will tighten the lugs by hand.
some times the pulsation is misdiagnosed as rotor warpage when it's uneven pad material transfer to the rotor, then the pad slides/grabs at various spots causing a pulsation. Doubt that this is your problem, not with new rotors unless you heated them good then stopped and a hot pad stayed in contact with one spot on the rotor for too long. This is one way to f up your new brakes doing the 100mph slam on your brakes breakin procedure. When you do that, you heat everything then if you don't cool them long enough by keeping everything spinning, like get stuck in traffic or at a stoplight, you can have problems. Just drive easy and the pads will naturally break in over a few hundred miles under normal heating. You don't *need* to do a break in procedure unless you want to autocross the next day and you *need" maximum braking ability asap after a pad install... to win a race. This brake break-in procedure garbage is taken out of context way too much!
Other than tightening lugs evenly, the other big thing you either need to do or should do is check rotor runout when rotor is tightened on the hub, without the wheel. If you're certain you had a problem with rotor warpage before, and not uneven pad transfer and you know the lugs were tightened evenly, then you need to check for runout! You need a dial indicator and magnetic base. Sometimes you can have rust on the hub or on the rotor and they don't mate flat and cause runout. Or you may have a hub or wheel bearing going bad. Max allowable runout is typically 0.003". More than that and you'll most likely have a problem. 0.005" or more and you definitely have a problem and will feel pulsation. simple as that, things need to mate flat and rotate even.
Only other thing I can think of is you got bad rotors to start. I've had that happen with brand new rotors from jcwhitney for my f150 years ago, advertised as direct bolt on ready to run. That was pure B.S. and got JCW to pay me back for having the rotors turned. They were made in china rotors. And sometimes, for either some vehicles or some rotors, can require shims to compensate for some runout. Where the runout comes from I don't know, but my friend got rotors from summit for his eclipse and has that problem, summit specifically states shims may be required and user needs to check for runout. That of course is for a different vehicle, but it may or may not apply to you. You can search summitracing and look at rotors for this info. If you bolted brand new rotors on and you have pulsation the 1st time using the brakes, you have runout being caused by something and need to figure out where and why.
06-08-2007, 01:24 AM
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Awesome man, thanks for all the info!!! i finally pulled the wheels off and took the rotors and had them turned now everything seems good so i dunno wtf
