Why do my new Brake Motive d/s rotors screech and squeal?
 

Hey guys. Anyone else experience this with these rotors? They don't make a sound during 99% of the stop, but JUST before the car comes to a complete standstill they screech and squeal something terrible. I can assure you that they WERE properly bedded to my Hawk (blue package) pads, which I reused and didn't make a single sound on my OEM rotors. Is it the zinc plating or something? Any solutions besides replacing the pads (I know reviews are mixed on hawk pads, but they've served their purpose just fine up until now)...

Re-used pads? Can't say I'm a fan of that personally, fwiw. Did you at least block sand the pads to freshen the wear surface before bedding them in?

I'd say it's probably the pads. My combo doesn't squeak at all. I'm running the powerstop ceramics that came with the rotors.

Most of the time pad squealing is actually the tabs on the pad vibrating against the caliper. Did you put caliper grease on them when you swapped them out ?

Well, I decided to reuse my pads because I thought $200 (or whatever it was I paid) pads would be a better choice than the pads that I could have got from BrakeMotive for $15. Although they were used, they still had LOTS of material left on 'em. But, I did not resurface them which, in hindsight, I should have done. So after bedding them, they probably still had the highs and lows worn into the friction material from the old rotors. My new rotors looked all streaked and crappy after the bedding, but they all look nice and uniform now, so the highs and lows must be worn down to flat now. Maybe I'll try re-bedding...?

No but I can tell you from experience those rotors will be wrapped in a few months.

I would never replace rotors without pads for this reason alone.

But try and take em down a bit and grease them as well

For every one of you (that had a bad experience), there seems to be many, many more who've had good experiences with these rotors. That's why I decided to give 'em a go. If they warp, then I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I can be a real relentless pain in the ass when something goes wrong that shouldn't... I'm sure BrakeMotive will come good on any defects. :)

Mine warped rather quickly as well but they covered the first set of rotors. Then it happened again a few months down the road and I went with EBC

Is it really worth your time to keep replacing rotors. I said the same thing when I bought rotors. Oh they will warranty them or they hold up for most people oh well spend more money up front to not have to do it twice or 3 times is well worth it.

It depend on how you drive. I had them on my v6 camaro which really didnt get pushed to hard. But once they went into my current ones they had to work very hard.

I agree with the others, I have a set on my 04 V. Def will not be buying them again, they are already warping and screech when stopping. If you drive them hard the pads/rotors what ever get hot and they act like they are getting welded together. So if you are doing high speed stops (mine was just on the hwy) def don't buy them. They were smooth at first but now I have a shutter in the steering wheel when braking

I would buy them for my commuter civic or something like that but def not the V. I almost bought them for my denali truck which tows/hauls and I'm really glad I didn't.

How are the ebc rotors holding up?

Having parts problems seems to be a trend for you but if constantly working on your car and being a "relentless pain on the ass" is worth the few bucks you saved, who am I to judge. But everyone else should note the challenges associated with the inconsistencies that revolve around some of the cheaper aftermarket parts....it's obviously a gamble.

Curious about the ebc rotors as well. Their motorcycle stuff blows if that's any indication.

have purchased 3 sets of brakemotive brake kits, my camaro,my tahoe, and a BMW 5-series i just done over the weekend. no complains here, run the camaro pretty hard with these brakemotives and no squeek or squeeling, tahoe has a little squeek, ill just glue them up more. for the quality and price of these, i will use them for typical replacement on any vehicle. cheaper than "OEM" or advance crap for twice the price.

My brakemotives don't squeak or anything, but they did warp and I feel them vibrate a little bit when braking semi hard. But they were a killer deal for rotors and pads, so you can't really bitch about em too much.

Brake don't really "warp" its the transfer of friction material to the disk which adds to the thickness and gives the impression of warpage.

http://www.stoptech.com/technical-su...nd-other-myths

^^^That's an interesting read...

However, I've turned my share of brake rotors and I can tell you that if you take the shavings out of the brake lathe and leave them outside because your stupid, you will find that they rust...is this because the shavings are from metallic pad material?? Could be.... Did they rust because I was "digging" too dip into the rotor and machining off more material than I needed too...doubt it, i bought my own brake lathe bits and I took great care not to use them anymore than I needed to to square up the rotor face.

This is an old argument...MN V why don't you post up that little video you had of the dude beating the dead horse...that was funny.

I agree with ls1247 here. I've turned rotors and drums and they both have the same shit in the shavings. Even when I encountered a car that had an asbestos pad. I don't know if stoptech is trying to propagandize something or not. I'm sure there is some pad material on the rotor surface always, but that's what happens when two surfaces rub. I think a glazed rotor is more what they are talking about in that article... Heat transfers pad material and if it gets to hot it cakes and glazes the rotor. The two similar materials don't produce as much friction as two dissimilar materials. I still like stoptechs products though.

This is almost complete BS. While pad material can and has transferred to the rotor surface (Hopefully AAIIC will chime in with some photos) Rotors absolutely warp. I have lathed many of rotors to tell you from first hand this is true. Just watch a YouTube video of turning warped rotors.

Edit: Also, pad transfer mostly happens when the brakes are really hot, and you sit there like an idiot with your foot on the brake.