RE: Brake rotors

[firefighterjake]

I need to put new rotors on my wife's Legacy. Any certain brands considered better than others. I'm pretty sure I'm going with the coated type as she doesn't drive the Subaru as often as she should.

 

[bholler]

I need to put new rotors on my wife's Legacy. Any certain brands considered better than others. I'm pretty sure I'm going with the coated type as she doesn't drive the Subaru as often as she should.

Yes there are absolutely better rotors available. But unless she is going to be pushing the car really hard I don't see much point.

 

[johneh]

You can buy some very good quality rotors. But why you can buy
a good set for half the price. The next time the pads wear out you
will have to buy rotors again not so many years ago you could machine
rotors and reuse. Nowadays they make them so thin that machining
is out of the question

 

[lsucet]

You can buy some very good quality rotors. But why you can buy
a good set for half the price. The next time the pads wear out you
will have to buy rotors again not so many years ago you could machine
rotors and reuse. Nowadays they make them so thin that machining
is out of the question

We resurface rotors every day. Brake places prefer to replace them due to give the car back to customer into the advertised time and be able to do many cars in a day for the sake of make profit. Working for a dealer we do resurface rotors if it will clean up into specs. It is up to how the place handle the business. Regardless which brand and quality you should resurface the rotors if you are performing a brake job. Just saying. I will recommend going with OEM if you don't mind. I don't care about who claims its product perform better and this and that etc. I always use OEM parts and have good results. Working for a dealer over the years I have been seeing horrible situation and the solution always have been going back to OEM. This is in everything, not just brakes.

 

[bholler]

We resurface rotors every day. Brake places prefer to replace them due to give the car back to customer into the advertised time and be able to do many cars in a day for the sake of make profit. Working for a dealer we do resurface rotors if it will clean up into specs. It is up to how the place handle the business. Regardless which brand and quality you should resurface the rotors if you are performing a brake job. Just saying. I will recommend going with OEM if you don't mind. I don't care about who claims its product perform better and this and that etc. I always use OEM parts and have good results. Working for a dealer over the years I have been seeing horrible situation and the solution always have been going back to OEM. This is in everything, not just brakes.

There are also many aftermarket parts that are far better than oem.

 

[peakbagger]

I bought some coated "high quality" rotors for my fiesta two years ago. The hub may last forever with the coating but the outer diameter is still rotting inwards screwing up the surface. I am not impressed. Rotors are cheap (less money than the local garage charges to reface a set) and expect the next set will be the last set I buy before the car gets replaced so I do not plan to pay premium for coating the next time.

 

[festerw]

I've had good luck with Centric brake parts, not the cheapest and not the most expensive either.

 

[johneh]

We resurface rotors every day. Brake places prefer to replace them due to give the car back to customer into the advertised time and be able to do many cars in a day for the sake of make profit. Working for a dealer we do resurface rotors if it will clean up into specs. It is up to how the place handle the business. Regardless which brand and quality you should resurface the rotors if you are performing a brake job. Just saying. I will recommend going with OEM if you don't mind. I don't care about who claims its product perform better and this and that etc. I always use OEM parts and have good results. Working for a dealer over the years I have been seeing horrible situation and the solution always have been going back to OEM. This is in everything, not just brakes.

When I was in the trade we resurfaced Rotors when we could but at that time the charge to resurface was 20 dollars per. nowadays with labour rates in the 70 to over a hundred dollars an hour, it is much cheaper to replace with 20 dollar rotors than to resurface.
Maybe thing are different in the States than they are in the Great White North.

 

[zrock]

Coated rotors will only last a few drives until the coating wears off then they are just plain old rotors. Ceramics are nice for not rusting, brake dust, and not squealing, but i find their braking is lacking i just put a good set on my truck and i really hate them. The heigh quality metallic pads are great but they will burn through your rotors before they wear out causing you to replace everything anyway. I usually go with oem and a semi or non metallic pad and im usually quite happy with the performance. Resurfacing is a lost cause most shops stopped doing it because the material in most rotors is not the same quality as it was 30 years ago. The resurface them and then weeks/months later the customer comes back with a vibration when braking due to warped rotors. Then depending on the shop they are eating the labor charge and possibly the new rotor cost to replace. In my area you will not find a working brake machine in any shop

 

[lsucet]

Coated rotors will only last a few drives until the coating wears off then they are just plain old rotors. Ceramics are nice for not rusting, brake dust, and not squealing, but i find their braking is lacking i just put a good set on my truck and i really hate them. The heigh quality metallic pads are great but they will burn through your rotors before they wear out causing you to replace everything anyway. I usually go with oem and a semi or non metallic pad and im usually quite happy with the performance. Resurfacing is a lost cause most shops stopped doing it because the material in most rotors is not the same quality as it was 30 years ago. The resurface them and then weeks/months later the customer comes back with a vibration when braking due to warped rotors. Then depending on the shop they are eating the labor charge and possibly the new rotor cost to replace. In my area you will not find a working brake machine in any shop

I understand, with the cost/prices of new rotors now a day there is no need and it will be time consuming more when they have many cars a days line up for brake Jobs. The mechanics can be more productive for the same pay rate. They don't like to pay the tech for be standing looking how the rotors turns plus another ones waiting for this one to finish. Lot has to see with being productive. We dealers, when it is under warranty, we need to provide measurements before/after and between plus address the cause of the concern and the reason of the shudder. All that has to be documented. Not just put parts on it or the claims are not paid by Chrysler. It is a little different but including customer pay, we resurface rotors if it is into specs. I do see the point and I get it. We have many problems with people having squeaky noise after they pulled a trailer thru the weekend. Most have to see with aftermarket rotors and pads. Just saying.

 

[SpaceBus]

You can buy some very good quality rotors. But why you can buy
a good set for half the price. The next time the pads wear out you
will have to buy rotors again not so many years ago you could machine
rotors and reuse. Nowadays they make them so thin that machining
is out of the question

It's not because the reasons you think. It's a manufacturing tolerance thing.

 

[bholler]

You can buy some very good quality rotors. But why you can buy
a good set for half the price. The next time the pads wear out you
will have to buy rotors again not so many years ago you could machine
rotors and reuse. Nowadays they make them so thin that machining
is out of the question

Why would you have to replace the rotors every time you do the pads?

 

[SpaceBus]

As others have said, coatings are a waste. Get whatever is on the lower end of price that still has a warranty lasting more than a year. You probably won't replace them again.

 

[SpaceBus]

Why would you have to replace the rotors every time you do the pads?

You should actually turn them on the vehicle before replacing the pads.

 

[bholler]

You should actually turn them on the vehicle before replacing the pads.

Yeah I know but I easily get 2 or 3 pad changes out of a set of rotors with nothing more than scuffing the surface of the rotor. With all the hills and winding roads here we go through pads pretty quick. I also put slotted rotors on pretty much everything but off-road stuff to help reduce heat and warping. If not the rotors would be warped and need changed every time. I am sure the way I drive and the loads we carry have allot to do with that also.

 

[SpaceBus]

Yeah I know but I easily get 2 or 3 pad changes out of a set of rotors with nothing more than scuffing the surface of the rotor. With all the hills and winding roads here we go through pads pretty quick. I also put slotted rotors on pretty much everything but off-road stuff to help reduce heat and warping. If not the rotors would be warped and need changed every time. I am sure the way I drive and the loads we carry have allot to do with that also.

Rotors don't warp, it's a lateral runout issue. This is a pedantic distinction, but one I try to correct when I can. If your brake system gets hot enough to soften the rotors, you have far more issues. Turning the rotors on the car takes up for any lateral runout between the hub, bearing, and rotor. Ultimately excessive lateral runout will create a condition that looks and feels like a warped rotor, but it was not created by heat. Another culprit to messing up rotors is improper wheel torque. Slotted rotors prevent brake fade more than anything else.

 

[bholler]

Rotors don't warp, it's a lateral runout issue. This is a pedantic distinction, but one I try to correct when I can. If your brake system gets hot enough to soften the rotors, you have far more issues. Turning the rotors on the car takes up for any lateral runout between the hub, bearing, and rotor. Ultimately excessive lateral runout will create a condition that looks and feels like a warped rotor, but it was not created by heat. Another culprit to messing up rotors is improper wheel torque. Slotted rotors prevent brake fade more than anything else.

Ok so when driving down the side of a mountain in the fully loaded van and I feel the brakes start to vibrate because they are no longer flat. What is that? It happens all the time to us. If you pay attention and let off for a couple seconds you can keep them cool enough that they go back to normal. But if you dont they will stay that way. You can take them off and lay them on a flat surface and you can tell they are no longer flat with a feeler gauge.

If you sit at the bottom of some of the mountains here at night you can see many rotors especially on trucks glowing.

 

[SpaceBus]

Ok so when driving down the side of a mountain in the fully loaded van and I feel the brakes start to vibrate because they are no longer flat. What is that? It happens all the time to us. If you pay attention and let off for a couple seconds you can keep them cool enough that they go back to normal. But if you dont they will stay that way. You can take them off and lay them on a flat surface and you can tell they are no longer flat with a feeler gauge.

If you sit at the bottom of some of the mountains here at night you can see many rotors especially on trucks glowing.

The uneven surface is from lateral runout, not warpage. Brakes glowing and brakes warping are not the same. Brakes glow in motorsports all the time without warping.

 

[bholler]

The uneven surface is from lateral runout, not warpage. Brakes glowing and brakes warping are not the same. Brakes glow in motorsports all the time without warping.

Yes I know they do. And those rotors don't last very long at all either.

Regardless of what you call it I have overheated rotors many times which caused them to no longer be flat. And yes I torque my lugs every time to spec.

 

[lsucet]

Ok so when driving down the side of a mountain in the fully loaded van and I feel the brakes start to vibrate because they are no longer flat. What is that? It happens all the time to us. If you pay attention and let off for a couple seconds you can keep them cool enough that they go back to normal. But if you dont they will stay that way. You can take them off and lay them on a flat surface and you can tell they are no longer flat with a feeler gauge.

If you sit at the bottom of some of the mountains here at night you can see many rotors especially on trucks glowing.

It is called, BRAKE SHUDDER and yes, it feels more at 45 - 50 mph and up under braking and when it start overheating ( normal heating due to friction ). But if you just replace pads and dont turn the rotors the problem will not go away.

 

[bholler]

It is called, BRAKE SHUDDER and yes, it feels more at 45 - 50 mph and up under braking and when it start overheating ( normal heating due to friction ). But if you just replace pads and dont turn the rotors the problem will not go away.

Yes of course changing the pads won't fix that. It is a problem with the rotors not the pads. But there are many times we will wear through a set of pads and there is nothing wrong with the rotors.

 

[SpaceBus]

Yes of course changing the pads won't fix that. It is a problem with the rotors not the pads. But there are many times we will wear through a set of pads and there is nothing wrong with the rotors.

That means everything was working the way it was supposed to. Rotors should last forever.

 

[bholler]

That means everything was working the way it was supposed to. Rotors should last forever.

Yes as long as you don't over heat them or have a pad come apart scoring them really badly.

 

[lsucet]

Yes of course changing the pads won't fix that. It is a problem with the rotors not the pads. But there are many times we will wear through a set of pads and there is nothing wrong with the rotors.

I know what you mean. There is a specs and if is in specs is fine, just is rare those times when it is.

 

[begreen]

That means everything was working the way it was supposed to. Rotors should last forever.

Should and actually are separate things. Sometimes brake systems are under-designed. Early Honda Accords had weak rotors that were undersized for the car. I pick them out because I owned 2, though this is not unique. We live in hilly and mountainous country. These early Accords were notorious for rotor failure after having to brake a lot coming down a steep mountain or long hills. You could feel it both in brake fade as they got hot and increasing shudder afterward. My last 1981 Accord got so bad after coming down a local, curvy hill that I had to drive it straight to the shop afterward. The car braked fine right before coming down that hill. I should also note that these cars went through brake pads faster than any car I have owned since. Always replaced with factory parts.