Thats a pretty common problem on Chrysler and GM products now. Probably others as well but I can't say for sure... Turning the rotors seems to be a very short term fix. The material removed by turning just weakens further a rotor that was already not strong enough to resist warping.
I've had better luck with Wagner products than with the factory or "shelf stock" at the discount places. Also make sure you are putting your wheels back on with a torque wrench and have all the lugs tightened to the same setting.
OE rotors are generally recognized as garbage on late Chrysler products. Start checking the country of production on rotors found in name-brand boxes (Raybestos, Wagner, NAPA-United, Bendix, EIS) and when you find some that are made in the US, Canada, Mexico or Europe, buy them.
If you are not doing the job yourself (or even if you are) you may want to be sure the lugs are being tightened to proper spec and in the proper pattern. Quickest way to a warped rotor is over torque the lugs.
For those that aren't aware of this, NAPA's United Brake brand are manufactured by Raybestos. I do know that their LH car rotors have "CANADA" cast into them. I do not know if that is true for all Raybestos/United Brake part numbers or not. So maybe NAPA would be a good first place to check (they carry two lines - the oversees-made True Stop or True Value brand or something like that, and the United Brake (Raybestos) line - you want the latter.
As has been pointed out before, there are those who believe that what is often assumed to be rotor warpage may be due to one or more of a number of other phenomenon causing vehicle shake on braking, including (1) uneven filming of the rotor by pad material (resulting in varying coefficient of friction around the rotor rubbing surface), and (2) uneven wearing in the two sides and in different locations around the rotor (possibly also related to the uneven filming of (1)) causing a different type of warping which is more specifically referred to as out-of-parallel. The technical articles say that the amount of out-of-parallel condition to cause noticeable symptoms (shaking) is a fraction of the amount of classic warping that it takes to cause the same degree of symptoms.
That could explaim why people report different results re: rotor warping depending on the brand or type of pad they use. I tend to believe this more and more as time goes on. I recently experienced what felt like slight classic rotor warping go away shortly after switching over to ceramic pads with the same rotor (unturned). Lugs were properly torqued before the ceramics and after the ceramics. Rotors generally do not "unwarp" themselves.
I have also had rotors that seemed to be slightly warped *only* after they warmed up slightly from a few brake applictaions, and then seemed to flatten out totally when allowed to cool. I wonder too of the possibility that that is also an uneven and changing filming scenario.
Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet > OE rotors are generally recognized as garbage on late Chrysler products.
I've had a lot of trouble with Chrysler products in general and specifically with my 1998 Dodge Dakota truck with rotors warping. The first set was turned until they were under the service limits, replaced and the second set is warped and needing to be turned.
Has anyone had any good experience replacing the disks with higher performance components. Slotted, vented, cross drilled, better material, etc. Or with better pads. I hate it when make a high speed stop and having the truck shake while I'm stopping.
My '99 T & C suffers from the same condition, not quite as bad.
I don't know what the answer is, Bill, but this describes my LH braking problems *exactly*. The first dozen or so brakings lead to a situation where the thing is wobbly as hell, then as they cool they become progressively smoother and smoother.
The other odd thing about it is that a truly *hard* brake application during the 'wobbly phase', if you will, produces a smooth stop.
I've just deemed it the nature of the beast, but I'd love a better explanation.
All I can add, Geoff, is that that was with the original (AFAIK - I bought the car with 58k on the ticker, so can't be sure) rotors that came on my Concorde. In my effort to smooth the whole car out, which I successfully did, one of the first steps was to replace the rotors at about 70k mles. Haven't had that problem since. Warping or some variable COF?? I still don't know. Replaced pads at the same time, so that destroyed more evidence if the pads were contributing to problem with variable COF/filming (possible and likely that the pads were not the originals at that mileage).
While the following is pretty much a no-brainer solution, replacing the rotors and pads is certain to eliminate the problem, especialy if you were to go with the a good ceramic pad like the Akebonos (showing my increasing leanings towards the filming being at least part of the cause).
Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my adddress with the letter 'x')
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