Disk Brake questions

Excellent, something for me to do tonight.

I have gone through many a brakes over the last few years. Mostly because I only use cheap pads/rotors and I am the HARDEST non-two foot driver on brakes. I brake hard and quick, the earlier you brake into a corner, the slower your lap time...err....the longer your trip will be.

Anyway, onto the topic. Rotors for me have only ever lasted 6 months tops before they warped to rat-shit. Pissed me off, but "what are ya gonna do" I'd say. Until I learned of "brake burnishing" a while back. Probably gained this knowledge from actually reading the instructions one day. Search Google for "brake burnishing" and you'll find out ways to do it. Here's what I did: Bring vehicle to 30kph, brake hard to a complete stop. Let brakes cool. Bring vehicle to 40kph, brake hard to a complete stop. Let brakes cool. Repeat in increments of 10kph or whatever you feel like up to 100kph, remembering to let the brakes cool between stops. Also, don't "ride" the brakes or brake slowly during this burnishing period. I actually did this process twice because I had nothing better to do at the time.

I did this with my current set of brakes, and they are THE cheapest rotors and pads money can buy. How long have they been on the car you ask? Like I said, I usually get 6 months out of a pad/rotor set, now I'm up to 18 months with the smallest amount of wear on the rotor, 1/2 thickness of pad left and NO warping.

Steve

BTW - Shep, I type at 40-50wpm, so I don't mind. ;)

Oh, and there is lubricant on your autoparts shelf labeled for brake slides. I'm not sure of what I use, I think it's silicone lubricant or something. I only know it says "Brake.....something something" on the tube. Take a look, you'll find it.

Steve

Thanks Steve, I will give it a try...looks like my Saturday morning is going to be busy.

Either have the rotors cut if they are within spec or buy new rotors, the pads should be fine as long as they don't have too many miles on them.

What kind of lube are you asking for? Rule number one is no oil or grease around brake parts. The only chemicals that should be anywhere near brake surfaces are brake parts cleaner and anti-squeal compound or spray and that only on the back of the pads.

...Ron

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Greetings,

One possibility is that you may have either over-torqued or unevenly torqued your lug nuts. Used to happen to me on my older Chevy pickups on the front rotors. If I torqued them to book specs of 100 ft-lbs then the rotors would warp, but if I tightened them down to 90 ft-lbs then no problems.

Cheers - Jonathan

We started seeing entirely too many brand new rotors, from A'Zone & Advance, etc., that had to be removed and turned. Switched source to older, established parts houses & guess what. Same darned thing! Now, we just automatically turn the brand new ones to save on duplicate labor. Often, some need very little cutting; but most are still out enough that they'd pulsate w/out. s

Never heard of "burnishing", always thought it was called "bedding". But whatever it is called the procedure works. Ya gotta let the rotors cool like Steve said.

Roy

Tried about 6 or so about a year ago--same prob. with about 4. So, we went back to the *chinese* and just turn them all. Cheaper for our shop in the long run. s

So your customers pay for the defective parts, and then for the labor to fix 'em?? Not a flame, just curious.

Regards, Al.