must rotor be resurfaced when brake pads is replaced?

When the brake pads wears out for the first time (around 38K miles), must you resurface the rotor when you replace the pads? I called some shops, some say yes, some say depends.

What happens if the rotor has minor grooves and new pads are installed without resurfacing the rotor?

Do the front brake usually wear out before the rear, or are they designed to wear out about the same time?

The car is a 2002 wrx if it matters.

Reply to
peter
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It depends. Resurfacing is only helpful when rotor wear was uneven.

Rotor will wear out faster. Some shops recommend changing rotors to avoid paying twice for pad and rotors replacement.

WRX, I assume, has disc brakes on all four wheels and a four wheel drive. So the wear will be about even - particularly on manual models. With FWD, most of the brakign job done by front anyway.

DK

Reply to
DK

I think the front brakes do most of the work on any vehicle.

Reply to
David

about 70% IIRC. The pads will wear into the 'wavy' rotor after 2-3 stops - just be a little careful leaving the shop. After all, the old pads were working with those 'groovy' rotors.

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

That's good to hear. So is it ever necessary to resurface the rotor?

So far, of the 3 shops I called, two of them (including a subaru dealer) combine pad replacement with rotor resurfacing, only one shop says resurfacing is optional.

I don't know what type (semi metalic? organic?) the OEM pads are. The part# is 26296SA000 for front and 26696FC002 for the rear. The front pad kit sells for $70, but the shops want $300 including resurfacing. This is why it is so tempting to do-it myself. Of course I won't be able to resurface the rotor.

Has anyone tried ceremic pads? I read they are better than organic and semi metalic (no dusts).

Reply to
peter

You could change the rotors yourself. Adds maybe 20 minutes to the overall brake job. New rotors for an 02 WRX are about $45 each.

Reply to
Ragnar

"Grooves" usually only appear when you run the pads down to the rivets. "Turning" the rotors is not a bad idea while you are in there, if they have enough "meat" left on them to do so.This is usually done to correct slight warping and a pulsing brake feeling. Most shops charge $10-$15 per rotor to do this and you can pull them and take them in yourself. "Ceramic" pads are noisy, they tend to squeal under light pressure.I rather have the dust and quiet brakes.Pads are cheap,rotors are not. Brake shops WILL screw you, it's in the book. $4x15+70=$130. The rest is all labor. There is no reason why you can't get a factory book and do this yourself.(Doubt you will need a book for this).

Reply to
Porgy Tirebiter

I went 120K on a '81 Civic wagon with original and never resurfaced rotors.

YMMV

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Hi,

As Carl said, you need to take a little extra time and care "breaking" in the new pads to the old rotors. Once they're worn in, stopping will be fine, though perhaps a bit noisier than with perfectly smooth rotors.

For myself, I've never resurfaced rotors on my own cars. Doing brakes for others, yeah. Most shops want to do it cuz of the liability issue as well as the extra income. If new pads are placed against smooth rotor faces, they don't have to worry that Joe Customer's headed down the street w/ only about half the breaking he expects for the first few miles.

Ceramic pads? One of my clients was a brake mechanic for a large dealership until he retired this year. He said ceramics were going to "put him out of business." They wear longer than other pads, and don't cause much rotor wear. Only caveat I've seen w/ ceramics is to do the conversion w/ NEW rotors (check w/ the mfr to see if they have "ceramic specific" rotors in their catalogs--some have varying grades of replacement parts, and match the cheapest pads with the "factory warped" Chinese rotors, the better pads w/ the straight Chinese rotors, the best pads with... well, you see the progression.) I haven't heard the noise or seen the dust issues w/ ceramics that were mentioned in another post.

Good luck whichever way you go!

Rick

Reply to
Rick Courtright

I never worried about gruves. Till the pads make full contact, the car won't stop as fast, but then you have more contact area when they do.)

VF

Reply to
houndman

I haven't done the math, but I'm not sure the angled contact surfaces of the grooves are as worthwhile as flat rotors. Don't get me wrong, but I have a suspicion that if it were worthwhile some car company somewhere would patent and sell grooved pads and rotors. (-; Maybe somebody in the forum here is a math whiz? Most folks I know only resurface the rotor when they get pulsation from the brake pedal, or when it's somebody else's nickel.

~Brian

Reply to
strchild

On my 2003 XS, I just replaced pads on all 4 wheels for the first time at 71,000 miles - so obviously I'm not hard on brakes. I used stock pads and I didn't do anything with the rotors. Brakes work fine and back to original in every way.

J>When the brake pads wears out for the first time (around 38K miles), must

Reply to
Larry Davis

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