2001 Jeep Cherokee Front Brake Rotors

The original poster asked a question;

"Is there something I missed, or are they just severely rusted in place?"

Since Jeep doesn't use any fasteners to secure their rotors to the wheel hub, I'm reasonably certain that he didn't miss anything that wouldn't have been painfully obvious so I replied "severely rusted in place." Now, the OP is there to see and I am not, but he used the words "severely rusted in place" so I'll take that statement to mean that he has actually observed the condition and considers it to be "severe." Can't un-severe something like that once the condition already exists, no magic wand can be waved to make the severe rust go away. I can however make a suggestion that very well could and does in my experience keep the condition from repeating itself.

Your inability to comprehend certainly isn't my fault.

It still aint true.

Using ceramic pads won't keep the rotors from getting severely rusted in place.

The rust that causes the rotor to become severely rusted in place so that it is hard to break free doesn't arrive there from someplace else. It always forms in place from the surfaces of the rotor and the hub rusting.

-jim

OP here again.

Yes, the rust was what I considered to be severe. But the magic wand does exist. In its first form it was a six pound 'dum-dum' hammer. In its second form it was the pneumatic version of a Dremel tool with a rotary sanding drum on it. Between the two magic wands, the rust went away.

On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 07:46:54 -0500, aarcuda69062 wrote:

We did the rotors/pads yesterday. No significant rust (Chicago suburb, streets salted, car parked on street.) Last few winters haven't been bad though. Kid broke a T-60 bit tightening the first bracket back on with the breaker bar. He didn't use a torque wrench except for the wheels, which are allloys. It was a Lyle impact bit from his work. Too hard probably. Ran to the store for a new T-60. Second bracket, one bolt took some hammer whacking and a pipe on the breaker bar to get it loose. I didn't see any bad rust anywhere. He was moving fast so I didn't look close at anything. He didn't wire-brush anything, and could hand turn all bolts once cracked. He used some lock-tite on the bracket bolt threads, squeezed some Sila-glide into the caliper boots, and sprayed some anti-screech on the back of the pads. Took him about 1/2 hour per side. I held the light. Except for the broken bit, it went as smooth as any rotor/pad job I've done. The kid really likes the floating calipers. Pass side pads were worn worse than driver's side, and almost gone. Weird thing was on both wheels the rotors were cut into about 1/4" by about the middle 1/3 of the pads - can't remember if they were inner or outer pads, but the cut was only on one side of each rotor. So the cuts in the rotors looked something like this in cross-section, and the pad cuts conformed to it. ____I I____ Looks like the "semi-metallic" pads were harder than the rotor in that area. Bad pad or rotor heat treating consistency I'd guess. Never saw that before. The pads looked like pure steel to me. Seeing this I wouldn't recommend "semi-metallic" if you have expensive rotors, but maybe these pads were a crap brand. The new rotors were 30 bucks each, and we put on the O'Reilly brand ceramic pads, also 30 bucks. BTW, the brakes were performing okay except there was some shudder like with warped rotors, and you could see the pads were worn down.

--Vic