Stratus brakes sticking

|> |It's not worth the money because... why? |>

|> If there is something wrong with the rotors, I don't have a machine to |> turn them with. How about _that_ for a beginning. Hummm? You do? |> Yah? I doubt it. |>

|> | I can do my brakes faster than the |> |typical brake monkey can and know that I did them correctly. Brakes are |one |> |of the easiest things one can do when they're a one car owner and don't |have |> |a spare car to drive. Your point is not valid. |>

|> I'm not trying to sell you anything, idiot. I am speaking for myself, |> not everybody on the Planet. | |I never called you names. I don't see why you have to attack my character. |You said there are a lot of things that aren't worth doing yourself. I find |brakes to be one of the easiest things to do yourself and therefore it would |seem that practically everything wouldn't be worth doing yourself. | |I wasn't looking to buy anything from you anyhow, much less infer that I |wanted to buy anything from you. I *was* infering that letting someone else |do your brakes, if you knew how, because it's easier would be waste of time |and money than doing them yourself. | |Let's see. $26 for a new rotor and $10 to turn the rotor (that is if you |took it off and brought it to a machine shop). If you bring it to a brake |shop, they'll machine your rotor whether it needs it or not. Why? Because |it decreases the likelihood that you'll come back complaining that the |brakes aren't working right. Hmm.. instantaneous loss of rotor thickness |which increases the likelihood that your rotor will warp. | |I didn't believe your first post to be accurate and you're taking it as a |personal attack. Lighten up. If you think you're right, fine but don't |take it so personally. | |-Bruce

A voice of reason in the wilderness. Good on you.

I had another look at my brakes tonight. The rotors are glazed. It looks like a rivet has scored the right rotor but I don't know if it has already cut it too deeply.

I checked the brake fluid level, and it looks _down_. This tells me something, that probably it was full but started going down as the disc pads wore off.

So I see I am going to have to get some pads. And at least take the glaze off the rotors with emery cloth or such. The only question is how far gone the right rotor is, because of the grooving.

Now this car only has 7,000 miles on it, and it seems crazy to me to be going out and buying new rotors for it, but it was a Dealer Demo, so only God knows how it was driven for those 7,000 miles. It could very well be I'm driving around on the rivets on the right front wheel.

I would like to think I can just put new pads in and be done with it. I can certainly to that on the left front wheel. But the right front...doesn't look good. BTW, that's the tire that seems to be a few degrees toe-out.

If OEM rotors are available they are going to cost a fortune, so I go to the auto parts store and buy some Made in China crap? Is that a better idea than having OEM rotors turned?

What would you do? Turn the OEM rotors? Or, replace them with Made in China crap?

Lg

I would never buy OEM rotors. Paying that kind of price for a rotor is an outrage. I've purchased Raybestos rotors from *gasp* Pepboys. I believe last time I checked, they were made in canada.

If it were scored, you should have it machined. I've seen people that had the whole surface damaged by the brake backing plate go ahead and pad slap the brakes. It's a hell of a break in period...

Most anyone who's worked on brakes could tell you, if you brake fluid is low, your brakes most likely need to be checked. If the front rotors are glazed, it's a good sign that your rear brakes are out of adjustment. If you have rear disc brakes, you'll need to make sure that they are working properly, it could be a bad proportioning valve or the pistons are sticking. You should get a dial caliper on the rotor and gauge the minimum thickness you have left and compare it to the minimum stamped on the rotor.

Since you don't have another car, you'll need to find a friend that will take you to the machine shop to get the rotor turned, that you've already probably figured out. I have an extra rotor so if I get a warped rotor, I can get that spare one machined and still get to and from the machine shop. If the rotor I bought was made in China, I haven't had a problem with it since the last time I did my brakes.

-Bruce

|do you have abs??? | |Lawrence Glickman wrote: | |> On 5 Mar 2004 16:34:34 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@juno.com (Michael |> Carroll) wrote: |>

|> |98 Stratus, 100k. Intermittently, one or the other front brake sticks |> |to the point of overheating. Fine when they cool off. Can go 500 |> |miles no problem, then one will stick. Can it be something other than |> |each caliper is bad? |>

|> Piston skirts for the caliper pads need to be lubed. You can do this |> yourself if you can take the pads out of the calipers. |>

|> |Thanks for any ideas.

On this car I own now, yes. On the car that I had before, which had the *brake job,* no.

I'm going to buy a spare set of rotors, so I always have a fresh

BTW, just finished chapter 9 of my Haines repair manual, so don't need a lecture on how disc brakes work.

Lg