Front rotors warped after less than 1000 miles!

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maxmk8

New member
Damn it i'm getting fed up with this nonsense. My original rotors warped, so i replaced them with some $40 rotors from Kragen. These warped pretty bad after about 5k miles. Now 11 days (700 miles) ago I slapped on a set of Brembos from Tirerack. I broke them in by gently slowing down from 30 mph to 5mph about ten times or so. Then i let the car sit and let the rotors cool down. I then was incredibly gentle on the brakes for about 4 days or so. Then I continued driving like I always do. Sigh on the way back home coming down highway 17 I noticed a vibration (I could feel it in my foot mostly) when coming down the slopes and only with the brakes applied. This is not nearly as bad as my old rotors but its bugging the living hell out of me! I don't know maybe its the rears i started to feel now since i didn't get to those yet. I guess I’ll have to get another set this time of NAPA premium rotors. And if those warp anytime soon, then I’ll just have to run my mark into a tree. (Didn’t really mean that but I can’t stand these brake vibrations)
Btw in case anyone wonders yes I did torque the wheels in the star pattern to 90 pound feet.
 
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maxmk8

New member
The pads were $70 bucks, and they probably had 98% still on them, I sanded them down a bit just in case.
 
J

JackDonkey

New member
I'm going to become famous for this:

Is it correct to say that the reason to do a break in is because you are breaking in the pads. So the pads may have contributed to your old rotors warping, and if so they for sure contributed to the new ones warping since you can't really break in already broken in pads (or whatever it is they do if it's not warping, expanding at a different amount under load/heat in different places cause of brake pad deposits or something of that nature I'm not sure).
 
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maxmk8

New member
The pads were not old enough for this, they are less than 6 month old and you wouldn't be able to tell a difference if you put them next to a new set. I thought that breaking in the brakes was for both pads and rotors. The pads are Raybestos Ceramic pads. I don't know how they would contribute to rotors warping.
 
sleeper

sleeper

Former LOD President
Yea, i suppose buildup on the rotors could cause a vibration. But rotors DO warp... i've seen the warpage myself with rotors on a lathe.

From the stoptech article:
In fact every case of "warped brake disc" that I have investigated, whether on a racing car or a street car, has turned out to be friction pad material transferred unevenly to the surface of the disc. This uneven deposition results in thickness variation (TV) or run-out due to hot spotting that occurred at elevated temperatures.
Click to expand...
While technically (semantically) "thickness variation" and "runout" does not necessarily mean "warpage", that's what it is in most peoples minds.
 
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maxmk8

New member
Thanks for that last link! I guess i'm going to try a few hard stop to see if it will clear up the rotors. Hopefully they are dirty (fingers crossed).
 
Roadboss

Roadboss

On Work Release
Believe me I frusreated for years on cars with bad rotors and I eliminated the problems by following the break in procedures as above. Get yourself a patch of highway and do the break in as directed. Smoke will pour off a new setup, but you will be glad you did it. Also after I changed me wheel hubs I did the same brake in procedure and "Life is Good" no brake shudder.
 
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LeoC2

New member
How did you remount the wheels? Did you use a torque wrench? The most common cause of warped rotors is uneven and too tight lugs.

You also should have replaced the pads, they are cheap enough.
 
sleeper

sleeper

Former LOD President
You also should have replaced the pads, they are cheap enough.
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Not if they're ceramics. He said the pads were $70, and only 6 months old. Sand 'em down a little bit, and clean them with brake cleaner, and they should be good to go.

I just recently replaced the rotors and (ceramic) pads on my Lincoln. I got NAPA to replace it all for free, but they normally wouldn't replace the rotors for free.
 
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maxmk8

New member
How did you remount the wheels? Did you use a torque wrench? The most common cause of warped rotors is uneven and too tight lugs.

You also should have replaced the pads, they are cheap enough.
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The pads would have cost me almoust as much as the 2 rotors. Thats too much, why would I throw away good pads? Yes i did use a torque wrench that's why I said I torqued the wheels to 90 pound feet.
 
driller

driller

El Presidente
I top mine off with a good coating of cashews
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Cashew nut oil is used as some type of bonding resin in brakes!

Walnut shells are also popular as an abrasive grit for bead blasting.
 
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maxmk8

New member
I have heard from a couple reliable sources that Motorcraft brakes have/had walnut shells as one of the indgredients of the OEM brake pads. Hi tech stuff, huh? Truth or fiction? I don't know, but I know I use OEM Motorcraft pads on all my 'Fords' and have no issues.

I did find backers to the OEM theory...

http://www.performanceoiltechnology.com/brakingsystems.htm
http://www.autosite.com/garage/encyclop/ency14f.asp

Probably more than you wanted to know.
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Thanks for that link. I actually used the "other" break in procedure that required increasingly hard stops from 60-5 then from 70-5mph. But then i've read up somewhere else that it could be damaging to the rotors. So i went with the gentle 30-5mph approach. I'm not sure what the correct one is.
 
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