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Warpd Rotors - Warped - Why?

9K views 30 replies 19 participants last post by  chartmaker 
#1 ·
2002 Wagon 3.0 OHV SEL


Vibration when applying brakes. Front.


Seems no matter name brand rotors or cheap China rotors - they warp over time. Yes, they are all made in China now. Name brand or no name brand.


I read here and other places that tightening the rims/wheels/tires can cause this. That too tight causes too much heat. The excessive heat warps the rotors.


And what brand of rotor/pads do you use?


Any commentary about this?
 
#2 ·
One thing I have read about and also experienced myself is that sometimes pad residue buildup on the rotors can make them feel warped. Try 4-5 hard brake runs from 55 to 5mph (really put the binders on but not lockup) might help burn off the residue.
 
#7 ·
#5 ·
I needed to change mine, horrible vibration in front, ended up both were warped and grooved very very badly.

Put on new Duralast Gold, one was defective, made a thunk thunk thunk when applying brake sometimes.
Replaced defective one and its been smooth ever since.

Ive read a million storys of what can or could cause the issues. Honestly have no idea if any are true, I dont know the maths or have personal first hand experience, some seem stupid some dont seem like they could even make a difference at all but, I make sure to do everything right and things have been fine.

Cleaning all mating surfaces, light sanding or wire brush.
Do not over tighten anything.
Small dab of high temp grease on the ears of the pads so they dont bind up.
Greasing caliper slide pins.
Be sure to evenly depress the caliper, so you dont score/gouge the surfaces or bind it up.
 
#10 ·
Part of the issue is that we no longer have asbestos pad material. When they outlawed that, they began using semi metallic and metallic pads. When you have two metal materials rubbing together, you are going to generate a lot of heat, and heat warps rotors. Especially thin ones like on these cars. Also when you have metal rubbing on metal, something is going to wear, and in a lot of cases, its the rotors. I am using organic pads on everything I can get them for and so far I haven't had any issues. They wear quicker for sure, but I would rather changes pads than rotors.

Back in the 70's rotors never wore out or warped unless you wore the pads into the rivets and grooved the rotors. The were thicker and heavier built and we didn't have metal in the brake pads like we do now.

The reason they tell you not to overtighten your wheel lugs, is because you can actually distort the rotor around the studs and cause premature warping. I use a torque wrench to tighten my wheels. 85 ft/lbs. Again, wasn't a big deal 35 years ago, but now with things thinner than they used to be, you have to be careful with the impact gun.

The other thing to consider is if you have a lot of extra weight in your car from tools or other heavy items that stay there. That can attribute to the issue as well.
 
#11 ·
If you keep warping rotors check your wheel hub bearings.
I had a loose hub in my old wagon, no bearing noise, but it had play in it causing excessive rubbing on the pads warping the rotor. Warped the rotor in under 1k miles.
I only use premium rotors and ceramic pads. Brand name from RA.
My wife has a lead foot, on both pedals, and I can easily get 50k miles on a brake job on her cars using the good stuff.
 
#12 ·
\

Daughter had a Buick Van and the rears were getting too warm and warping. Under new vehicle warrenty, they replaced the rear hubs due to loose bearings, New rotors, and pads and all was well. There was no noise in the vehicle from bearings. They were just slack from the original making.

I had a '91 Lin Cont warping the fronts. Long story short, the brake pedal was not returning to full top all the time. Let off easy and it did not return to the top, let off quick and it would pop up to normal. New pedal assy. Under new warrenty.

-chart-
 
#14 ·
2002 Taurus Wagon SEL 3.0 OHV
38,000 miles on odometer

I went with the Duralast Gold for both the front pads and the front rotors.
Total cost with free shipping: $102.38.
Installation cost: $30.00.

Braking is perfect presently but time will tell if these are any good.

Thanks for all of the input and opinions.

Me, I think that all of the rotors for sale now are made in one factory in China and all brands are just put into a different box.
 
#17 ·
Part of my plan for the upcoming brake job on my 03 which "warped" the rotors way too quick last time. I am also going to get out the dial indicator and match the rotors to the hub to get the run out as low as possible.
 
#18 ·
My wifes Escape went 108,000 on the original brakes and rotors, and still had a little left on them, but I replaced them with the exact same part number MotorCraft pads and rotors, and these rotors already shake with 15,000 miles on them. Not sure what happened, but something isn't the same.
 
#19 ·
Sometimes if you have a caliper not fully releasing it can cause this. I had one that was dragging and when the rotor and pads got hot, it would vibrate just like a warped rotor. Replacing the offending caliper and brake hose solved the problem. May not be the cause in your case but thought I'd throw it out there.
 
#21 ·
In the salt zone I have had brake pad "ears" rust and swell and bind. Even inside the stainless retainer inserts. Can cause shortened brake life so springtime is inspection time for me nowadays.
 
#24 ·
I have one of those oscillating tools but did not think of grabbing it for some reason. Have you ever tried anti-seize on the hub to rotor interface? I use it on rotors and drums where the bore goes over the hub and have had good luck with them not sticking. I toyed with the idea of doing it on the flat face too but did not.
 
#25 · (Edited)
#27 ·
My belief is that the sense of warped rotors often results from "branding" of the rotors themselves. I'm told this can happen by not properly breaking in new pads.

I think this because when I bought my used '04, the steering wheel shook violently under all but the mildest braking. I believed in warped rotors, but when I spun the front wheels they showed no runout; neither did the rotors.

I read somewhere here about branding, and although it was invisible, I concluded that was my problem. So I bought new, moderately priced rotors and pads, and broke them in according to the directions I also found here. A year later, and still no shake. The brakes work fine hot or cold.
 
#29 · (Edited)
This thread has hit the most leading causes.
The #1 cause of "new" warped rotors is cheap rotors. #2 is over-torquing/uneven torque of the lug nuts. #3 Is not cleaning the hub mating surface. I use a $3 wire brush set from the paint section of Walmart.

Whether or not the rotors are made in china or not doesn't make much difference. Manufactures order to spec. The parts store brands tend to be thinner than better well known brands such as Motorcraft, Raybestos, Centric, and maybe Wagoner (Federal Mogul AKA Fel Pro). I am not going to go into different alloys of metals used. That's another can of worms. Though it likely plays into it A LOT. Not all cast iron or steel is created equal.

But when these parts store rotors are stored by the parts store supply chains, they stack them on pallets, then probably more fully loaded pallets on top of that. Probably for a couple years at a time. They can warp like this, or just warp over time from being cheap. This is why parts store brake drums sometimes have issues.

If you take a Digital Caliper (The measuring kind) you can actually see a difference of up to maybe a couple millimeters between a good Raybestos or Motorcraft vs their Duracrap counterpart. Just think about how much metal that is.
 
#30 ·
I live in a desert, rust free climate. So all the anti rust precautions are moot for me.

None of my vehicles (98 Ram 1500, 96 Dakota 4wd, and 01 Taurus Wagon) have brake problems. Back when I was driving an airport shuttle van, a 97 Ford E350, it ate the first two pairs of rotors--traffic lites, stop & go, heated 'em up and warped them. After turning the rotors once, replacing them once with "economy" replacements, I bit the bullet and bought the heaviest replacements I could find. Raybestos commercial grade. Oh, and replaced the factory steel wheels with pretty alloy wheels. Problem solved, the combination would take a beating without warping. I suspect the 'vaned' alloy wheels helped radiate heat, but quality rotors was the answer.

YMMV, but for me the lesson was to get the best rotors you can afford. Cheap will get you down the road, but they don't last as long.
 
#31 ·
I live in a desert, rust free climate. So all the anti rust precautions are moot for me.

None of my vehicles (98 Ram 1500, 96 Dakota 4wd, and 01 Taurus Wagon) have brake problems. Back when I was driving an airport shuttle van, a 97 Ford E350, it ate the first two pairs of rotors--traffic lites, stop & go, heated 'em up and warped them. After turning the rotors once, replacing them once with "economy" replacements, I bit the bullet and bought the heaviest replacements I could find. Raybestos commercial grade. Oh, and replaced the factory steel wheels with pretty alloy wheels. Problem solved, the combination would take a beating without warping. I suspect the 'vaned' alloy wheels helped radiate heat, but quality rotors was the answer.

YMMV, but for me the lesson was to get the best rotors you can afford. Cheap will get you down the road, but they don't last as long.
I have had my fair share of bad rotors, most are thicker on one side than the other, or rusty. See pic, this off '02 Lin Cont. (same parts as G-4 Bulls) Rear rotor. 9.5 years old, 40K miles, OE parts. Rear rotor, 0.0038 thicker on one side than the other, spec OE is 0.0005. Over 7X out of range. Pads were just chewing the metal away but not even. Pads were metallic, as a magnet would attract the pad material same as the backing metal. Pads shown, OE and a new one. Rotor chewed up, pads good for another rotor to ruin. New rotors, ceramic pads, 37K on these and they are fine.

On this car, bought used, VA car, no rust, the rear felt like it would "hop" during braking.

For me, never want anything semi metallic in pads. New Raybestos rotors spec 0.0004" parallel, better than OE. I measured 0.0001 on new rotors.

Another fail for rotors is dragging. Not the same as hard use. Worst was '91 Lin Cont under warranty and the pedal was not going to the top all the time and causing constant dragging. Dealer put new pedal assy on and new calipers and rotors. Of course he put on the wrong rotors and they did not fit causing me to leave it in the lot for redo. Shop admitted they used the wrong parts.

-chart-

-chart-
 

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