Warped car rotors?

[Eagle]

Alright, I posted this at a Grand Am forum. Ok, I have a 2003 V6 Grand Am (not a GT). About a week and a half ago the whole car started shuddering whenever I hit the brakes. It was more prevelant when coming down off of higher speeds, but is still present at lower speeds. The car only has between 21000 and 22000 miles. I took it to the dealer because it should still be under warrenty. They came back and said that the ABS checked out fine, but the pads were worn down the rivets, and as a result the rotors were abnormally worn and both the pads and rotors needed to be replaced. They said it wasn't covered under the warrenty due to the level of wear, and quoted me a price of over $400 to replace the pads and rotors. They said with that much wear after such few miles, I must be riding the brake, which is bull. Well, I replaced the pads, and while the old ones were worn and in need replacing, they weren't to the rivets like the dealer said. And I'm not an expert, but the rotors didn't appear to have any abnormal levels of wear. When I went for a test drive after replacing the pads, it still shuddered like crazy. Tomorrow I intend to take the car to a shop and see what they have to say about the rotors, but everyone I've talked to so far agrees with me that the dealer is full of it and there must be something wrong with the ABS. Anyone have any thoughts?

Now the reponses I got said these cars have a problem with the rotors warping. I've never heard of such a thing, has anyone else?

[teufelhunden]

Does sound like a case of warped rotors.

You're young, chances are you're tough on your brakes. I was-- still am, to a degree, but driving a standard now take a bit of the brake work out of it.

[WickeDKlowN]

Actually, my dad just got the rotors and pads and stuff replaced in one of the work trucks today for the same reason.

[SpitFire1299]

Chains on like.. dirt bikes and stuff warp like that too, its just they get really hot and change. It can happen, but on a car its kind of rare i guess..

[HOMELANDEFENDER]

I just repaced my rotors that were warpped with Power Slot Rotors and Hawk ceramic pads on my '98 GTP. Although I had much more milage than your car - 69,000 - it definately sounds like what I was experiencing.

HLD...

[Cristobal]

You would definitely have heard the awful sound of brakes scraping on the rotors if you'd worn the pads down to the backing plate, so I would agree: it sounds like dealer is exaggerating (although depending on the quality of the OEM parts, $400 for new pads and rotors might not be a bad deal -- though of course doing it yourself is still much better).

The problem is that except for extreme cases, you aren't going to be able to see damage on a rotor that causes brake "judder". There's a good article here which explains all about it:

http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/warped_rotors_myth.htm

If you've used your brakes hard, so they were nice and hot, and then stopped the car completely immediately afterwards, you may have developed some unevenness on the rotor surface which can lead to brake judder. But it sounds like the problem came quite suddenly, and with brake judder you ought to be able to feel it coming on before it becomes too bad. I'd look into the ABS possibility -- if you know what the ABS feels/sounds like on the car, you ought to be able to compare that to the shaking you're getting now.

[PyRo]

Learn to do your own work, should cost you about $120 for everything.

[sbpyro]

Could be worse you could have damaged your calipers also.

[lopxtc]

*EDIT* It is quite easy to warp a rotor also with one quick hard braking ... I had to slam my brakes one time to avoid a person who got cut off and slammed on their brakes, and that quick few seconds of hard braking warped one of my rotors. Depends on the material in the rotors ... that car had crap OE rotors.

Learn to do your own work, should cost you about $120 for everything.

Ditto (God I am agreeing with Pyro lol) ... OEM rotors and pads should cost pretty much little $$$$ and with the right tools you can knock on the job in a couple hours for your first time and even quicker later on.

Rotors and pads are quite simple to replace, just make sure you have either a c-clamp or the brake caliper piston reset tool. Before you put on new pads you need to make sure you reset (push in) the piston on the calipers otherwise you cannot get the caliper back on over the new rotors. Autozone rents them and you just put down a deposite and get it back when you return the tool.

Just make sure you dont disconnect the brake line from caliper otherwise you will end up needing to bleed the lines and this can suck with only yourself.

I can do the rotors and pads on my Jetta in about an hour and a half counting beer and piss time into it

Aaron

[Lohman446]

Raybestos brake rotors - #56655 $95.10 each

Raymold (Raybestos economy brand) brake rotors - #1056655 $36.27 each - I would use this option

Proven Quality (economy brand) rotors - #125522 $16.67 each - about comparable to Autozone quality and prices - would not recommend

Raybestos professional grade ceramic pads - #PGD727QS $76.07 - I would use these as preference

Raymold brake pads - #RPD727 - $28.82 - these are very good for the price

PartsMaster (economy brand) brake pads - #MKD727S $25.40 - would not recommend for the difference between these and Raymold.

These are all "do it yourself" across the counter prices... If you have them installed you pay a higher price for the parts as well as labor charges of course.

[rkjunior303]

My 99 Alero has the same problem, being the same platform. It's just how the car is, unfortunately. I've done mine so many times now, I can generally do all 4 wheels in under 90 min.

[Lohman446]

My 99 Alero has the same problem, being the same platform. It's just how the car is, unfortunately. I've done mine so many times now, I can generally do all 4 wheels in under 90 min.

I used to replace a lot of economy rotors under warranty because of warping, I switched to teh Raymold in the shop and have warrantied a lot less.

[Dend78]

depending how bad they are take em in and get em turned, a lot cheaper than buying new rotors and it may work

[Lohman446]

depending how bad they are take em in and get em turned, a lot cheaper than buying new rotors and it may work

Generally after a rotor warps turning does not really help, they tend to rewarp quickly. Don't be cheap, put out the $70 for decent rotors, and put them on. In answer to the question above... warping rotors, especially on modern front wheel drive cars is a fairly common thing - there simply made too thin and it allows the heat to warp them.

[SlartyBartFast]

Quick braking isn't the only thing that will warp a rotor. How do you torque your wheel nuts?

If your answer is "With an impact wrench" or "One at a time as tight as they'll go", it's the wrong answer.

Incrementally cross-tighten and then cross-torque the nuts.