Ok I give! coming to you guys for some help. A year ago I put on new brakes all the way around. Used SSBC big bite brakes/rotors for the front and new Bendix rear drums and brake shoes. After about a year the front rotors went bad. They started to pulsate so I removed them and went to have them turned.
When the shop started to turn them a stress crack on each lug bolt hole appeared (on one side). After looking at each rotor one of them had a different size hole drilled into the rotor vs the other. On one rotor the lug bolt would slide in all the way. The other rotor would stop at the top of the lug bolt where the serrations were and you would have to tighten them to get it to draw in. Long story short, the one that was tighter ended up getting stress cracks. So with the year warranty up and the shop destroyed the rotor(s) I was out $500. The were nice enough to give me a new set of rotors that they carried (factory aftermarket).

Now with new rotors on, my pulsating brakes are still here. Iv noticed the rear brakes will lock up when i first use them in the morning and sometimes when i come to a stop at any other time(especially in the rain). Thinking it was my ABS for the rear I pulled out the fuse. This did seem to help a bit for a while but it is still bad. I DO NOT feel it in the steering. The only way to stop and not feel a vibration or shaking of the whole truck is to hit the brakes hard and come to a stop. Sorry for the long rant but im fed up lol. Guys if you have any input on what I can do next please feel free to jump in.

 

Well, of course without looking at them it can either be brake pad build-up on the rotors (which can cause an uneven surface) or warped rotors.

Unfortunitely, IMHO you like many others may have been sold on advertising/PR materials for the products you bought- please don't take this the wrong way as many, many have......

With regards to rotors, Brembo, Powerslot, Raybestos, Bendix, Hawk etc. are all purchasing their rotors from the same foundary in China (with the exception of the $300 each composite high end units for Ferrari, Porsche, etc)- they have 3 grades, ok, better & best (which really isn't all that great to start with).

I run OEM replacement rotors that are cryogenically treated at Diversified Cryogenics, making them almost as hard as stainless steel- Applied Rotor Technology in California provides the same product- but I would not rely on their delivery as it is essentially a 1 person shop owned/run by a Boeing engineer who works back east, travels alot and works at ART on weekends the last of my phone conversations with him).
Both companies purchase the highest grade rotors made, laser mic them for quality, scrap the ones that are out of spec and cryogenically treat the good ones which are now as strong as stainless. DC's service, price and quality are excellent as well.

I have been using rotors from DC for about 10+ years on multiple vehicles, that are used in some very brake demanding (street) conditions with no issues. I also keep my vehicles for 15+ years, so I can assure you these are not temp fixes & I understand what you are saying.

BTW- the Bendix linings (in general) are a good product, I typically recommend other brands (Raybestos, Wagner not being ones to go with)...but bendix is typically a very good product.

 

Jefxxo

Unfortunately it doesn't matter where the rotors came from or with what special attributes, then still can have issues.

Most likely the rotor tat was poorly machined so it had to be drawn up with residual stress concentrations was your pulsating rotor. When there are stress concentrations they can distort the rest of the rotor and cause distortion (leading to thickness variation pulsation) and the residual stress' that caused the cracks at the lug nut holes.

>> (factory aftermarket)<<

There is no such thing as 'factory aftermarket' unless you bought the Motorcraft red box rotors, which are made by Federal-Mogul to Ford's specs.

The morning sickness and rain lockup is due to moisture sensitivity with the rear brake material that was put on your vehicle. This has been a problem with many linings that are not asbestos. Asbestos acted like cotton fiber and absorbed moisture, so in effect during the conditions you are now experiencing issues, the brakes actually would suffer from some wet brake fade. With the non-asbestos fibers used in non-asbestos linings (fiberglass, kevlar, man-made fibers) you do not get the moisture absorption, but some of the normal ingredients develop a high friction situation. It takes a lot of R&D development to come up with linings that do not exhibit this condition, so you have to go to the more expensive linings from well-known brands to get away from the morning/wet spike in friction.

The pulsation you still fell is most likely due to the rear drums, either the drums were machined out of center or they have a hard spot in them. To confirm it is the rear brakes or poor front rotors causing the pulsation at a safe location you could block off the rear brake line between the frame and rear axle and try a few stops with front brakes only.

 

Beechkid >> Well, of course without looking at them it can either be brake pad build-up on the rotors (which can cause an uneven surface) or warped rotors.

That primarily happened two decades ago with the newly developed non-asbestos high organic based friction material. It could still occur with really cheap aftermarket organic pads, but a manufacturer would have to be really stupid or negligent to use an organic pad on any vehicle over 6,000lbs GVW. I've never seen any organic pads available for a pickup in this weight range.

Using your words: Unfortunately, you like many others may have been sold on advertising materials for the products you bought- please don't take this the wrong way as many, many have......

With regards to rotors, Brembo, Powerslot, Raybestos, Bendix, Hawk etc. are all purchasing their rotors from the same foundry in China.....

This is absolutely not true. There are over a half dozen rotor casting plants operating in China where their products are being sent to this country after the plants in this country started to close due to increasing EPA regulations and price pressure from aftermarket sales. There was a consortium of US rotor manufacturers that tried to get congress to reduce the pressure, but there was no concern on their part.

http://www.cawa.org/docs/PRC_Brake_R...r_Request_.pdf

And US plants continue to close, including the Commercial Truck market.

I don't buy any of the story being told to you, but that's just me being in the OE/aftermarket brake business for 30 years.

 

That primarily happened two decades ago with the newly developed non-asbestos high organic based friction material. It could still occur with really cheap aftermarket organic pads, but a manufacturer would have to be really stupid or negligent to use an organic pad on any vehicle over 6,000lbs GVW. I've never seen any organic pads available for a pickup in this weight range.

I absolutely agree, but oem's and "Engineers" are still publishing docs today and denying in some cases oem warranty work claiming such (Hyundai in calif was infamous for that, resulting in a Class Action suit a few years ago). IMHO, I have yet to see that on any disc brake system going back to the 70's.

With regards to rotors, Brembo, Powerslot, Raybestos, Bendix, Hawk etc. are all purchasing their rotors from the same foundry in China..... This is absolutely not true.

Unfortunitely it is, what they say is made in the USA but that only requires the final machining to be completed here...99% of all aftermarket rotors & drums come from one of two companies (I stand corrected) from china who own the majority of the foundaries near ports.....100% of all rotors exported are from these foundaries, none are shipped from the inland facilities due to costs. If you set out Raybestos, bendix, Brembo rotors- you have to set out typically 2 dozen+ of each, you will see the same casting marks (visual markings specific to indifferences to the molds) are the same.....and you can even group them to identify which foundary they came from......I know, many an engineer has brought this debate, but, a few years ago I demonstrated this at a local autozone here in los Angeles....the manager could not believe, but was shocked when the "best" rotors had the exact same casting marks (specific, unique, visual discretions) that the $25 cheapo units had....... when placed on a balancer (portable) the balance, weight , etc was the same. This was a technique used for marketing purposes that took on within the industry a couple of decades ago when TRW (AKA Auto Specialities) began marketing their brake drums as US Made, when in fact they were chinese castings with the steel liners inserted here in the us.....they were still junk.

From being in the "brake business" you would also be aware that in 1983, the "Industry lobbied" and recieved legislative action which eliminated the SAE specifications for brake drums that had been in place for several decades. Therfore, no government construction standards exist, only performance which is voluntary.

 

Portable rotor balancer that you just happened to have in the truck of your car when picking up something at Autozone?

"All rotors at Autozone" does not represent all the casting plants in China. Whomever Autozone is purchasing their rotors from, whether brand name or getting a private label from the same company, can use the same blanks but the "quality" level can be in the machining / casting quality. Federal-Moguls Wagner rotors are not up to the same quality standards as the Motorcraft they supply to Ford for example, although both use the same blanks.

Not sure why drums are being brought up in rotor thread other then trying to get more pee on the corner of the building.

 

Portable rotor balancer that you just happened to have in the truck of your car when picking up something at Autozone?

No at a machiine shop located within 100 feet of autozone....

"All rotors at Autozone" does not represent all the casting plants in China.
True- but this was a direct sampling of rotors from...
Raybestos
Bendix
IIRR- Powerslot or another similar HP aftermarket supplier
Duralast

Each casting was identical and could be easily grouped by their casting identifyers (visual casting markings). It did not matter whether it was the $25 specials or the "best".....they we all the same.

Not sure why drums are being brought up in rotor thread other then trying to get more pee on the corner of the building

Grow up you shided, immature brat- education and exchange of information is a learned experience, one that although you may ahve a difference of opinion, your infintile tantrum is simply not tolerated.

 

A few things, first off the reason I went with the SSBC was because I was sick of these cheap china made rotors. And with my research over a year ago all seemed to be made outside of the US. Second I don't purchase my parts from autozone anymore, I use a local parts store that orders (in most cases) better parts. And they seems to know there stuff vs a new young kid at The zone. Well had a nice weekend and went through the rear drums. I untightened the drums all the way down and took it for a spin, NO pulsation at all! Defiantly the rear brakes. After inspecting the rear drum brakes I noticed they had chatter spots in the middle of each of them. But the actual drums look smooth by look and touch. I'm glad this discution took off.

 

Jexxo,

Glad you had the time to sort this out better.

Beechkid,

I don't think I'm the one having the tantrum. But your story is getting pretty deep in the weeds, IMO.