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So I was out at the local dealer today picking up some "take offs" . What a sweet deal
I was checking out my rear wheels and noticed bot my rear rotors had some pretty nasty grooves. Almost exact on both sides. Brought it by my shop who did the brakes 20k miles ago and he said it could be from carrying weight.
I kinda dont buy it.
Anyone ever heard of this?
Pads look good, so he told me . I'll have to climb under there tomorrow morning.
I thought exactly that. If weight is going to trash anything its the front breaks
nope, grooves were there when the pads were changed the last time. You have a choice, turn them and risk them becoming too thin to use or put the pads back on it (my choice) and drive on.
nope, grooves were there when the pads were changed the last time. You have a choice, turn them and risk them becoming too thin to use or put the pads back on it (my choice) and drive on.
Damn that's rough for 20k. I guess leave it alone and maybe be ready to replace in another 20
This is one reason some don't like discs on the rear of a pickup. Out here our rear wheels fill up the ID (and then throw off tire balance) from adobe clay and/or adobe clay sprayed down with mag chloride. I've never personally seen accelerated BRAKE wear per se but it's telling how much more crap the rear wheels catch than the front -- it's not just a little difference, it's a HUGE difference
Unless you are doing a lot of off-road driving the only explanation is a friction material problem. Some formulations have a high metallic or high abrasive content. And the type of abrasive matters too. Some companies like to silicon oxide or aluminum oxide. Either of those, or a steel fiber component, if not fully mixed and distributed in the formulation, and not overly transported from the mixer to the press, can end up not well distributed. It can be only one batch of pads because someone screwed up, or just a poor, and sometimes cheap product.
Considering the bright steel coloration, that formulation is relying on abrasive friction for its performance. The more rotor friendly pads, and just about every OE or premium pads, relies on on cohesive friction with a light transfer layer of friction material on the rotor. That provides for low rotor wear and shows as a light grey or brown translucent coloration.
I suspect cheap pads.
The shop changed the rotors and pads at no charge. But I'm going to keep an eye on them. First sign of cutting and it's going back
Being in the brake pad making business, we used to joke it provided a larger surface area for braking with all the groove. But it was a joke, we really didn't want that. But technically, a larger surface
Being in the brake pad making business, we used to joke it provided a larger surface area for braking with all the groove. But it was a joke, we really didn't want that. But technically, a larger surface
That explains your detailed reply.
Thanks for the help!!
May be time for a new shop.
So after only 1500 miles and keeping a close eye on the back brakes its starting to groove again. Slightly but its happening. I asked about the possibility of defective pads and got a pretty lame reply. Sucks because this guy has always been honest and works on every car (4) that I have. I'm tempted to go to the dealer and get some OEM pads and put them on myself
They need to be using a different pad formula. Either in the same brand (maybe) or another manufacturer. My old company got away from using high abrasive decades ago, so long ago that I didn't include any images any reports I didn't realize I still had.
But to give you an idea of rotor conditioning issues so you can relate, I have a report I did using an experimental ceramic fiber-reinforced material on the front with the OE material on the rear, from a different manufacturer's vehicle. Ceramics are really classified as an organic formulation, reinforced with 12-20% of ceramic fiber (potassium titanate) in place of steel fiber or other reinforcements. Being an organic-based compound, there will be a higher level of material transfer deposition on the rotors by a few microns deep, and therefore a darker color. To this day I'm not impressed with those types of materials on heavy vehicles, this one ~7,500 GVW vehicle. They don't take to being pushed well, as we would do in the certification FMVSS 105 testing. But this was 2007 time frame. You would not have the pad issues, it's an opposing surface (rotor) conditioning issue, abrasion. I'm including the pads as its the opposite surface.
