Pretty spot on!

——

My action would depend on many factors.
Nice vehicle or?
Wife/kids drive it or me?
Front or rear?

If this was on the front, even on my junky daily car then I would address it.
However I recently put just a set of pads on the rear of my daily which had suddenly lost the pad material. Rotor was a bit rough but I’ll run it.

I always prefer to try resurfacing first. I feel like the OEM metal lasts better than the cheap rotors at the parts stores. My opinion anyhow.

 

Mine are on a 2wd twin I-beam front end, and yes, they are a PITA.

Min "T" is not a concern in this case.

As for rotor condition, they are only about 3-1/2 years old and this is the only set of pads which have seen them. There not even really a wear lip yet on the outer edge of the rotors. I tend to be pretty easy on brakes and try really hard to give plenty of slow and steady stopping distance, and I try to never let the vehicle actually come to a complete stop for more than 3-5 seconds before continuing very slightly inch forward. I also virtually never haul or tow anything, and really only have this truck "just in case I need to".

Shoot, though... if I were to go to the trouble of pulling the rotor off to either sand the inner surface or have the rotor turned, I would just go ahead and replace the sucker.

I get the whole thing about reduced stopping efficiency, and had initially thought that the rough area would eventually polish down and provide decent friction. Perhaps it would require getting through a set or two of pads to accomplish that slow milling action on the rotor. I can see where sanding it down initially would help, but I don't want to waste half a morning with my sander.

Also, though I understand how a rough surface on the rotor would machine down the softer pad material, but it seems that would only happen until the smooth area hits the pad and then the process would be hindered by the slower wear process on the smooth portion of the pad. The scraped area is less than half the pad width, and furthermore, the surface of the rotor would not even get contacted by the pad until the pad wears down enough on the smooth area... RIGHT? After all, the scraped area already has less thickness than the smooth area... OR, am I not thinking about the mechanics of this scenario clearly enough?

Listen, I'm not trying to just get encouragement to justify my "hopes", nor is my mind already made up. I'm just floating the ideas running through my head and exploring the options thoughtfully. It's easy enough to drop another $280 if I have to, but I really don't want to unless it is really creating a serious hazard to NOT do so.

I also fully appreciate the "normal approach" scenario of replacing a customer's rotor in this case, but I also see that someone who knows and follows this approach with his customers would not go that far for himself (Cleatus), and it makes me just wonder "why".

 

Hard to tell from the picture but it looks like I have ran worse. Can you change the pads and run it, probably. Should you turn them, probably.
I'm helpful.

 

I was just checking availability for the rotor, and I missed it earlier and reported the cost of a non-hub front rotor. The Rotor/hub combo unit is $100 MORE than the other, so I'm looking at $280 instead of $180. This makes my interest in not replacing the rotor even stronger, and I might just chase down a sanding or resurfacing option after all. Heck... I might be able to even chuck it up on my commercial wood lathe and run it at a low speed in combo with my sander.

 

I’d maybe try to smooth it a little on the truck then and do a pad slap and run it. If the truck doesn’t see a lot of miles you’d likely be fine. Although on a twin I beam front end, brake pad time is a good time take it off anyway to inspect and repack the bearings and reset the end play. But that depends on how the truck is used. I’m up to 115k or so and still have 5-6mm left on the yellow pads but the passenger side bearings started to get loose and cause irregular tire wear somewhere around 100k if I had to guess. This was a lot of OTR driving. Most people need pads after 50-60k and that would be a good conservative interval to adjust the bearings.

 

Thanks, Brandon. The bearings were new with the rotors 3-1/2 years ago. Not a bad idea about checking them, though.

 

Oh they're not so bad. You just need to look at it from to proper perspective. I suggest a mantra to help keep.
moral up. Just keep repeating "At least they're not drum brakes". I find it helpful anyways.

 

IMO

You only have one chance to stop and the day you cant stop, you will remember that outcome for the rest of your life

get new rotors or turn them

at a minimum have a helper spin the rotor and take a sander to it (have done this a few times with great success so long rotor is in spec)

 

DANGIT! You just HAD to put it that way, didn't you?

Good idea, but my helpers have all moved out and do not live close enough to just drop by to help, so it's not really an easy option. Regardless, I might just look at it closely to see if I can wing it by myself.

 

I remember that day.

Can always ask a person around to make a quick 10 bucks to spin it, or use your feet with some thick soled boots on

 

Good way to put it. New rotors are very cheap insurance given what could be if there were some unplanned inadequacies. 🤔

 

I reserve the right to decide on what subject i want to DIY.

 

DONE!

I made a lot of calls around locally, and I basically had three answers to turning my rotor...
a) we don't do that any more
b) we can do that for you, but only if we do the brake job... no walk-ins
c) sure, we can do that, but wait... oh darn, you're hub/rotor combo is too big for our machine

So, I ordered the new pads and a new rotor as well! Both should be here tomorrow.

Spank my butt for having allowed the situation to happen in the first place. I should have checked the pad condition sooner. That said, I'll be checking/replacing pads on the rear as soon as i get the fronts done, followed by replacing pads on my wife's Lexus this weekend. I'm not willing to eat another rotor unnecessarily.

 

For some reason, I had a clearance issue with one of my rotors and the caliper. I took the rotor to NAPA and had them shave it down.

 

My question is what does the other side look like, if I possibly missed it.