I used to live on a hilly area and sometimes had to park in the street. I usually made it a habit of putting my car in neutral and using my e-brake to lock it in place then put it in park. I now live in Indiana and the weather is pretty cold compared to So cal. So I still have that habit and my rotors warped because of it (you could see the where the brakes warped the rotors). I have noticed that it is harder to put it into drive from park when not using the parking brake. Does this wear out anything in the tranny?

 

I do the same thing, I dont like the struggle I gotta go through when I put the car in park.

 

It wears out the transmission shifter cable by elongating it by the constant car weight on it. On a previous car it elongated to the point the shift position marks were all off by one position. Not funny to handle. Had to replace it.

I dont believe the ebrake could warp the rotors.

 

What your seeing on the rotor is rust . You cant see warpage . Basiaclly when the mettalic in the brake pads sits on one spot of the rotor they rust . Nothing to worry about it will wear off with driving . If you let your car sit for extended periods (2 weeks or more) I would recc not using the P/brake if possible . This can cause high spots on the rotors from rust that would require resurfacing of the rotors to repair

 

I think this is what happened. I heard a pulsing noise and took it to the shop. They said that the e-brake left an imprint in the rotor. They called this warpage (I think very generally). Basically, it sounded like warping occured and they had to resurface anyway. BTW, it happened when I left it alone for about 2 weeks.

 

Warping only occurs when the rotors get too hot. So sitting still with the E-brake doesn't cause warping. spddracer, nailed it on the head.

 

how about driving the car hard with hard stops and then with the rotors hot applying the e-brake...

would that warp rotors? That is what he probably ment.

 

That is what the mechanic also theorized. My question to everybody is that because it is really cold in Indiana right now, how long should I wait before applying the e-brake on the car. Should I wait for 10 minutes then come back to the car and then apply or can I do it sooner. Maybe if I applied less force on the e-brake this would minimize warping if the rotors are hot? I welcome any advice as to avoid this situation in the future.

 

ding ding ding, you sir are correct. warping comes from hard breaking, and major wear. parking using the e-brake wouldnt do it. think of guys that have remote starts with a stick, they park in neutral...so why dont they all have warped rotors?

sounds more like you messed up the transmission shifter cable, or it might even be caught/kinked, causing it to be harder to shift out of gear

 

I've heard about e-brake warping on drum brakes.

Basically, the warpage occurs due to fluctuations in temperature, not just high heat. Before we need to use the e-brake we have to come to a stop, which heats up the brakes. The e-brake is immediately applied, and stays in pressure position on rotor while the rotor slowly cools. In theory the cooling rotor would want to reform to it's original ambient temperature position but the brake pads prevent that specific contact area from doing so - hence the warp.

Like I said, I've heard about this from drum brakes but have not experienced it with 10 years of disc brakes. Maybe someone will know for sure.

Mr.P

 

an e-brake used for parking purposes cannot warp the rotor. It is caused from heat like SXN said. You can get rust on there like the others said, but it will not warp it. I park my car with the e-brake everyday for a year, and my rotors are not warped. It doesn't matter if I just got through slamming on the brakes, I still use it. I have a 5spd, but I would recommend it for auto too, to save the tranny like others were saying.

 

Warped rotors CAN be caused by the ebrake. It's a VERY, VERY common occurance. Pulling the ebrake up when you park with very hot brakes can warp rotors VERY EASILY. I can't believe some of you guys haven't heard of that. Ebrakes warp rotors all the time.

You will warp your front rotors 100x faster than rears with regular breaking, so if your rears are warped, 99 times out of a 100 it was caused by the ebrake.

 

Yes, I agree with Formz, but how often are your rears extremely hot after daily driving. Because the braking bias is almost completely on the fronts. I would be willing to guess that the brake load is 10% on the rear and 90% front. My rears are never hot. I can hold my hand on them after a cruise around town.

 

Formz is the winner. And whoever else said it. If you drive hard and put the e-brake on hot rotors, the rotors can no longer cool equally around the entire rotor, the part under the parking brake is not exposed to air so it stays hotter longer and will warp the rotor.

The reason its harder to put it in drive when parked on a hill is because of that little bit the car can rock when in "Park." You stop and put it in Park and then let off the brakes so the car will roll slightly downhill and mesh the automatic transmission together a little. I think it is called Torque Locking. In and of itself it shouldn't hurt anything because transmissions are made to endure torque.
Do you really think they would design a car so all the weight of it could be palce on a shifter cable? (And I don't even think that its a cable in a max)

 

You glaze your rotors by overheating them, Warping is caused by heating and then uneven/rapid cooling.

 

Broaner is right though, unless you are just standing on the brakes for extended periods of time, the rears will not even be hot. I have seen this too.

DiscoGsus, why do you think the manufacturer put the e-brake to the rear wheels. So that this would not be a problem.

Plus, rotors(even front ones) don't stay that hot for that long. I mean, I have driven around for a while, and then come right home and done brakes. They don't stay that hot. If the fronts don't, then you can be sure the e-brake resting on a hot caliper is not a problem in the rear!

 

Brudaddy you obviously have never seen a car use it's brakes to the full potential then. I've seen cars with glowing rotors ON THE STREET. It's so easy to warp rotors I can't believe you're even debating this issue.

 

yes, I guess if the rotors are actually glowing(which probably doesn't happen...since you tend to be really dramatic in all of your posts), then it might be an issue. I am still not sure. Even then, it would still not be the rear ones that are glowing hot, and therefore, nothing to do with the e-brake. Even pretty hard street driving will not cause the brake rotors in the rear to get that hot.

 

And I never said it was not easy to warp rotors, just not rear ones with the e-brake.

 

Apparently you've never been racing before in your entire life...

 

What does racing have to do with anything we are talking about? Tell me that...

They guy said that after driving, he comes home, and out of habit, he used the parking brake. He said this is a cause of the warping of the rear rotors. He said nothing about racing or glowing rotors or such things. That is why I made all the "appropriate" and "relavant" comments about normal driving or possibly heavy street driving....not racing!

 

Man you're pretty dense aren't you?

Face it, you were wrong, you can warp rotors under just normal driving. He did it, as have others. His mechanic, and many people on here gave him the correct answer. You're still fighting a losing battle. You're wrong. Just give it up.

Remember folks, just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it's impossible!

 

ummm...the brake balance puts so much more stress on the front. unless this guy was doing full auto cross, his rears wouldnt be that hot. i wouldnt rule out other factors for the warping just yet...you need to actually ask the owner of the car about his driving. the rear brakes dont get that hot on a maxima, it CAN be an issue on RWD vehicles, were the brake balance is set heavily to the front, and the e-brakes are positioned on the none driving wheels. think of all the factors befor you get so decisive.

so even you get the brake balance...its common sense. my rears were warped when they got replace for general matinence, and not caused by the e-brake. how do i know? the car was (up until that point) put in a level garage constantly...ebrake wasnt even needed. car wasnt hard driven, rear brakes werent steaming. the brakes werent "very hot" (as you said) at all, not even close. my commute is basically all free way as well. brake rotors do wear out, and these nissan rotors warp pretty easily in general.

exactly.....so how was all this damage DEFINATEY caused by the e-brake formz?

ok....brakes glowing red, how is that "full potential?" that would more go under "too hot" or "over used." yea, its plenty easy to warp rotors.... this guy thinks he messed them up parking in N, then switching to P, he didnt mention all that HARDCORE AGRESSIVE driving. if he thought they were overly abused, he would have said something.

just because he hasnt warped rotors means he hasnt raced? because he hasnt "seen" glowing rotors on the street, he hasnt raced? what are you basing this on?

additionally, why do YOU care if he has raced before? if you want to get down to actual knowledge, ask him about track time. if you think street racing is going to give you more knowledge automatically about cars, you are mistaken.

uncalled for, stupid comment, and wrong...he isnt a dense person.

 

Can't we all just get along...

Anyway, I wasn't auto crossing the car and my rotors are 2 months old. As stated before, I went away for about 2 weeks and left the ebrake on the whole time, came back and there was warping that occured. My mechanic inspected it and could see it (I had driven 30 miles already so no rust build up). He could see where the brake touched the rotor and that it had left a mark there (where the warping occured). My conclusion is that yes, my rotors suck but the ebrake did cause the warping.

 

my point was definately based more upon what is "logical." Formz wanted to state this was the obvious reason why, and the only explanation for the warping. im not saying im right, i know ive been wrong before but you dont need to be cocky and rude

 

But are all of these rotors REALLY "warped?" article here

 

WaarrEagle, very interesting read.

SXN, Thanks, man. I appreciate it.

 

The link to the writup is bang-on. And you can have deposits also if you have braked realy hard and park the car immediatly with the hand brake on.

 

does this issue also occur with aftermarker rotors i.e. brembo, powerslot, stillen? i have slotted\dimpled to help with cooling

 

Hmm all this talk, what about manual cars??

 

Mine is a manual, and I use the e-brake to park every time I stop. There is no way I am going to trust the car just being in gear not to roll.

 

Haha bruce needed a shot of confidence before he responded haha.. typical.

Anyways, nowehere, in this ENTIRE thread, did I say that the ONLY way to warp rear rotors was by using the ebrake. SXN you made that one up all on your own.

FACT: You can, and is VERY plausible, that his rears were warped by using the ebrake.

There is no disbuting that, EVER. The thread starter NEVER SAID that he thinks he warped his rotors by switching from park to neutral, where you pulled that from is anyone's guess. haha

 

you apparently dont pay much attention when you post then, look below.

99%, you were essentially eliminating other possibilities. also, you never said it could be anything else, or mentioned a single other option.

yea, another useless comment

 

SXN you really need to learn basic reading comprehension. haha

i'll remember that unless I specifically say every cause for every problem, I'm in the wrong haha

 

yeah i have a brake issue right now as well...when im stoping (slowing down by slightly pushing brake) i get a pullsing noise like there was a dent in the rotor or something..its kinda like a pullsing noise that only happens when the rotor does a full rotation and goes back to the messed up part...whatever it is...is this warping?

 

Its probably warped a little. Try getting it checked out and turned if possible. Anyone know a good rotor that is more resistent to warping? Do slotted rotors or drilled rotors warp less than solid ones?

 

from what i have read in that post i think it might be an imprint of the brake pad from when i hit 100 to 0 in a short period...didnt bake the brakes but i did hold the brake at a stop sign.. without letting them vent, if i member correctly i think thats when the problem started...im going to try to buy some garnet paper and clean off the rotor... if that doesnt help i will stick with brake masters to tell me what im probably sure about...warped...

 

BTW Thank you very much for that brake article...VERY HELPFULL...if anything i think you should talk to the moderators to get that in the brake section for a sticky...that must have given me the best explanation and break down of brake wear and brake pads (high performance and lower end)...i am a newbie but that article honestly enlightened me on the whole disc brake setup lol THANKS ALOT!

 

I have owned 7 cars, all manuals and never left them in gear to park. I always use my e-brake only (well, maybe if I am on a tremendously steep hill in the snow, then I might throw it in Reverse as a precaution after turning the wheels to the curb) and I have also never had a rear brake warp (or heard of this) from the e-brake. IF the e-brake were to somehow DRAG on the brake due to a stressed or frozen cable you might see a warping issue. You might not have realized the e-brake was still a tiny bit engaged or the cable simply froze from cold or rust and the brakes dragged for miles while you tooled through the Wendy's drive-thru, or it might have been the donuts you were doing in the fresh snow by yanking the brake up. This could have caused your problem. It is highly unlikely that the simple act of using the brake for its intended purpose would cause your problem. Only if you were towing 4 other maximas while racing at Road America could you get them up to about 800 degrees to start them "glowing." This could have been your problem too. Most likely you were dragging the pads due to the e-brake cable malfunction and they cooled funny. Have the rear rotors turned and replace the pads with something better or go buy a big brake kit for some rediculous amount of money and never have this problem again. Also check the e-brake cable for problems.
And to formz, dude, you really need to chill, you are harshing my mellow. Take a prozac and go to bed without supper, your foul attitude is not welcome here at the org.

 

Yea you're right I need to mellow cause I'm right and some moron who doesn't know a damn thing about cars is saying otherwise. Good point.