I am not sure if this is a repost but I found some interesting info on brakes and them warping.http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/...otors_myth.htm I have to say I never had problems with my brakes on any of my other cars because they always had something other than OEM pads on. My max is now warping/depositing again (you will understand after the article). After reading this I have come up with several theories.

1, The factory brake pads have a very low heat tolerance. Most people who have rotor problems have them with factory pads. There have even been some people who have slotted/drilled rotors still "warping" with OEM pads.

2, Rotors are mostly the same now anyways, now of days there is little variance between rotors other than size/shape. Cast iron is cast iron. 10 years ago I could see there being major quality issues with some suppliers, but not now.

3, most of the people who have aftermarket pads with OEM rotores don't have problems.

Now there are always going to be exceptions. Some people are going to push their pads/rotors beyond their temperature capacity and cause problems. I think that our "warping" problems are more to do with "not very high performance" pads than inconsistancy's in rotors. Please someone tell me if I am off the deep end in my thinking.

 

Mine OEM ones warped.

I now have stillen x-drilled with Axxis Metal Master pads. No probs whatsoever.

 

I put down OEM pads, OEM rotors since mine were warped before, then I replaced them all (all 4) with Raybestos (rotors and QuietStop pads)... FYI when I brake I'm starting to hear that repetitive "warped" sound again, although I don't feel any vibration... and my wheels/tires have NOT been rotated or balanced since I changed the rotors. I torqued every lug nut to 85 ft/lbs after doing the brake job. (17" alloys -- 2K SE 5-speed)

 

my oem rotors were warped at 8k and they were cut and the pads were replaced. at 30k, they were warped again but could not be cut. the dealer replaced the rotors free of charge. the pads were still in good condition so i elected to stay with them. i always make sure the lugnuts are torqued correctly and try to do as little emergency braking as possible. if these warp again which im sure they will in time, i plan to go with brembo blanks and bendix IQ pads.

 

So your aftermarket pads AND rotors are starting to warp/deposit now? How hard do you brake? Do you do lots of high speed slow down's, like 100-60 or 80-40? I have 45,000 miles on my factory blowtenzas and have never had them re-balanced and have no problems with them. I have the quiet stops on the back of my max also, is it your front's or rears that are making the noise?

 

Here's some really good reading material on warped brake disks.

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

 

Ummm....Didn't I already post that link....???? at least I know that I am not the only one who has read that...

 

Woops, I didn't see that in your post.

 

Every pair of rotors I've ever owned has warped. I take all the usual precautions and that can extend the life I believe. For the first time I've purchased Brembos. Hopefully I will have better luck with these. I'm basically to the point of considering new rotors as part of a brake job.

 

It's not entirely clear where the noise is coming from, but I'm pretty sure I "hear" the warping noise... I don't feel any vibration yet though.
I do a lot of stopping, especially in the 60->0 range (commuting), though I intentionally try to "smooth out" the braking as best as possible, and give myself a long braking distance during normal (i.e. non-aggressive or commuting) driving. I was particularly easy on them when they were new.

 

Sounds about how I drive on mine. It doesn't seem to have prevented any warping... Maybe we should drive our cars like Honda Accords...

 

Ok, since it's what you want, I think you're way off in your thinking. I agree that there are many ways that Nissan cut corners in the quality dept., such as beam axle, fit/finish on the doors, dash, etc., but on my 98 I decided to replace the pads with OEM at 68k or so. When I got the calipers apart, I discovered I had only used about 60% of the pads, and was tempted to put it all back together. But since I already bought replacement OEM pads, I put them in. Now my car has 83k and has ZERO pulsation. imho if you are hard on the brakes, you will cause them to need maintenance. My aunt has a 2k2 E46 M3, and in the first 20k it needed a new motor and also 4 brakes, with the brakes costing over a grand. Do you think the quality is low on a 2k2 M3? I don't think so. The replacement was necessitated by the fact that my aunt is hard on the car. The motor replacement is due to an engineering flaw in the lubrication of early E46 M3's. Nissan OEM holds up pretty well with no pulsation or squealing, and I am saying that from experience.

 

I can agree with that 100%, but I can't say I drive my car hard. I drive fast, yes, but not hard. I have 45,000 miles on my original factory blowtenzas and have about another 10-15,000 before they hit wear indicators. If I was hard even on just the braking aspect of things I know my tires would not have lasted that long.

It sounds like you are fairly easy on your brakes, 68,000 miles and still have ~40% pad left. I change my brakes on average once a year. (~30-40,000 miles) I am not sure that I would trust some pads that were that old, being that they cycle thru extreem temperatures and get weathered and all. My mom had an old Chevy Caprise wagon and had brakes about that condition and we started noticing peicesof pad material being left in the drive way when she left. They were not thin worn down peices, they had good thickness to them. (Needless to say she had her brakes done that day.) I think

I just think that it has more to do with the OEM pads and their inability to deal with heat more than cheap rotors. That is the reason for the poll, to try and see what combination of pads/rotors warp most often.

(wow, your aunt drives hella hard to kill some brakes on a M3, those are some big a$$ brakes! )

 

So far it is looking like it is more to do with rotors than pads....hopefully we will get some more votes....

 

I just did a brake job on a buddies '02 last weekend. After driving with him a few times I noticed how hard he was on the brakes, even in normal traffic. While I feel that had something to do with the warping of his rotors there was another problem. The tire company (don't remember the name) that had put tires on his car used an impact wrench to put the wheels back on. With 150lbs standing on the end of the lug wrench the nut didn't move, every nut was this close to this tight. My guess is the they were tq'd to about 160-180lbs. This was the leading factor in the rotors warping. BTW he has 17k on his car. My '02 has 13K on stock brakes with no issues.

We put PowerSlots with Stillen/Axis pads on. I did the seating and started the season process myself, if he puts some heat back in them a few more times (with out going nutz) and rolls them cool he should be fine.

 

A few weeks ago (3) I replaced the brakes on my wifes 'stang from some cheap organic compound to some med/high end raybestos'. I drove her car around town this weekend and would you know what? Her brake warpage is gone almost 100%!! Her brakes were warped something fierce! You could feel the car "pulsing" down all the way to a stop. Now they are almost perfectly smooth. I am thinking it might be organic compound pads that cause the warping. (ie OEM = organic) Does anyone have any idea as to why the 'stangs brakes are no longer warped? (believe me, they were bad, I wasn't going to even try turning them, I was just going to replace them with some cryo treated rotors.) Maybe I am going to try and put the same pads on my Max and see what happens.

 

Front OEM front rotors were warped.
Now i'm waiting on the cross drilled, slotted, zinc platted brambos and Axxis Metal Master pads. Hopefully, it'll be worth the money

 

Mine are definitely warped now... the noise and vibration are both there, and the vibration is more pronounced when the brakes are hot...
Local tire shop claimed $40/side to turn the rotors. I think I'll spend a saturday morning removing the front rotors and taking them to a local machine shop that does 'em for $5/rotor, driving there in another car. The bulk of that $40/side cost is removing the calipers anyway.

 

I went through 2 sets of front rotors/pads before 20K mi. I always use the torque wrench to 85lb/ft. After about 20K mi the symptoms appear again, but I put the blame on my braking technique. I like to use "soft" braking vs. "hard". In my opinion, the "hard" braking does not allow the rotors to heat up enough and works better.

 

Yeah that's what I use, soft/gradual braking...
My fluid is also very old and needs changing, but I'm waiting until my SS brake hoses come in to do that... I noticed last weekend the car would occasionally pull to one side while braking after the brakes were hot.

 

That is exactly how I stop. I use the brakes lightly for a longer distance instead of harder for a shorter distance. I also do lots of freeway driving where I will scrub speed using the brakes lightly. Usually from 100-70 or 80-60. Do you think it is because using the brakes lightly heats up the rotors more than "flash" braking? That does sound feasable.

 

Has anyone ever noticed how some higher performance cars including BMW and MB have slats in the front of their wheel well splash guards apearantly for brake cooling. Does anyone know if creating the same type of slats inside the front of our wheel well splash guards would help anything?

 

FYI, after getting new tires and having the installer rebalance them properly (they didn't get it right the first time), my brake judder has drastically reduced in violence... but they're still warped (can still feel it), so when I do the SS brake hose install I'm taking off the rotors and taking them somewhere for resurfacing.

 

What did that Silverado have to go so fast?

 

Silverado????