I recently took my car into the shop because one real caliper was frozen( so the mechanic sais) and I needed new brakes anyways. I had new brakes and a caliper installed and the mechanic insisted I trim the rotors if i did no purchase new ones. I wish he didnt trim these suckers because now they are noisy when I brake, and there are wierd patterns in the rear rotors which appears to be originating when the rotor heats up. I can only imagine this will get worse and start to wabble. Anyways, does anybody have any suggestions as far as replacing these myself rather than paying a mechanic another $200. I saw that rear rotors are under 100 bucks, is this soemthing I can replace with hand tools? Are there any pictures posted anywhere with procedural steps?
Thanks

 

Yes it's an easy job requiring a ratchet and a couple sockets. I wish you had searched though. This is a popular topic. Go here http://www.motorvate.ca/mvp.php and use the front brake procedure...

 

Is the noise a squeal? If so your rotor is not the cause but rather the pads and shims or lack of shims used when your mechanic put it back together. The weird pattern you see on the rotor is probably left over from machining.

Did you do a proper pad bedding in procedure when you got the car back? If not, that could also be the cause of your noise and the patterns that you see and hear. Give the pads a bit of time to bed in properly and the rotor should polish up to a nice even finish.

 

Hi guys, thanks for the info.
I had the front and rear rotors cut and all was fine, a day later the rear rotors made a noise so i took it back in, the mechanic said i need new rear rotors because the triiming wasnt enough and they are getting to hot in the back and the wierd patterns are coming back. he cut them even more to get out all the pattern, and now the pattern is back even more. the front ones are fine. So i figured I would just buy some oem rotors for $60 with shipping on ebay and throw em on myself. the only thing im worried about is putting the caliper back on, you guys assure me its not too hard? I have one brand new one that has just been installed on the right side. thanks

 

In that case you need a caliper tool, to turn the rear pistons back into the caliper, $14 at auto stores. It's connects to a ratchet ahd looks like a cube with different teeth patterns on all sides...

 

so i need this caliper tool now? i thought i didnt, the example of the fron t install didnt require it right? thanks

 

The front and rear are different in that respect. You must have the tool for the rears...and the tool you need allows you to TURN the capliper piston, not just compress it like you do in the front. I say this because there are actually two types of brake/caliper tools you can get: one that allows you to compress the caliper piston and another that allows you to both turn and compress the (rear) caliper piston.
You should also be aware that if you have a high milage maxima, you may find it very difficult to turn the rear caliper pistons ( I found it to be a major pain in the A#$.)

Are you considering completely removing one of the rear calipers?

 

If you get the right tool, the one I described, it's not hard at all. I did it on my max, a '96 with 97k miles and 8 chicago winters...

 

He he. I had the same tool and did mine on my 95 with 200,xxx and it was a major pain.

 

one rear calipe ris brand new, the other is original, 120k miles. the mechanic put the old one on/off no problem last week and replaced the other. can you send me a link of the tool you have? so do you use this tool instead of the vise clip? once you compress it, is it hard to put back on? I am buying oem rotors brand new on ebay. this should be ok right?

This probably is not worth the time , and i should pay the extra cash, but i wanna learn this.

thanks