Back in June '06 I replaced all the pads and rotors myself on the whole car (rotors from NAPA, pads from Autozone), and I've been problem-free for the last 5 months. Recently, tho, my rear right brakes have been giving me trouble.

I have a rubbing/vibration noise at the rear right wheel and the frequency of it increased as I drove faster and decreased as I drove slower, mostly just 30 mph and under. The noise also stopped when I pressed the brake.

SO, I pulled the wheel off today, and the rotor seems to be a little warped (the rotor is consistently harder to turn in some places than others). The pads still looked to be in great shape. I'm almost positive I just need to get the rotors turned @ Autozone or something, and call it good, but is there anything else I should do/look for? new pads?

 

I thought that you were supposed to do them together, fronts and rears

 

You should see if your caliper is sticking. This would cause your pads to be dragged and that can really heat up the rotor and make it warp. Other than than you might be able to turn the rotor without replacing it.

 

Just have the pair done.

The main thing is to make sure your balance between left and right is always maintained due to the sytems hydrolic nature.

 

Very good point, it was the RR caliper that seized on my car.

 

"have the pair done" - You mean just have the rear pair of rotors turned, right?

Yeah, at first I thought it might be trouble with the calipers, too, but if my calipers were sticking, wouldn't it be harder to turn the affected rotor than the other wheels? (it wasn't)

 

you should have at least a 1 yr warranty on the rotors. go back to Napa and demand a new part.

get a cheap torque wrench and apply proper torque to your wheel lugs - if you overtighten them you will warp your rotors.

 

If it is sticking/seized, yes there will be more resistance. There will be scraping sounds once the pad wears down. There should be a good bit of heat coming off the wheel after driving. My caliper was only sticking so I did not have the heat, but I did eventually get scraping.

 

. Get both of them replaced, and if it was me, i would make them replace the pads too.

 

Resurfacing a warped rotor = another warped rotor very soon.

 

That's not a bad idea, I'll check on it.

Ok, so I'll go to NAPA tomorrow and see if I can get that warranty deal, but if not, I'll get both rear rotors turned, and probably get a torque wrench too, just in case that was the problem. Come to think of it, those wheel lugs came off a lot harder than I remembered putting them on. I just got finished driving at the time tho, so it could've been the heat.

I'll keep an eye on those calipers too, to see if they give me any trouble.

 

first thing, only use Brembo or better. most of that pepboys crap is just that. second, a warped rotor can not and should not be turned. if it is a major warp having it resurfaced will not fix it. if it is a minor warp, resurfacing will thin the rotor and subject it to easier warping. and the rear rotors are one piece with no venting so they are already kind of thin. i used to be able to get the rear brembos for $22 each.