Change Your Mind When It Comes To Rotors and Pulsation Comebacks
How do you handle a pulsation or comeback? Blame the pads? The driver? Defective rotor? When you point your finger at these items, there are three fingers pointing back at YOU. How much stock do you put into these common shop myths about brake rotors?
Top 10 Brake Job Mistakes For Pads, Rotors And Calipers
Here are the top 10 brake job mistakes made by rookie technicians when replacing brake pads, rotors and calipers. 10. Not cleaning the brake slides and hardware: Just slapping new pads where the old pads once resided never works. The slides and abutment clips should be cleaned and/or replaced.
Composite Rotors Are Back
Veteran technicians will remember the problems with composite rotors in the late 1990s. These rotors had hats of stamped steel cast into the iron rotor. They saved weight, but they were prone to runout and installation errors. These types of rotors were on vehicles like the Chevrolet Malibu and Jeep Cherokee. Most OEMs abandoned this
Finding, Fixing Runout and Disc Thickness Variation
Now that the warped rotor myth is busted, and we’re not just replacing the rotor and moving on, what are we doing instead? Measuring runout First, check for rotor surface runout with the wheel mounted. Components should be marked as you perform an inspection of the assembly. By measuring the rotor on the hub, you
Stop the ‘Warped’ Rotors Myth and Service Brakes the Right Way
Myths take hold because either A) they seem completely logical or B) they are so often repeated that they just become common knowledge. The warped rotor myth is a little bit of both. A rotor that contributed to a pulsation condition certainly appears “warped.” Plus, everyone says it — even technicians that know the rotor
Brake NVH: Real World Applications
First know that all brakes make noise. When the friction material makes contact with the rotor, the coupling causes the brake pad and rotor to oscillate and vibrate. The components are locked as a combined system that will vibrate at the combined system’s natural frequency of vibration. This is called force-coupled excitation. The driver hears
SAE J2928: Rotor Standards
In 2012, an aftermarket rotor testing procedure was approved by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) titled J2928 Brake Rotor Thermal Cracking Procedure for Vehicles Below 4,540 kg GVWR. The document was a marriage of current industry tests and best practices. The goal of the document was to make a standardize test that could evaluate
Servicing Corroded Drums and Rotors
In the Northeast and Midwest, a flat tire and an alloy wheel seizing on the hub (two parts jammed or stuck) is a common occurrence caused by corrosion. Corrosion and rust are nasty problems that make repairing a vehicle difficult. Corrosion is the product of an electrochemical reaction, in a vehicle’s case, between two dissimilar
Measure Rotor Thickness, Runout: Stop Pulsation Comebacks Before They Start
Let’s say a vehicle had .003″ of lateral runout when measured at the outside face of the rotor. If this vehicle is riding on 205/55R16 tires, in one mile, the high-spot with .003″ of runout goes past the caliper approximately 836 times. Over 6,000 miles, that spot on the rotor will go past the pads more than 5 million times. Every time this spot passes the pads, a little bit of the rotor’s material is removed. Over the course of those 5 million revolutions, enough material is removed to create a thickness variation that can be felt by the driver. This is why it is critical to measure thickness and runout in a brake rotor and wheel flange even if new rotors are going to be installed.
Performing A Brake Job On A 2007-2013 Toyota Tundra
For 2007, the Toyota Tundra was redesigned. The body changed, and the foundation brake system was also updated with larger front brake calipers and rear disc brakes. The control system and hydraulics changed with a new vehicle stability system that included yaw, steering angle and brake pedal load sensors.
Why Chasing The Cheapest Brake Job Costs Your Shop In The Long Run
Ever since the 1930s, there has been a war on the price of brake jobs. Eighty years ago, shops were advertising low-priced brake relines on sandwich boards for $19.99, but they complained about “gyps” selling brake jobs for $9.99 on the side of the road. We see almost the same situation today. This time the price point is around $150. Instead of gyps, shops are complaining about some guy on Craigslist who will perform a brake job for around $40 if he is provided with the pads.
Returning Brake Rotors To ‘Like New’ Condition
When it comes to returning brake rotors to “like new” condition, it is a two-step process that can be different every time. If the vehicle has a pulsation symptom or complaint, it pays to perform a diagnostic check before machining the rotor in terms of both time and additional parts sales.