groovy brakes

[cutter]

Pulled this the other day. Had issues with somewhat spongy, weak brakes that didn't inspire much confidence on the road. Now I see why. These are the backsides of the rotors, the front side is a bit better but still grooved with rust. Caliper slides weren't too bad, they compressed but did need cleaning up. How do brakes turn out this way, and how to prevent them from doing so?

 

[magnus308]

You probably dont brake hard often enough to keep the rotors clean from rust, When you have got too much rust on the rotors it will start to increase the wear on your pads.

 

[actionstan]

Originally Posted By: magnus308

You probably dont brake hard often enough to keep the rotors clean from rust, When you have got too much rust on the rotors it will start to increase the wear on your pads.

I agree with this, I find with my saturn, if I don't occasionally beat on the breaks a little with a few hard rolling stops, when possible, it starts to develop a small shudder.. after a few hard braking applications it seems to straiten itself out, odd. Normally I am a very light on the brakes, but it doesn't seem to help with this car.

 

[threeputtpar]

Usually that will happen with the cheaper pad types. The friction material is just not good enough to sweep that rust off of the rotor. I've never had that happen with high quality pads, but did have that on the rear of our old Mountaineer with the low end NAPA brake pads.

 

[asand1]

Looks like someone did a pad slap after going metal to metal. The grooves get rusty and the ridges stay shiny.

 

[hattaresguy]

Someone let the previous pads go down to metal and pad slapped shot rotors.

 

[artificialist]

This looks like a combination of infrequent driving and road salt.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: artificialist

This looks like a combination of infrequent driving and road salt.

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy

Someone let the previous pads go down to metal and pad slapped shot rotors.

I think both.

 

[Merkava_4]

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana'">That's what happens when you use riveted pads and run the pads down to the rivets. Try bonded pads next time.</span>

 

[Mr_Incredible]

This rotor surface was not due to rotors hitting the rivets. It was totally pad to rotor marks. Lots of rust caused by long periods of sitting. All four corners of my truck looked like that. Plus, portions of the surface were peeling off and the truck shook like crazy as it was coming to a stop. I replaced all four rotors and pads. Looking back, an interim fix (if the surface hadn't started peeling, might have been to hit the rotor surface with a DA and 150grit, and use the same to knock the glaze off the pads. Driving the truck regularly for a week or two would bed in the brakes and it just might work. Obviously, there are a number of things that could make it fail, but if you're looking for absolutely cheap fix, that might work.