New pads & rotors installed, QUESTION!

[zimmerDN]

I just put on Centric blank (OEM) rotors with Hawk HPS pads. I have a concern; the pads is sitting about 2mm away from the center of the rotor.

Is this normal? My last set had about 0.5mm between the edge of the center of the rotor and pads. The pads are sitting flush with the caliper bracket because you can't have it any other way since there are bolts to secure it to caliper.

This is a 04 Mazda3

 

[Matt_S]

Sounds normal to me. No two brake pads are going to be exactly identical. As long as it sits in the caliper properly and covers the great majority of the rotor, I wouldn't worry.

 

[Kestas]

Is it a problem? The answer to that would be another question -- Did you turn the rotors? - or - Would the pads sit flush on the rotors if the rotors had been turned (or new)?

 

[rshaw125]

How do the new brakes perform?

 

[Throckmorton]

Not a problem. The pads on my Accord also don't span the full width from the outer circumference of the rotor to the hat or center of the rotor. I looked at a bunch of other Hondas and saw the same thing. That's just how it is. Unsightly, but not dangerous IMO.

 

[zimmerDN]

Looking at my rotors today I can see rings of different shades. Implying the wear isn't even across the radius of the rotor.

Should I be worried? sorry this is only my second time replacing rotors on a car. I have seen this happened the last time I replaced the rotors on a different car and everything turned out fine after a while.

However my car has a history of grooved rotors, even the dealer couldn't fix it. The dealer have had the rotors turned and replaced and they continue to develope deep grooves and ridges.

 

[mechtech2]

I'm not sure what you mean about being 2mm away from the center.
Do you mean that the pad has a little extra room on each side ? This is much better than pad overhang.
Hawk HPS pads are superb - given them a chance to seat in and burn off any compounds in/on them.
I hope that you greased the sliding surfaces and pins in the disc brakes - this is very important.

 

[Merkava_4]

Quote:

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However my car has a history of grooved rotors, even the dealer couldn't fix it.

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I can't figure that part out; grooved rotors is usually what only happens when the pads are worn to nothing and the rivets are cutting into them.

 

[The Critic]

Did you lube the pins, shim, and abutment points like I told you to?

 

[shoz123]

I always get slight grooves in the rotors. Just comes from using metallic pads I guess. Never caused a problem and I have never had them resurfaced. Just changed out my second set of front rotors on my '97 Taurus SHO with 140k on it and very aggressive driving (at times).

I switched to Cobra calipers which has a longer but skinnier pad but they are all at the outside edge of the rotor where the clamping force will have it's greatest effect and leaves quite a bit of the rotor area unused unlike the OEM pad which is a more square pad.

 

[zimmerDN]

Yes I applied lube to places that was necessary. I just came back this week after driving 1500mi; mostly highway.

The rotors looks fine except I still see a distinction from the inner edge to the outer edge of the rotor surface. Almost as if the calipers aren't applying enough pressure to inner edge of the rotors.

 

[Kestas]

The new pads may not yet have fully seated to the rotors. The wear pattern may imply that the pad surfaces (working surface and back of plate) may not be perfectly parallel, or the caliper piston surface isn't parallel to the rotor (production variance in the caliper mounting anchor). I think once the pads wear in you should have full radial contact and nothing to worry about.

 

[yamahaSHO]

I would personally follow any break-in procedures and see how they perform. Season the rotor a bit, the bed in the pads and I'm sure you're going to be fine. Unless you got the wrong pad or you had a burnt or cracked dust boot, There's really not much that can fail on a front caliper/disc brake setup.