Question about Brake Rotors

Where i live 25% or more rust on rotors gives a instant vehicle inspection failure, a lot of pads and rotors with a lot of thickness still left will be replaced due to this. Main reason for premature rotor replacement is salt/rust corrosion which are a factor in places where the roads are salted during winter/snow season. I work on vehicles so i see this issue often. Salt and grime gets between rotor and pads, grinds along and makes a uneven contact surface. Same thing happens when salt and grime gets between pads and caliper, pads get stuck and there is uneven contact surface.
Best measure to combat this is try to wash brakes so salt don`t settle and brake hard few times. But i also see that economy cars never have calipers treated with any paint or coat, they are just a bare metal.
 
In the Rust Belt area I can only get 50K miles before needing front Rotors and brakes. The Pads lock up in the slides and get crooked and wear on a angle.

Rust will also fill up the Cooling Vanes on the Rotor.

Wheel Bearings take a beating and are tough to remove until you figure out how to press them out.
Turning rotors is a bad idea, we were a hub store so we made up special deals, buy pads and rotors get 30% off today,
 
73,000 on original front and rear pads and rotors 2016 Ford Escape FWD S. in South Texas.

A bit under half pad remains on front.

When I lived in NY I would have to put pads and rotors on every car I owned the rotors would rust from the inside out.
 
I drive easy and probably don't stab the brakes hard enough often enough to keep the slider pins and abutment surfaces happy. Or maybe, like everyone says, it's the salt.

Semi-metallic pads are supposed to be better for polishing (consuming) rotors, something I'm considering for my seldom-driven vehicles.

I don't think I've ever worn a set of pads out, seems like something comes along that leads to pad pedal feel or obviously rusted rotors before that time.
 
I got over 100k out of the pads on my 2005 Silverado HD. During that time I replaced the rotors twice due to rust. Some of the newer coated units are better though. No matter how well the slides function the inboard pad has a hard time cleaning the rust off the rotor and will get a creep from the outer edges that will eventually make the rotor unusable.
Yay road salt. Around here they throw it on dry roads at 40 degrees..... seriously
 
Companies offer painted rotors. The hub mating surface inboard from the friction (swept) area is what gets coated / painted.

Anybody ever treat / paint / rustproof the finned zone in the middle?
 
Semi-metallic pads are supposed to be better for polishing (consuming) rotors, something I'm considering for my seldom-driven vehicles.

we’ve got 2 sets of raybestos eht (element3) pads in use here, and about to put a set on a friends car in an hour. i like these pads a lot. They are a bit harder on the rotors than oem and akebono. Their stopping power and pedal feel is great, however. The rotors do stay “polished.”

unlike other semi-metallics I’ve used in the past, EHT pads do function when cold. I’ve certainly had semi-metallics that had startlingly less bite for their first mile, and that was a concern when someone else needed to drive my car.
 
This morning most of the board is old brake threads necro'd by britdude.....someone is taking those "similar thread" suggestions from the board seriously.....perhaps without looking at dates of posts.....but good tech is good tech I guess
 
Companies offer painted rotors. The hub mating surface inboard from the friction (swept) area is what gets coated / painted.

Anybody ever treat / paint / rustproof the finned zone in the middle?
I just bought a set of AC Delco rotors. They came treated inside the fin and vane area, yet the mating surface was bare. I threw on a light coating of VHT caliper paint to slow the rust there. I’m not sure I could effectively treat the inside canes myself with a rattle can.
 
Turning rotors is a bad idea, we were a hub store so we made up special deals, buy pads and rotors get 30% off today,
Many years ago, rotors were much more expensive and they were made with more thickness between new and minimum, so turning was often the best option. $8 to get them turned vs. over $100 for new.

So, you would Mic them. If they could be turned, then you got more life as well as a fresh surface on which to bed the pads.

Now, with cheap new rotors, and minimal thickness between new and minimum, turning them isn’t always possible, and often isn’t cost-effective compared with new.

I still mic rotors, but they are often too close to minimum to be re-used.
 
Many years ago, rotors were much more expensive and they were made with more thickness between new and minimum, so turning was often the best option. $8 to get them turned vs. over $100 for new.

So, you would Mic them. If they could be turned, then you got more life as well as a fresh surface on which to bed the pads.

Now, with cheap new rotors, and minimal thickness between new and minimum, turning them isn’t always possible, and often isn’t cost-effective compared with new.

I still mic rotors, but they are often too close to minimum to be re-used.
I have mic’ed many Honda and Toyota front rotors. Every single one has had sufficient thickness to be machined at least once. The pair on my MIL’s 2013 ES350 have been machined twice and should still have enough material remaining to make it thru the current set of pads.

The real issue is with machining the rotor - very few lathe operators are capable of machining rotors without adding more runout. This is why OEM’s are requiring the use of on-car brake lathes for warranty and customer-pay brake work at the dealer level.
 
Many years ago, rotors were much more expensive and they were made with more thickness between new and minimum, so turning was often the best option. $8 to get them turned vs. over $100 for new.

So, you would Mic them. If they could be turned, then you got more life as well as a fresh surface on which to bed the pads.

Now, with cheap new rotors, and minimal thickness between new and minimum, turning them isn’t always possible, and often isn’t cost-effective compared with new.

I still mic rotors, but they are often too close to minimum to be re-used.
Yep. Up to maybe the mid 1980's new rotors were too expensive. You kissed up to the parts store to get your rotors (or drums) bumped to the front of the line. Saturdays were the worst...
 
Did brakes on a Camry today. The rotors that came off were one year old and pulsing, brand was carquest premium. The owner also had the rotors that came off a year ago, which looked identical and weren’t that worn; also looked like carquest premium by the same gray paint and other minor details like vane orientation, etc.. im not convinced it was the rotors fault; as the pads were supremely ineffective of any bite whatsoever - they may have been so hard as to be impossible to bed; but after this experience I wouldn’t choose carquest rotors. I will say the ac delco replacements had more metal in the braking surfaces.
 
Yep. Up to maybe the mid 1980's new rotors were too expensive. You kissed up to the parts store to get your rotors (or drums) bumped to the front of the line. Saturdays were the worst...
We never turned Rotors when I worked at AAP see when they are turned you cut the surface of the cast iron and it takes real skill to get the finish back so it doesn’t tear up the pads.
 
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