Wheel hub / brakes

[Sawdusted]

Guys,
Is there an advantage or having the brake disc rotor bolted to the back of the hub? I have a 2001 pathfinder and I just spent 3 hours having to take apart the caliper and front hub to change the rotors. Why couldn't they have made the rotors between the wheel and hub like most other cars? I know they changed the design in newer pathfinders but what were the engineers thinking?

And these rotors can only be turned on-car. Might as well replace the rotor if I am doing it myself than pay $75 a wheel to turn. Sorry for the ranting. Back to your usual programming

 

[yonyon]

There is no reason those rotors can't be turned on a bench lathe. They're more suited to it than slip-on "hat" style rotors. A hat may mount to the hub in a slightly different position than it mounts to the lathe chucks. A trapped rotor stays bolted to the hub either way.

This "trapped" or "captive" style of rotor mounting allows for turning on a bench lathe with the ease and precision of a one piece rotor and hub assembly but with lower cost of replacement because the hub can be reused.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Shops sell what they know and/or own, those could have been taken off the car. It just meant the mech didn't have to mess with them as much.

 

[NHGUY]

Hondas and GM 3/4 ton 4x4s have that wonderful design too.

 

[supton]

That's a bummer of a design. Did it take you three hours, or did you have to pay three hours shop time?

 

[Sawdusted]

It took me 3 hours to do both front rotors. I had to take the hub off the axle and regrease the outer wheel bearing. I'm sure the shop would have charged about 2-3 hours worth of labor for the same job too. It's pretty involved.

All the places I brought the rotors to said that they didn't have a cone large enough to fit the 6" hole in the center.

Can the rotor be turned with the hub as an assembly on a brake lathe off-car?

 

[exranger06]

I had to deal with that stupid setup on my Accord. Luckily for me, there is a pretty simple way to convert it to the regular rotor over hub design, which I did when I had to replace rotors a second time.

 

[Sawdusted]

Unfortunately there is no conversion available for pathfinders that I know of.

 

[doitmyself]

Why did you not regrease the inner hub bearings? Or, am I misunderstanding something.