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Mysterious brake troubles

mrk5

mrk5

The Sticker Guy
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Admittedly this isn't on any of my Chevy trucks, but we discovered some rear brake issues on my wife's van. It's a 2014 with 70K miles and I thought it was odd the rears needed done.

I found this on 1 side
20200226_210412.jpg

20200226_210406.jpg

Curious if anyone else has seen this. It's some sort of build up around the outer and inner edge of the rotor that caused corresponding pad wear. You might notice where it chipped off when I banged on the rotor to pop it off the hub.

It's only on the inside. Anyone seen something like this.

The other rear side has a locked up slide pin that caused the inside pad to wear down to the metal. The outside pad still had 3/8" of pad left.
 
It's rust. We see it from time to time. Typically it forms at the outer edge and inner edge on either side of the rotor. Rust is a very hard surface that will cause the wear you see in a similar band on the pad. That hardness makes the rotor junk to turn. Even with fresh bits on our on-car brake lathe the rust will cause the bits to chatter, effectively shaking the head of the lathe and transferring the chatter from one side to the other and causing an irregular finish.

Time for a set of pads and fresh rotors.
 
What make and model of vehicle?

My sister bought a brand new Mazda where the brake calipers were locking up from Factory and prematurely wore out inner vs. Outer, Etc
 
ZooMad75 said:
It's rust. We see it from time to time. Typically it forms at the outer edge and inner edge on either side of the rotor. Rust is a very hard surface that will cause the wear you see in a similar band on the pad. That hardness makes the rotor junk to turn. Even with fresh bits on our on-car brake lathe the rust will cause the bits to chatter, effectively shaking the head of the lathe and transferring the chatter from one side to the other and causing an irregular finish.

Time for a set of pads and fresh rotors.
Click to expand...
We had taken it to the dealer for warranty work and they were the ones that point it out. All they said was the pads were down to metal and needed done. So luckily we already have rotors and pads. I figure on most of these new rotors you about need to replace them with the pads. In this case it needed done regardless.

I'm just hoping it won't happen again.

fordsucks! said:
What make and model of vehicle?

My sister bought a brand new Mazda where the brake calipers were locking up from Factory and prematurely wore out inner vs. Outer, Etc
Click to expand...
This is a 2014 Chrysler Town & Country. We bought it a couple years ago; it was a corporate vehicle and had low miles.
 
Up here road salt does a number on rotors--many rot out on the inside where the cooling fins are and will eventually collapse!..the salt pits the cast iron too,that chews up pads quickly..most of the rotors sold today are not high quality metal,they are made from recycled crap cast iron.
(I saw one I was about to sell to a customer that had a partially melted ball bearing sticking up out of the center where the pads ride once at the parts store!)..:eek:..that one was marked "defective" and sent back..I forget if it was made in China or Mexico,both those places are noted for poor quality rotors..

It is not often you get more than one set of pads used up before you need to replace the rotors around here...hardly anyone turns rotors around here any more,at least at parts stores,usually they are too wasted to be "turn-able" and you can buy new ones for a few bucks more than the few places still having a brake lathe would charge you to turn them..so they get scrapped..
 
mrk5 said:
We had taken it to the dealer for warranty work and they were the ones that point it out. All they said was the pads were down to metal and needed done. So luckily we already have rotors and pads. I figure on most of these new rotors you about need to replace them with the pads. In this case it needed done regardless.

I'm just hoping it won't happen again.


This is a 2014 Chrysler Town & Country. We bought it a couple years ago; it was a corporate vehicle and had low miles.
Click to expand...
If the rotors have any rust on the pad surface we pitch them into the scrap bin. Most rotors can allow one turning, but the amount you would have to take off to eliminate the scale would still put it below thickness. Plus loosing that much material would make it more prone to warpage. Rotors have come way down on prices to the point it's typically a wash between turning (labor) vs replacement (parts cost). That's having a a top of the line pro-cut warthog on car lathe in the shop too. I love that machine but anymore we don't use it as much because we end up replacing rotors most of the time.
 
Man, that rust sucks !! I'm glad I don't have to deal with it down here in Texas...

When I was going to rebuild the front axle in the dually and install a free wheel conversion kit, I did a lot of web searching and YouTube videos.
I saw all these people warning about the hubs and unit bearings being rusted in place, beating the snot out of them with sledgehammers, using 20 ton presses etc to break everything loose....

when I unbolted mine,,,they fell off the truck. :haha::dunno:
 
diesel4me said:
Up here road salt does a number on rotors--many rot out on the inside where the cooling fins are and will eventually collapse!..the salt pits the cast iron too,that chews up pads quickly..most of the rotors sold today are not high quality metal,they are made from recycled crap cast iron.
(I saw one I was about to sell to a customer that had a partially melted ball bearing sticking up out of the center where the pads ride once at the parts store!)..:eek:..that one was marked "defective" and sent back..I forget if it was made in China or Mexico,both those places are noted for poor quality rotors..

It is not often you get more than one set of pads used up before you need to replace the rotors around here...hardly anyone turns rotors around here any more,at least at parts stores,usually they are too wasted to be "turn-able" and you can buy new ones for a few bucks more than the few places still having a brake lathe would charge you to turn them..so they get scrapped..
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These don't even have the vented middle, they are a solid disc.

It was $108 for a pair of rotors and 4 pads. But now I gotta drop another $80 for a caliper bracket and caliper guide pin. The locked up pin is just full of rust. When I squeeze the boot it makes a crunchy sound.

wasted wages said:
Man, that rust sucks !! I'm glad I don't have to deal with it down here in Texas...

When I was going to rebuild the front axle in the dually and install a free wheel conversion kit, I did a lot of web searching and YouTube videos.
I saw all these people warning about the hubs and unit bearings being rusted in place, beating the snot out of them with sledgehammers, using 20 ton presses etc to break everything loose....

when I unbolted mine,,,they fell off the truck. :haha::dunno:
Click to expand...
We have middling rust here because of the mag chloride they put on the roads when it snows. It's not like the pictures I see of east coast trucks like @sweetk30 posts pictures of, but still annoying. It just took a little claw hammer persuasion to remove the rotors, but nothing drastic.

I figure the only way this guide pin rusted like that is it was never greased from the factory. The boot is intact so I don't see how this could have been contamination after the fact.
 
crap recycled metal dirty from the inside out .
non coated for rust protection . helps but still happens .
pads stick to bracket and cant float and so they dont move and the rotor face gets rusty from lack of full contact .

clean hub face and anti-seize before install of rotors and drums to keep them from freezing on and let them float .
clean rust from brackets were pad ear's sit . lube with a little anti-seize .
check and test fit pads on brackets and grind ear's as needed to get god fit but little loose not stiff . if stiff now then when the rust does start in again they freeze to the bracket faster .
( TIP test fit pads before anti-seize on brackets )
install and make sure slides have good lube and lots of it or they will freeze in brackets .

otherwise welcome to the crusty brake parts days :waytogo:
 
I've watched my friend have to use a 5 lb hammer to get rotors off vehicles they are so rusted on there--many end up coming off in pieces!.

Also watched him fight with those FWD hubs for up to an hour with the air chisel,hammers,cold chisels,torch,before they will finally come free from the knuckle..a few vehicles ,he had to give up and get a complete knuckle from a salvage yard when the knuckle suffered enough damage to be considered no longer safe..

The newer Ford F-350 front hubs are the worst ones to get off in his experience..
I saw one GM FWD car hub he was using a puller on,mushroom the end of the axle before the rusted splines came free from the hub,he ended up getting a driveshaft and a hub for that car,had to torch the original one off..after it was cut off ,his 20 ton press still would not get the splined end of the driveshaft out of it after grinding off the mushroomed end ,it refused to budge..it was like rust welded them together permanently..

I envy guys in other states that have no snow or salted roads--my '85 Burb needed to have its front swap bar removed,to install a plow push frame--I looked at those huge bolts holding it to the spring pads and thought "yeah right--those will NEVER come loose"...I had battled some before on trucks that lived here all their lives..those bolts seize up in the bushing sleeves BAD..almost never come out without a fight..(or a torch!)..
I put a 1/2" ratchet on the bolts and had a cheater pipe ready,but to my surprise they broke loose easily,and I unscrewed them by hand all the way out !..I guess Washington state must not use salt,because that Burb looked brand new underneath still when I got it,and still does compared to other ones like it that were here since day one..
 
If you submerged the truck in a swimming pool of drain oil--it'd still rust here in a few years..salt water seems quite effective at removing oil from steel..guys who put drain oil on their frames and undercarriages prefer used diesel engine oil,the soot makes it harder to wash away..
 
The problem with the mag chloride is it's liquid, so it manages to find a lot of nooks and crannies.
 
The shiny part of the rotor is where the brake pad is making contact with the rotor. The brake pads look like they are not making complete contact with the rotor. The pitting and checking on the rotor is from excessive heat build-up from when the caliper slider pin froze up, and held the inside brake pad against the rotor.
 
mrk5 said:
These don't even have the vented middle, they are a solid disc.

It was $108 for a pair of rotors and 4 pads. But now I gotta drop another $80 for a caliper bracket and caliper guide pin. The locked up pin is just full of rust. When I squeeze the boot it makes a crunchy sound.
Click to expand...
Rock Auto man. I just looked these parts up. Could have saved 50% or more
 
If I ignore my previous experience with the brakes on an S10 blazer and just tell you that my wife's Acadia hasn't had problems with the brakes, I can tell you that you should have just stayed away from the Mopar brand and bought GM!!

But you would never be a smart butt to me, so I should do the same!

:haha:
 
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