Warping rotors (1 Viewer)
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
40K on my rig, including lots of towing, and zero rotor warpage. The P.O. put new Bosch rotors on it right before I bought it. Usually rotor warpage is due to cheap Chinese rotors or driving habits. If you're buying cheap rotors, I'd go to O.E. Toyota rotors (or the Bosch ones that I've found to be good).
Some folks do a GX460 brake upgrade, as the front rotors are thicker. If it's a driving style issue that could be the ticket out. I'll probably do that upgrade myself the next time my rig needs brakes.
Some folks do a GX460 brake upgrade, as the front rotors are thicker. If it's a driving style issue that could be the ticket out. I'll probably do that upgrade myself the next time my rig needs brakes.
I was getting warped rotors even with Lexus oem rotors and Lexus brake pads.
I just switched the brake pads to Akebono ceramic brake pads and the warping stopped. This happened on both an old 2008 Lexus Ls460 and my current 2003 GX470.
So, use any decent solid rotors with Akebono ceramic brake pads and the warping stopped on me on two cars.
Anyways, that has been my experience on the two Lexus that I’ve owned over the last 12 years.
I just switched the brake pads to Akebono ceramic brake pads and the warping stopped. This happened on both an old 2008 Lexus Ls460 and my current 2003 GX470.
So, use any decent solid rotors with Akebono ceramic brake pads and the warping stopped on me on two cars.
Anyways, that has been my experience on the two Lexus that I’ve owned over the last 12 years.
FWIW my rig has Bosch QuietCast pads it as well. I drive rather conservatively with the brakes and very seldom do any kind of panic stopping etc.
On my previous beater (Subaru Forester) I went 10 years on a set of rotors (with 2-3 sets of pads) before replacing them due to warpage. I sold it to my neighbor a few months later. Now she warps rotors ever 8-12 months, but she has a very aggressive driving style. Sometimes the warp really isn't a warp but a buildup of pad deposits on the rotors.
On my previous beater (Subaru Forester) I went 10 years on a set of rotors (with 2-3 sets of pads) before replacing them due to warpage. I sold it to my neighbor a few months later. Now she warps rotors ever 8-12 months, but she has a very aggressive driving style. Sometimes the warp really isn't a warp but a buildup of pad deposits on the rotors.
Right…the buildup of pad deposits onto the rotors is usually the case.
So, pad composition and driving style are probably two important factors.
Often what seems to be a warped rotor is actually build up of pad material on the rotor (as mentioned in an earlier post).
After coming to a long or hard stop, tremendous heat builds up. If you sit at a red light, with your foot on the brake, this heat can ”fuse” some pad material on to the rotor. Now you have a high spot and you’ll get the pedal thumping.
While sometimes unavoidable, I’m very mindful of this and try to brake as gently as I can. If/when I know I’ve put a lot of heat into the system (hard stop, high-speed stop, downhill stop etc) I do my best to either get into neutral once stopped, or roll forward a bit every few seconds so I don’t bake the pads.
So far, 20k miles on my PowerStop set-up on my very heavy GX towing a trailer, and butter-smooth brake pedal.
Hope this helps
After coming to a long or hard stop, tremendous heat builds up. If you sit at a red light, with your foot on the brake, this heat can ”fuse” some pad material on to the rotor. Now you have a high spot and you’ll get the pedal thumping.
While sometimes unavoidable, I’m very mindful of this and try to brake as gently as I can. If/when I know I’ve put a lot of heat into the system (hard stop, high-speed stop, downhill stop etc) I do my best to either get into neutral once stopped, or roll forward a bit every few seconds so I don’t bake the pads.
So far, 20k miles on my PowerStop set-up on my very heavy GX towing a trailer, and butter-smooth brake pedal.
Hope this helps
- Thread starter
- #7
I drive like an a****** through the mountains on factory rotors, but they have been cut a few times. Last time I used new factory pads and followed the break in procedures which were a very different procedure from performance pads.
I've read that just going with a performance pad will keep the rotors clean, if they aren't necessarily warped. Anyone have experience?
My ideal fix is a GX460 setup, stainless lines, and maybe the Hawk rotors/pads. Dumping too much money in exhaust fixes and a tune right now though.
I've read that just going with a performance pad will keep the rotors clean, if they aren't necessarily warped. Anyone have experience?
My ideal fix is a GX460 setup, stainless lines, and maybe the Hawk rotors/pads. Dumping too much money in exhaust fixes and a tune right now though.
i didn't see it mentioned above, but check that you don't have a seized piston in your caliper assemblies. our '05 used to eat rotors on the passenger side every 15-20k until i replaced the caliper.
This is exactly right and 99.99% of the issue in almost all cases. Rotor contamination also is a problem.
We had a lot of brake problems at Porsche and the common denominator was drive thru car wash and warm brake rotors.
The chemicals would etch into the rotor surface and cause expensive and annoying problems.
I agree with mercedeezel on the seized caliper. You may not notice it but if the caliper is not letting the piston retract back in enough the pad will stay in contact with the rotor too much, leading to the buildup of pad material on the rotor as mentioned above. This will lead to the pulsating brake pedal. The calipers on these trucks are not that great and they seize all the time. When I did mine I did do the GX460 brake upgrade and have not had a problem since. In addition to being slightly larger, the caliper design might be slightly different for the GX460 and there may be some improvement over the GX470 caliper in regards to the seizing issue. I also did some research and found that the ACDelco calipers appears to be the best quality I could get. They are rebuilt at an ACDelco facility in Mexico, as opposed to China. They were slightly more expensive that the other available calipers as well.
Also I might add that when you replace the rotor make sure to clean up the hub really good before you put the new rotor on. If there is any rust or large imperfections on the rotor mounting surface this can lead to the rotor not laying perfectly flat against the hub. If the rotor is not sitting perfectly flat against the hub you will already be starting with a slight amount of run-out on the rotor surface (lopsided-ness). Now we are talking thousands of an inch here but that thousands of an inch can again lead to pad material building up improperly on the rotor surface, leading to that pulsating pedal. The pulsating brake pedal is one of my pet peeves, it bothers me to drive a vehicle if the brakes are not perfect, I actually find it unbearable.
What an awesome observation. Makes a lot of sense.
I ride dirtbikes in woods/single-track and noticed that when we ride if there is snow on the ground it leads to the pads wearing down really fast. I have attributed it to snow and ice hitting the pads/rotors and causing too much of a temperature swing (warm rotors/pads cooling down super fast with snow/ice), leading to the pads getting eaten up.
