cutlass1991 Posted October 27, 2005 Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 I put on 4 new wearever rotors, ceramic pads in the front and wearever cheap pads in the back. Wearever? more like wear5,000 miles. The rotors in the front are shot. Once they heat up, it feels like the car is going to shake apart under light to moderate braking. I'm guessing the reason they got warped so quickly is because of the ceramic pads... Can anyone confirm this? So I will be needing new brakes before inspection once again. :x This time I will seriously be considering doing a 94+ swap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94CutlassSLCoupe Posted October 27, 2005 Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 rotors don't actually warp! I have the same exact rotors on my car, except with a cheap set of Napa pads. Still smooth as glass after about 10k. Here's some questions for you 1: Do your calipers slide easily? (if the piston(s) is pushed in, you should be able to move it with your hand...my sliders have fresh grease on them. 2: do your pads show uneven wear? 3: Do you torque your lug nuts in a star pattern to 100 lb-ft? I will say though...the pads they sell at advance suck serious balls. I only bought their rotors because my local napa didn't have them in stock. I've torqued my lug nuts to 100lb-ft on all my cars and my current one is the only one i have ever had to replace the front rotors on. My '88 had very old rotors when my sister got it at 157k and the same ones were on there at 200k when it went to the yard...this is even using Wearever silver and wearever gold pads. 90% of the time, premature shaking from the brakes is as a result of the calipers not sliding, or rotors that were not built within tolerance. Very agressive pads do increase DTV (Disk thickness variation-what makes brakes shake) Growth. Honestly, my whole family will sit here and tell you my cheapo wearever rotors and the napa pads in the green box ($20) stop my car better than all our other W's (except the 97 GP) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94CutlassSLCoupe Posted October 27, 2005 Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 Oh, BTW...the reasoning behind why i had to replace mine on my '94 is because the car sat so long that the rotors actually were pitted. It was just a matter of time until it happened at that point Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cutlass1991 Posted October 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 hmm... interesting stuff. I can tell you for sure that I always make sure my wheels are torqued to 100 lb-ft. Ever since i saw a trans-am on 20"s sitting on three wheels on the side of the road :shock: I always make sure they are tightened to spec. I didn't actually pull the front calipers off recently to check the pad wear or if they can slide ok, so maybe that is my problem. I did notice that if I run my finger across the rotor from the inner diameter to the outer diameter, I can feel the ripples on the surface. That's awesome your whole family drives W's. 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94CutlassSLCoupe Posted October 27, 2005 Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 Even though i am only 19, I have my engineering co-op for school at a company that does braking systems for cars and trucks...very small place...but full of very smart people. Ripples makes me think that the pads may be to agressive, which ceramic pads ring a bell for that problem, IIRC. Yeah...actually all 4 of us could go some where each in our own Cutlass Supreme! lol Its kind of a nice thing as we really know how to repair them when they break. I think i have actually sold my friends on buying some w's as a result of our luck. I have a '70 Duster and my dad has an '83 Mustang GT Convertible (selling) and a 2004 Blazer 4x4 to go with the W's. Out of all of them though...the Quad 4 DOHC one and the 'Vert are my favorite [Hijack over] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cutlass1991 Posted October 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 Well I'm only 20 and am in EE at The University of Pittsburgh. And I'm posting on here instead of doing calc homework--typical slacker . It always blows my mind to find out how young people are and yet how much they know about repairing and modding these cars. anyway, yeah I'm thinking agressive pads killed my rotors. If I didn't have a fear of getting shot in the face with a spring, I'd definitely be up for swapping to the newer brakes. But for now I think a new set of rotors and those napa pads will do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94CutlassSLCoupe Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 Yeah i'm 19 (will be 20 march 17) and I'm an ME at Kettering University in Flint, MI. The "newer" front brakes are the same as the old, just with a larger diameter rotor. As long as you can get the parking brake to work, the '94-'97 rear stuff will just bolt on. It does work a lot better too. I don't really know if the Napa pads are the best ones, but from my experience they are a safe bet and work well. Plus...even if they wear out fast (which doesn't seem to be happening to me), they are only $20 a set. I would just ask them for the caliper slide grease packets, make sure your sliders are clean and rust free and then give them a fair amount of that before you put them in. Not on the threads, but on the area where the caliper slides. It will also help if your brakes sqeal, as that is caused sometimes by the caliper not being able to slide freely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19Cutlass94 Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 You can get three grades of pads and two grades of rotors at NAPA. The cheapest pads, the better pads, and the best pads lol depending on how much you want to spend. And the worse rotors and the good rotors. Whatever you get at NAPA, dont mix the good pads or rotors with the bad pads or rotors Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihela816 Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 I've had great luck with my wearever rotors. They compare to the Brembo rotors I had on the Regal. I would check for another problem first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron350 Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 94CutlassSLCoupe please give more details. “rotors don't actually warp!” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfewtrail Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 94CutlassSLCoupe please give more details. “rotors don't actually warp!†Here's an article on the subject... http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_warped_brakedisk.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SigEpCutlass Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 Its a known fact that ceramic pads and our car's OEM/OEM Equivalent rotors don't like ceramic pads. When I first joined here a few years ago it was a hot topic and it was something I was going to do. People who tried ceramic pads had increased stopping distances and their pads got chewed up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19Cutlass94 Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 Ive been trying different kinds of pads and rotors for along time, what I found the best was just OEM rotors, and either raybestos professional grade semi-mettalic or the wagner equal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron350 Posted October 29, 2005 Report Share Posted October 29, 2005 I see this article is associated with a company selling something. It almost sounds like a pre disclaimer for their products. http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_warped_brakedisk.shtml “In fact every case of "warped brake disc" that I have investigated, whether on a racing car or a street car, has turned out to be friction pad material transferred unevenly to the surface of the disc.” Written by Carroll Smith not Carroll Shelby? If this is hypothesis is correct thousands of brake rotors are wrongly turned because of friction materal build up. How can this explain rotors that are out of true (warped) in the area where the brake pad does not come in contact with the rotor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z34Phoenix Posted October 29, 2005 Report Share Posted October 29, 2005 well this i beleive their explanation works for most cases, but i just changed my rear rotors, and found that the pads had uneven wear. and the inner pad had an angle on the surface of it. it is like the entire rotor was leaning inward i was running ceramin pads in the back. but had problems from when i had the car at minekee. they royally messd my brakes. first they never greesed the sliders on my rear calipers (they put them on) and never put the e-brake return spring on... this cause major wear on my car. but now im running new slotted rotors and carbon metalic pads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitzel Posted October 30, 2005 Report Share Posted October 30, 2005 Its a known fact that ceramic pads and our car's OEM/OEM Equivalent rotors don't like ceramic pads. When I first joined here a few years ago it was a hot topic and it was something I was going to do. People who tried ceramic pads had increased stopping distances and their pads got chewed up. EE/CompE/CS graduate from a major university in Canada here I run factory front rotors + Raybestos Quietstop Ceramic pads on the fronts. No problems with warping or uneven wear whatsoever. Still have all factory parts on the rear, but will probably have to change both rotor and pads next year as they are wearing down pretty good. As ceramic pads break in and get some wear on them, they feel more powerful. They just wear at such a low rate that it takes forever for a proper amount of break-in to occur. If you look at the tapered construction of a typical ceramic brake pad, this phenomena will become apparently obvious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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