Brake rotor issues

[WyrreJ]

I am detecting a pattern - 3 for 3 bad rotors in NY. Maybe it is road salt or something that does them in.

[V-Twin hiCROSS]

My rear rotors "dissolved" as well, at aorund 50K miles. We do get road salt laid here in Missouri. I replaced them with Napa rotors, so far so good. I am considering doing the braided metal brake lines to stiffen up the pedal feel. How much work is it?

[driver3]

Mine were all Ohio miles.. there's enough salt there to eat any car after a while.

I'd like to know about the brake lines as well

[Ldub]

The s/s braid lines aren't too bad of a project, I just did mine last weekend.
Kinda messy,have lots of paper towels/ shop rags on hand. Also, do yourself a favor & get a flare nut wrench (10 or 11mm, can't remember which),a qt. of DOT3 brake fluid, a drain pan & away you go.
Also, I remember seeing a write up here about the same topic, maybe try searching brakeline.
Rotsa Ruck, Ldub

[psychos2]

yes but the salt did not eat the rotors off any other car i have had in ny. i would say garbage rotors and salt = dissolved rotors. shawn

[MarkChai]

I replaced all my front brake components on the 85 Cruiser FJ60, but the damn rotors were seized to the freewheel hub housing.

I took them to Brake masters because I couldn't get them apart, no matter how much I banged and pried. Took them 45 minutes to get 'em apart, too.

Anyway, as the tech put the new rotors on the hub for me, we chatted for a while, and his opinion was the ceramic pads are only necessary on the 3 cars in the US market that come with them. They were all high end $80-$90K+++ luxury cars.

Ceramic pads are harder than the steel rotors they are contacting. Therefore, the ceramic pads will last LONGER than the rotor in most cases. He was not trying to sell me pads or rotors-- I had already bought my own.

So, keep that in mind for any car... This makes sense when you look at it. The auto parts stores are pushing ceramic pads left and right-- Because you get to buy new rotors sooner than later, which cost more than new pads...

[psychos2]

Anyway, as the tech put the new rotors on the hub for me, we chatted for a while, and his opinion was the ceramic pads are only necessary on the 3 cars in the US market that come with them. They were all high end $80-$90K+++ luxury cars.

Ceramic pads are harder than the steel rotors they are contacting. Therefore, the ceramic pads will last LONGER than the rotor in most cases. He was not trying to sell me pads or rotors-- I had already bought my own.

So, keep that in mind for any car... This makes sense when you look at it. The auto parts stores are pushing ceramic pads left and right-- Because you get to buy new rotors sooner than later, which cost more than new pads...

like you said thats his opinion.and if you talk to others they will say you don't need stainless steel brake lines .there are 3 cars that come with them blah blah blah.the auto parts store did not push them (ceramic pads)on me i decided i wanted them.i did not like the stock pads.the same thing can be said for other stuff to, like tires .they chose those tires for a reason blah blah blah. and are the pads really harder? i don't know. are the stock steel rotors garbage? mine are. shawn

[Maugan_VX]

and are the pads really harder? i don't know.

The ceramic pads are harder than the material that the rotor is made out of.

Therefore, its no wonder than you think the stock rotors are crap when the pads you bought for them are eating them away. The pads are supposed to be the sacrificial lamb in the braking process, not the much more expensive rotor.

Don't say that the isuzu rotor is crap when you were the one that destroyed it by putting the wrong pads on the brakes.

[psychos2]

The ceramic pads are harder than the material that the rotor is made out of.

Therefore, its no wonder than you think the stock rotors are crap when the pads you bought for them are eating them away. The pads are supposed to be the sacrificial lamb in the braking process, not the much more expensive rotor.

Don't say that the isuzu rotor is crap when you were the one that destroyed it by putting the wrong pads on the brakes.

maugan_vx, how do you know i put them on before the rotors turned to crap????? you don't do you?????? because the rotors were garbage BEFORE i put on the ceramic pads!!!! YA BEFORE !!!!! maybe i should say it one more time so you can understand it BEFORE !!!! the stock rotors on MY vx are GARBAGE. maybe they are made out of different metal than yours because mine are junk!!!!! both front and rear from the stock pads , not the ceramic pads!!!!putting on ceramic pads may wear them faster but does not turn them to crap. shawn

[Maugan_VX]

After reading that post....

I can definitely say that it was owner error.

putting on ceramic pads may wear them faster but does not turn them to crap.

I want you to go in your backyard and conduct a little experiment Einstein.

go take a piece of wood and start rubbing a rock up against it.

See which lasts longer, the piece of wood, or the rock. I know where I've got my money.

because the rotors were garbage BEFORE i put on the ceramic pads!!!! YA BEFORE !!!!! maybe i should say it one more time so you can understand it BEFORE !!!! the stock rotors on MY vx are GARBAGE.

So you made them worse by putting hard pads on them.

BRILLIANT!

Oh and,

like you said thats his opinion.and if you talk to others they will say you don't need stainless steel brake lines

I don't think you'll find a single person out there that will refute the worthiness of upgrading to braided lines unless its their personal preference for mushy stop pedal.

drdavid:

Same here, had to replace my rear rotors under 30,000 miles!!!, they were real crap from Isuzu!

I realized there was a problem when I was traveling 60MPH down hill towards a light and before I knew it , it changed red and I slamed on the brakes but the truck didnt stop and I slid right through the intersection and red light. Lucky I didnt get hit. Thats when I brought it in for a brake job!

More than likely this was caused by air in the brake line or "boiled" brake fluid thats done gone kicked the bucket. Same thing happened to me in the ole troop except I had a boat on the hitch pushing me through that intersection !!!! After I replaced the MC and still had the problem, a simple fluid change finally solved my problems.

[psychos2]

maugan_ vx, you have no clue . i will end the discussion before i say something that gets me banned from the sight. shawn

[Moncha]

I guess we could say some of us agree to disagree on this subject. I take it to be like the window and 1st cyl problem, some of us have the problem and some don't. It doesn't mean all are "crap" just some. It's not worth getting undies all bunched up, it's a matter of discussion, not argument.

[VXtreme]

I have got 71,200 miles on my rotors. All are OEM that came on my '99 VX. I have not even had to change the pads yet, let alone the rotors. When you factor in that I have a Supercharger, drive it hard and do alot of hard stopping, I don't quite understand what is happening to your rotors. By-the-way, we use lot's of salt on our roads (Great Salt Lake and all) I have never had a problem with the orginal rotors.

[Maugan_VX]

Well isuzu probably outsourced the production of OEM rotors to several different vendors over the years. Probably the reason for the disparity.

[Hotsauce]

I have tried in total 6 different brands of brake pads on our truck, so far, none are up to the stock pad in terms of ease of modulation at the threshold point, or resistance to fade on repeted high speed stops.

Most of the aftermarket rotors are made in China. All rotors from there are the worst quallity porous cast iron. I just ordered new rotors/bearings etc for the fronts, I wouldn't even consider non-stock for these parts.

John C.