Racedreamer
Racedreamer New Reader
1/30/10 4:23 p.m.

Recently I installed new pads and rotors. For about 6oo miles things were breaking in ok. The fronts looked perfect; the pattern on the rotors was nice and even. The rears were not as consistent as the front. After reading some posts in a few different forums I figured I needed to let the pads continue to break in.
<img src="#//img638.imageshack.us/i/rr1.jpg/][/URL]" />

Fast forward 200 miles and I notice a little groove developing on the driver’s rear rotor. It’s not real deep but you can definitely feel it with your finger.
<img src="#//img40.imageshack.us/i/lr4x.jpg/][/URL]" />

I figure now I need to check the face of the pad so I remove the wheel and take the caliper off to check the pad. Sure enough the pad has a something protruding from the face. The picture below shows a shinny line toward the bottom of the pad face. That line also lines up with the groove on the rotor. [URL=http://img268.imageshack.us/i/lropad2.jpg/][/URL] So in efforts to keep from trashing my new rotor I need to figure out how I’m going to fix the pad. I came across a few posts talking about sanding pads to remove glaze from the pad face. I think to myself I could try to remove the protrusion from my pad face. I’ve have plenty of flat blocks I could us to keep things flat while I try to remove the irregular item.
My thinking was I’ll take a file and nock the high spot down quickly and clean things up with some block sanding to finish the pad face. Before I begin the repair I wanted to know if anyone has had the same problem and what was done to fix the issue. Is my idea doable or am I going to cause more harm than good. Does anyone have any ideas why the rear pads don't seem to be making consistent contact across the rotor?

Racedreamer
Racedreamer New Reader
2/1/10 9:46 a.m.

sachilles
sachilles HalfDork
2/1/10 9:50 a.m.

Looks like you might have had a small stone stuck in there for a little bit. Now that it's gone, it should even out over time.

93celicaGT2
93celicaGT2 SuperDork
2/1/10 9:52 a.m.

I bet it's not a pad OR a rotor problem, actually. When you took the pad off, did you happen to notice if the clip that holds the pad into the caliper looked strange at all? Bent, shiny, etc etc etc?

I bet what's happening is that something is hitting the rotor there, and grinding the rotor down, and the pad is simply following because that specific line isn't making contact with the rotor, everything else wearing down around it.

I had this happen to my driver's side front rotor/pad on the Celica a while ago. Mine was a bit farther progressed than that, and i had no idea it was going on, until finally probably after hundreds of miles, it started making noise.

Check it out, make sure nothing else is touching the rotor, then go ahead and sand the pad flat, and slap it all back together. Check on it again in a week or two.

Racedreamer
Racedreamer New Reader
2/1/10 11:38 a.m.

Thanks for the info.

I'll do a tipple check an make sure I'm not missing something.

Timeormoney
Timeormoney New Reader
2/1/10 6:10 p.m.

In reply to Racedreamer:

Just in case you ever do need to "custom grind" a pad. Just use concrete, asphalt..whatever paved surface is near you.

Racedreamer
Racedreamer New Reader
2/2/10 6:54 a.m.

In reply to Timeormoney: 10-4. Thanks for the tip.

Racedreamer
Racedreamer New Reader
2/10/10 10:40 a.m.

Turns out Hawk is sending me new rear pads.

You'll need to log in to post.

Our Preferred Partners
8jmnvMU9NswqWGRRDBKwktCxhta63PNdstMQFda2kvfkqBZyjSm4P6HrIO2JyiNe