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Irregular brake wear pattern

S

SecaRob

CEG'er
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
41
So this past weekend I finally got around to changing the front rotors and pads on my son's 99. I went with the Napa Ultra Premium and Napa Adaptive One pads. The rotors look fantastic since they are factory painted, the pads feel fine but I'll report back after a couple hundred miles.

I would like to get your thoughts on the wear pattern on the cheap ass rotors below. It does not look as though the entire pad was making contact even though the weare was pretty even on the pads. Speaking of pads, the inboard pad that mates with this rotor was actually lifting up off of the backing plate.

The guide pins looked just fine but I went ahead and changed them anyway.

Any ideas why the pattern below?

Thanks

Rotor Small..jpg
 
Take more pics. I almost want to swear you have wrong OD pads matched to wrong rotor. The wear pattern should be further out on the outside of the rotor close to the edge. It looks as if there is a step on disc in middle of pad. Was there a notch or step worn in the pads?

The pic could be deceptive................
 
I agree, it almost looks like the wrong size pads where used on the rotor. What did the brake pad look like?
 
I'll follow this post with more pictures but I wanted to give a little background. I have a receipt from the previous owner that shows these pad AND rotors were installed 27,000 miles ago the funny thing is that the garage noted that they installed "Economy Rotors"
 
What really amazes me is that the Contour stopped well and straight but of course I am comparing it to my Astro Van :).

I wonder if it is possible that they installed old pads on new rotors?
 
I think everything was new and matched to car. The wear I believe is caused by cheap porous steel chinese rotors. I had an Escort in the late 80'a that had rotors rust from the inside out (thru the vent webs) rust formed under the wear surface like yours. The top layer then flakes off. They only cost about 12-15 each new and couldn't complain for an escort. I had a set of front rotors on my 95 contour that the vent webs started to disintegrate before the original pads installed with them were worn. If you want premium performence buy premium parts. Which is what you replaced these with.
 
Just dug thru all the receipts.
At 54,000 new pads and rotors installed due to grinding sound in front end.
At 63,000 new pads and rotors installed due to pulsating pedal.

Both receipts from Bob Sumerel Tire.

Something smells here?
 
Roughly 200 miles later I thought I should check out how things were going. MAN it stops great! A good combo should anyone be in the market
 
From what I see there no way you can say discs were new, the backside has so much corrosion it looks like the pad was not able to contact correctly. No way that corrosion happened in 27,000 miles. Somebody put the whammy on somebody looks like to me. I've not got corrosion anywhere like that on 150,000 mile parts.

Just my opinion of course, but I've never seen any that bad before...............
 
what you are seeing is a common thing in my service bay, especialy with cars that dont get driven much.
typicaly the car gets driven once a week, in the periods of sitting surface rust forms on the rotors, over time the corosion builds up under the pollished surface and starts to crumble, creating the rings on the outer edges. the upper pic of the pads also shows the friction matterial starting to sepparate from the steel backer.
in the upper midwest salt belt I've seen this happen in as little as 10000 miles with factory pads and rotors.

If the numbers are all there, your 99tour has about 90k on it. that would adverage at 6400 a year, if thats accurate those brakes are almost 4 years old.
I would expect to see those brakes on a car with those kinds of numbers.
if it gets driven like amc49 does, you'll never see that again
 
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