Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Brakes Don't EVER leave you brakes on for 40,000 miles!

Last night I replaced a set of rotors on MotorCity's SE ATX...what a pain in the butt that was. They were the original brakes on the car and had 40,000 miles on them, so they were worn RIGHT DOWN. They were so bad, that they had rusted right onto the hub , from the back side and it took me about 1 hour of pounding with a mallet and half a can of PB Blaster to get them off. I even had to use a screw driver to chip off the overlapping rust that was holding the rotor onto hub . On the driver side it was so frozen on that the disc portion separated from the hat from all the pounding! So I had to grind a groove into the hat and then drive a cold chisel into the groove to split the hat in half so the bastard would come off!

Don't leave you brakes on that long people...you WILL regret it.

I almost lost it...

So if you need brakes or have a butt load of miles on them change 'em before you end up in trouble.

It may seem like a shameless plug, but I have a group buy deal goin on right now, so take advantage of it if you can.

That was a crazy experience for sure. I will definately not be leaving my rotors on for that long ever again. I had them checked a couple months ago and they said I had 20% left. I don't know what I was thinking. They seemed to stop okay so I never really gave it much thought.

I can't believe I was trusting the lives of myself and others to those things.

Lesson learned.

Thanks Stazi!

I hope you treated the hub faces to a coat of anti-seize when you put the new rotors on!

AL

No, there was enough PB on them to sink a ship.

Plus, if you change them before they rust like the Titanic, you won't have any problems.

Well, mine are original with 56k on them. Changed the rears, so far, and no problems. Were the fronts worse?

Also, mine has been garaged most of the time, and Kansas is fairly dry compared to some places. Maybe I'll be OK.

In the past month I have changed 2 sets of brakes (both on a Focus) where there was NO pad and the rotors were totally trashed. On one the car's wheels have never been taken off (20K miles) and were rusted to the hub!

The fronts were all I could deal with last night. My patience was gone and my arms were jello from pounding the rotors off.


This car LOOKED immaculate otherwise, so I was astounded when the brakes refused to budge.

Also the morons at the tire shop that refitted MotorCity's wheels put them on so frigging tight that the highest seeting on my impact wrench almost didn't get the lug nuts off!

He has drums at the back, and I have to tackle those in the next couple of weeks.

We live in the salt-belt so it would be worse than most places, but don't expect smooth sailing on rotors that are 56K old!

40,000 not one warped rotor? Wow, I've been thinking of designing a quick-change dingus as often as I warp mine.
When I bought mine in summer of 97 by Fall of 97 "anti-seize" was everwhere too many school of hard-knocks winter salt corrosion.
Is the Autospecialty and Bendix the same quality of rotor? Stazi?
Advanced wants $58 for rotor for my Mystique LS w/rear drums.
I've warped the Stocks twice and the Autozone's Aimco's ching-ching rotors once, actually not that bad looking of a casting, but who knows about the metallurgy. Those recalled proportioning valve debacle didn't help.
Stazi how about The Bendix TitaniuMetallic pads & front rotors for 98 Mystique LS w/9"drum rears sort-of half a group buy? How much??

Paul

Yeah with all the salted roads I'm glad I got drums rears too much maintenace for all the good rotors do on FWD.