Hello,
I have 67000 miles on my truck and just yesterday heard that metal to metal noise that happens when you don't change your brake pads on time. Anyway, I brought the truck to my mechanic and he is saying that every time he does a brake job, he changes the rotors regardless on the condition. I just would like to know, is this common practice? The rotors look fine but in this instance I probably let the pads worn too far and the rotors may have been damaged anyway!


Thanks,
Leos98

 

No, that's not common practice. Not even good preventative maintenance. He's the type of guy that gives mechanics a bad name. If you're not just looking for an excuse to spend money and want new rotors for some reason, there is absolutely not a single darn thing wrong with turning rotors (as long as there's not a specific reason to turn them).

 

I wouldn't even turn them at every pad change unless there's a problem. A good surface cleaning ought to be enough to get them ready to mate with new pads. You can only turn rotors so many times before replacing, and on our trucks' front rotors I think that's only once, if that.

 

It is too late now. He already replace them with aftermarket rotors.

 

I'd find a new mechanic if he did this without your approval. Might even refuse to pay. Definitely let him know about your disapproval/disappointment before you leave. If he wants your continued business he may at least knock off the parts or labor, if not both.

I had bought my last 3 tire sets at the same shop. I brought it in a while back because a tire picked up a screw, and I went to lunch while they were supposed to repair it. When I returned to the shop I find out they'd put a brand new tire on because it couldn't be repaired, they "couldn't reach me", and they wanted to have it "ready to drive away" before I got back. What really pissed me off is that the rest of the set only had about 3-5k mi left on them and I was planning to go with different tires when I replaced.

So they made me pay $150 for a tire I didn't want or $30 and an hour wait to have them put the old, unrepaired tire back on. I paid for that tire, but I will never again buy another tire there. (FWIW it was a Discount Tire, but I'm sure this shop's service was not necessarily indicative of every Discount Tire.)

 

I never change the rotors or turn them. I never have needed to. Just clean them well and change the pads. Has worked for me for all these years. Hate to say how many!

 

rotors should be changed when they are below spec. changing them before that is just a waste of money. i always cut my rotors if i am not changing them so that the pads have a nice new surface to mate to.

if you went metal to metal, it is likely that the backing plates on the pads ground into the rotors making them unusable. when someone comes in that has gone metal to metal, i always replace the rotors.

 

Must respectfully disagree with some of the other post. Like sfam198 said, you should always turn the rotors with new pads. It's like peanut butter and jelly...just one of those things you do. It give the new pads a flat, clean, surface to bed to and they wear in together as a set. When you install new pads on old rotors, it reduces braking effectiveness. There's always grooves and channels cut in rotors after 10's of thousands of miles. When you install new pads over that, the pad surface is mating to the tops of those grooves, reducing the mating surface area of the brakes, until some day down the road when those grooves and channels cut into the new pads. Is it dangerous? No. Would I do it?? Nope. Always turn your rotors to clean them up with new pads.

 

That is fine if you wish to follow that policy. I do some things too, that are overkill. I have hundreds of thousands of miles on my vehicles and I have never turned the rotors. I get 80,000 plus from a set of pads, they stop great, make no noise, so what will I improve by turning them. If I ever found grooves on the surface, I would turn them then, but see no reason to when they are smooth. Plus on the 4x2, 2004 up, not everyone can turn them.

 

I'm with Bluejay here. I'm now on the third set of front pads with my PowerSlot rotors. I've never turned them, and I still have beautiful, strong, even stops. Backs are developing a hop, but I need to figure out if that might be the rear speed sensor in the diff. housing.

At least we all agree that it's definitely not necessary to put on new rotors every time, unless they are damaged or warped.

Galaxy, out of curiosity: If the rotors could not be turned and seemed to be in good shape, would you buy new rotors or install new pads on the un-turned ones?

 

Once rotors are too thin to turn, I buy new rotors.

 

Hey, if it works for you...

 

i install 2-3 sets of brakes a day. i get people coming in every single day that have had their car/truck "pad slapped" somewhere else. their most common complaint is noise. sometimes it's worse. the point is, if someone is paying me to do the job, i'm going to do it right. this increases my customers' satisfaction with my work and decreases the amount of come backs i get.

rotors that are under specced get replaced, or i do not perform the work. if someone wants to put brakes on their car/truck that is, in my opinion (and many others in the industry), unsafe...let another shop do it. i've had a few people come in the shop and it was obvious they just kept pad slapping for hundreds of thousands of miles. the wheels come off and there is literally no rotor left. just the vent fins that are inside the face of the rotor. i find it amusing that some of the same people that preach using motorcraft spark plugs and motor oil on this site religously (because that's what the manufacturer specs) are the same ones that are ignoring the manufacturer brake specs.

what you do with your own truck is your business, but like i said when people are paying me for my services, i'm doing the job the way it's supposed to be done no questions. and of course i'm going to do it the same way on my own truck.

 

If I were being paid to do a brake job, I would do the exact same thing. There would be less chance of a problem and a comeback, plus it would increase sales. That was not the situation here. We were talking about what we do own our own vehicles.

 

yeah i see where you're coming from. even before i started doing this for a living though, i always had the attitude of do it right or don't do it at all. hey if it works it works.