Snow Plowing Forum banner

Rear Brake Rotors Rotting away!!!

3K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  Bad Luck 
#1 ·
:angry: I was hearing some squeaking from the rear. so i popped the wheels off and saw that my rotors were totally rusted away, their were flakes coming off of it. There was no recall or warranty for this. so the bill was over $700 to get new rotors and pads and have the brake lines flushed! :angry:
 
#4 ·
ya, fronts are great, little rusty, but not that bad, its a 01 33K miles, used to be in upstate NY, lotta salt i guess, plus i got my trans fluid changed so it was a total of 933.00, crappy day, wasnt expecting to spend any money on Friday lol, especially that much
 
#5 ·
snowyleaflandscaping said:
ya, fronts are great, little rusty, but not that bad, its a 01 33K miles, used to be in upstate NY, lotta salt i guess, plus i got my trans fluid changed so it was a total of 933.00, crappy day, wasnt expecting to spend any money on Friday lol, especially that much
Damn, coulda did all that your self in about 3 hours for about $480. But to each his own! Atleast its taken care of now, those brakes are about the most important thing on any car/truck/suv IMO. :salute:
 
#8 ·
snowyleaflandscaping said:
ya i def could of, but i didnt want to deal with it, it was cold out, plus i dont want to mess with my breaks
I hear ya! At ten below the thought of laying on cold concrete working with cold tools while hunks of gritty ice fall in your face is just not fun! There are things I'll do in warm weather I wouldn't even THINK of doing in winter.

But then, I'm a middle-aged wimp! :)

Pete
 
#9 ·
Thats a very common problem with all of GM trucks/suvs... I know of many, included myself, who've had the problem.
 
#10 ·
I had a similar problem with the fronts on my truck about 3 years ago (mind you the rotors were at least 10 yrs old so I had nothing to lose... they may well have been original but they sure struck me as OEM rotors)

I took them off, and used a welding chipping hammer to clean all the scale off (which astounds me it was there since the truck was in use pretty well daily, yet the rotor had a thick coat of scale on it). It took very little effort, maybe 5 mins a piece and that was cleaning out all the 'vents' around the perimeter too... being anal. Gave them a 1 min hit with the wire wheel on a die grinder while I was at it.

The rotor was still plenty thick, so I took them to a local shop and had them turned for around $30.

I reinstalled them with new pads (which for my truck were a whopping $25 or so).

So for a touch over $50, I had like-new front brakes with thickness well within specs (in fact I could do the same operation again and still be within specs). They only take a few thou off per side.

Shops these days are on a kick of replacing rotors instead of turning them (drums too), not just because they are lazy, but because they can mark up the parts and make profit there too. Aftermarket parts (ESPECIALLY brake rotors) are no where near as good as the OEM parts, so I will keep the stock stuff on until they are beyond repair. You will never, ever see me pay that kind of money for a brake job. That is insanity that it costs that much. Rotors are still just hunks of cast iron, turned out by the millions. There is no magic there.
 
#11 ·
Mine are like that too. Looks like road grime and salt get trapped in the vents, coupled with the extreme heat their a breeding ground for rust. I plan on going the Power Slot rotor and Hawk Pad route when the original brakes go south.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top