I was swapping muds onto my wife's truck and found the rear passenger-side rotor totally chewed up by a disintegrating pad.
The truck has not quite 60K on it, I replaced front/rear pads and flushed the brake fluid at 40K (my recollection). I put Raybestos heavy-duty front pads on and standard rear pads (the heavy-duty were special order).
At first I was very concerned that I had a sticking caliper (fires are possible in such situations). However, only the outside pad was gone - the inside pad (with the scraper) was perfect, though both sets of pads on that axle were very worn down for only 20K - probably due to increased loading to compensate for the bad pad.
The rotor was destroyed - huge grooves cut into it by the rivets. I went and bought two heavy duty Raybestos replacement rotors and a new set of pads, slapped them on. The other rotor was still perfect, nice and smooth (never been turned, either!!). So, I figure I have a spare.
I figure we lucked out that I saw, that it was the outside pad not the inside (NOW I know why the scraper is on the inside!!), and that it wasn't a $200 caliper but a $55 (x2) rotor and a $35 set of pads.
I'm not mad at Raybestos - I've used their pads exclusively on all my cars for 15 years - but I think they should know they had a quality control failure and it could have been a real problem.
I took digital pictures and obviously have all the parts, but taking it to the local Kragen's would be a useless exercise. I looked at their website and they didn't have so much as a phone number to call. just email forms (not really appropriate for this).
Things I learned:
Brake maintenance includes close inspections at a reasonable interval, including pulling the wheels off (dumb luck I was putting muds on for hunting).
Rotors do NOT need to be turned whenever you put pads on (60 K and perfect rotors front and rear) but you do need to torque lug nuts to spec every time. I'd always heard that, now I've got proof.
Factory rotors cost $105, aftermarket rotors cost $55.
Any suggestions would be appreciated!!
Best,
Brian in CA
The truck has not quite 60K on it, I replaced front/rear pads and flushed the brake fluid at 40K (my recollection). I put Raybestos heavy-duty front pads on and standard rear pads (the heavy-duty were special order).
At first I was very concerned that I had a sticking caliper (fires are possible in such situations). However, only the outside pad was gone - the inside pad (with the scraper) was perfect, though both sets of pads on that axle were very worn down for only 20K - probably due to increased loading to compensate for the bad pad.
The rotor was destroyed - huge grooves cut into it by the rivets. I went and bought two heavy duty Raybestos replacement rotors and a new set of pads, slapped them on. The other rotor was still perfect, nice and smooth (never been turned, either!!). So, I figure I have a spare.
I figure we lucked out that I saw, that it was the outside pad not the inside (NOW I know why the scraper is on the inside!!), and that it wasn't a $200 caliper but a $55 (x2) rotor and a $35 set of pads.
I'm not mad at Raybestos - I've used their pads exclusively on all my cars for 15 years - but I think they should know they had a quality control failure and it could have been a real problem.
I took digital pictures and obviously have all the parts, but taking it to the local Kragen's would be a useless exercise. I looked at their website and they didn't have so much as a phone number to call. just email forms (not really appropriate for this).
Things I learned:
Brake maintenance includes close inspections at a reasonable interval, including pulling the wheels off (dumb luck I was putting muds on for hunting).
Rotors do NOT need to be turned whenever you put pads on (60 K and perfect rotors front and rear) but you do need to torque lug nuts to spec every time. I'd always heard that, now I've got proof.
Factory rotors cost $105, aftermarket rotors cost $55.
Any suggestions would be appreciated!!
Best,
Brian in CA