[LEVY]

Brakes started pulsating when braking with vehicle loaded.

Rotors look perfect, brake pads still with about 70% life.

What else but a warped rotor!

Hold your horses, Rotors Don't Warp!

Found one of the pads cracked. Brake pulsation only occur when vehicle is heavily loaded.

New brake pads fixed the problem.

No warped rotor after all! 🤣

False alarm, sorry!

 

[Jeepman]

Yep, seen that problem before, caused by double warped rotor.

 

[Rick54301]

View attachment 60919

Brakes started pulsating when braking with vehicle loaded.

Rotors look perfect, brake pads still with about 70% life.

What else but a warped rotor!

Hold your horses, Rotors Don't Warp!

Found one of the pads cracked. Brake pulsation only occur when vehicle is heavily loaded.

New brake pads fixed the problem.

No warped rotor after all! 🤣

False alarm, sorry!

View attachment 60920
View attachment 60921

Hey Levy, Did you have the "not warped" rotor turned before new pad installation?

 

[LEVY]

Hey Levy, Did you have the "not warped" rotor turned before new pad installation?

No, rotors after many, many miles were still like new, no scratches at all. Not even super shiny, just right.

 

[CdnTinker]

Only warped rotor I've had in the last few decades was on rotors I'd paid ~70% of replacement cost to have them turned. (wanted to save a little bit of pocket money)

 

[Pgh_AL]

A dial indicator to check for runout is the only way to check to be sure . You can't really tell by just looking. The cracked pad tells the whole story .

 

[LEVY]

A dial indicator to check for runout is the only way to check to be sure . You can't really tell by just looking. The cracked pad tells the whole story .

No dial indicator is needed.

Pulsating brake pedal only occurred when:

1. Vehicle heavily loaded.
2. Vehicle was traveling 75+ mph
3. Brakes suddenly applied for a quick stop.

No brake pedal pulsation if vehicle was not heavily loaded, no matter how fast vehicle was, or how hard I hit the brake pedal.

After brake pads replacement pedal pulsation was gone.

After well over 100,000 miles, often pulling heavy loads, I wouldn't expect to see rotors this clean, no dark spots at all, no shining surface either.

Then, brake pads with 70% + life remaining.

Only problem now, I only found O'Reilly house brand brake pads (BrakeBest), don't know how good those new pads are. I couldn't wait as I'm leaving for a trip tomorrow.

 

[atoman]

When ambient temps cause you to question if you're in h3ll, warped rotors are hard to come by - there's not enough thermal 'shock' to cause one vented surface to contract enough while the other stays hot...
Whatever pads those were, either one was defective (get it exchanged, if shipping doesn't cost more then pads) or they're junk - they shouldn't crack from overheating without backing plate discoloration.
Edit: on second look, make sure those guide pins are free and caliper bracket surfaces are 'true' and clean - one of the pads looks to have run much hotter than the other.
which one cracked - caliper side or bracket side?

 

[Jeepman]

Don't think I have seen such mismatched pads re chamfer.

 

[LEVY]

Don't think I have seen such mismatched pads re chamfer.

Mismatched?

O.E. are completely flat.

Now, something very strange. Soft pads wear out very quickly, but you get better braking and better rotor life.

Hard pads last longer but rotor wears out faster.

Here you'll see pads with a lot of life still left (other than those cracks that wouldn't affect normal driving).

Rotors look new, no noticeable wear at all. On my 2012 DGC with regular brakes, I would replace pads every 4-6 months because they were making noise already.

Now, I'm still looking for Raybestos Police Interceptor pads.

Raybestos swear they don't have an application for our minivans, but I once got those pads by mistake. Box was labeled as regular brakes but inside were police pads.

 

[Jeepman]

Mismatched?

O.E. are completely flat.

Ooops, the shadow, over the one on the left, looked like a chamfer.

 

[LEVY]

Ooops, the shadow, over the one on the left, looked like a chamfer.

You are correct, but no, it is just an optical illusion.

 

[LEVY]

Ooops, the shadow, over the one on the left, looked like a chamfer.

After you mentioned it, I had to take another look just to make sure.

No chamfer at all.

Hard to believe those pads have over 140,000 miles of heavy use.

By the way, I'm getting ready for another trip.

Very heavy stuff,,besidrs from those yrees, it is mostly ceramic.

Half full so far.

 

[atoman]

View attachment 60950

Take a closer look - the two on the left have almost identical wear VS the two on the right are worn unequally.
I'd guess it's the caliper piston pad that's worn more, only you'd know, but if it is keep an eye on that caliper and pad - the piston where longitudinal crack is seen may be getting 'lazy' when hot (could be just the one, not both going at same time)...

Take care, stay safe and good luck on your trip.

 

[LEVY]

Take a closer look - the two on the left have almost identical wear VS the two on the right are worn unequally.
I'd guess it's the caliper piston pad that's worn more, only you'd know, but if it is keep an eye on that caliper and pad - the piston where longitudinal crack is seen may be getting 'lazy' when hot (could be just the one, not both going at same time)...

Take care, stay safe and good luck on your trip.

Hard to tell from pictures (ask Jeepman).

They all look even to me, but will pay more attention when I return to USA.

One cracked on piston side and one on the other side.

So far so good.

Thanks for your good wishes.

 

[Honeybadger]

Only warped rotor I've had in the last few decades was on rotors I'd paid ~70% of replacement cost to have them turned. (wanted to save a little bit of pocket money)

Do any shops even turn rotors anymore? In most cases, new rotors didn't cost much more than turning. Last time I looked for a shop with a brake lathe, I had no luck.

As for the crack in the pad, that's shear failure. Never seen that before.

 

[Honeybadger]

Mismatched?

O.E. are completely flat.

Now, something very strange. Soft pads wear out very quickly, but you get better braking and better rotor life.

Hard pads last longer but rotor wears out faster.

Here you'll see pads with a lot of life still left (other than those cracks that wouldn't affect normal driving).

Rotors look new, no noticeable wear at all. On my 2012 DGC with regular brakes, I would replace pads every 4-6 months because they were making noise already.

View attachment 60942

Now, I'm still looking for Raybestos Police Interceptor pads.

Raybestos swear they don't have an application for our minivans, but I once got those pads by mistake. Box was labeled as regular brakes but inside were police pads.

View attachment 60943

Are Charger brake parts the same as DGC? Parts bin engineering is pretty common.

 

[LEVY]

Are Charger brake parts the same as DGC? Parts bin engineering is pretty common.

Tried a crossover search with Dodge police vehicles but no luck.

 

[Jeepman]

Do any shops even turn rotors anymore? In most cases, new rotors didn't cost much more than turning. Last time I looked for a shop with a brake lathe, I had no luck.

As for the crack in the pad, that's shear failure. Never seen that before.

Still shops here turning rotors, Dealerships too, especially for getting used vehicles "certified" for resale.
The cost is a little cheaper than cheap white box rotors. The normal comparison can be apples and oranges. White box is lower quality.
There's a market for turned OE rotors in the body shop business.

 

[atoman]

Around here, most shops would refuse to turn any modern vehicle brake rotor -there's usually not enough thickness and it must be a liability issue.
You can still get 'antique' rotors turned.

However, in most cases, the rotors are not worth turning because the veins are so rusted / corroded they won't dissipate heat evenly leading to thermal deformation problems (and shops don't want to deal with returning customers and brake problem complaints)