A picture is probably worth a thousand words:

Driver's Side (http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=main/7/19413592069.jpg&s=f10)

Passenger's side (http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=main/7/19414022891.jpg&s=f10)

For some time on my brother's 02 Malibu the front breaks have been creaking. I finally got asked to take a look at them and was quite surprised by the way they've been wearing. The outwards facing sides of the rotors are shiny and smooth for about the first 1/2" to 3/4" out from the hub, but then get discoloured, rough, and pitted after that. The unusual wear appears to be limited to the outwards facing sides only as the inwards facing sides are entirely smooth and normal.

As for the creaking noise, watching the caliper while someone steps on the pedal in the car, I can see the whole caliper moving in a "flexing outwards" type motion. In other words, the rear of the caliper seems to push out from the center of the wheel. I've assumed that this would explain why the wear is occuring the way it is.

My question then is, why is the caliper creaking/flexing the way it is? Bad pins? Pistons? All the bolts are tight..

I doubt any amount of machining will salvage these rotors, so before I put new ones on, I need to figure out how to fix the calipers, or if they should just be replaced.

Anyone else ever have this problem?

Thanks in advance

-- Steve

Rotors are about $19; pads about $28 and calipers about $50. The best thing you can do is buy new calipers (both left and right) and new rotors (left and right) along with new pads. This is not the newest thing but it is tyhe best thing.