97 Civic Rotor Issues

In March of 2003 my grandma replaced her brakes on her 97 Civic, and it ran fine until June of 2003 when she had to replace the rotors. Roughly every 3 months since then, she's had to have them rotated because they were becoming warped. Just recently she finally gave in and replaced the rotors entirely, hoping this will actually fix the issue.

These are all Honda parts, replaced by certified mechanics.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced anything similar to this, and if it's possibly a known issue.

Not to sound like an ass or anything, but since it is your grandma that drives it, she doesn't constantly ride her brakes like i notice a lot of old people do does she? That would warp them pretty quick.

Haha, nono., she's a good driver.. she went the first 5 years of owning it without any issues at all.

Are you guys sure that they are warping, like the steering wheel shakes when braking and all that. Still, not trying to sound like an ass, just trying to assess the situation here.

Yes, haha, no worries, I understand. Yea the steering wheel shakes when she slows down, it's definitely warped rotors.

are they bleeding the brakes lines and doing any adjusting to the pads that need to be taken care of.

Well, I'm not really sure for now as to bleeding the brake lines, but they were a licensed brake shop, and they've done our families brakes for years. So, I'm just assuming they were done correctly, and anything that needed to be done, was.

well, all I can really think of is that they are tightening your wheels too tight. If you over torque your wheels, you can warp your rotors after so much braking

Thanks very much, I'll check into that as soon as I can.

hopefully thats the case, cause if they are being installed correctly, which it does seem like they are, it might end up being something a bit serious. Make sure that they use a torque wrench and not an airgun to put the lugnuts back on like most shops.

These are all Honda parts, replaced by certified mechanics.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced anything similar to this, and if it's possibly a known issue.

Did she go to car wash after driving without any waiting?

Some of machine or people use strong stream to clean wheels when the discs are still hot that would cause the discs wrapped very easy.

If so, I recommend wash the car after a while or at least wait the brake system cool down.

Hmmm, nope, she's one of those people that insist on washing their cars themselves.

Funny thing about all this is that I replaced my rotors recently with raybestos ones (the name has been in my family for years) and after about a few days of driving with them, I've noticed the warping coming back. I know for a fact I didn't overtighten the wheels when putting them back on but now I'm curious. When I had my old rotors on, they were so warped, I could barely drive the thing, but since I've replaced them with new ones, could the brake pads still be unevened from my old rotors when I put the new ones on? It does make since when you think about it. If so, then that could be your problem too.

try replacing your brake hoses. I just had a similar problem recently with my brakes but with the front (disc brakes). I had warping on my front rotors so I relpaced my master cylinder thinking it was faulty only to relize it was bad hoses. Try adjusting your brake line so there is less drag on the brakes.... I have a feeling the warping is because the brakes are slightly engaged at all times even when your not depressing the brakes. If decreasing the drag doesn't work or if the drag is at the correct specs then you have a faulty hose or master cylinder. Its such a rare thing that most mechanics are too dumb to think this is it but I'm sure it is the same in your case as it was in mine. if your brakes are warping on both sides then your cylinder is bad. if you brakes are warping just on one side then your hose is bad. Hope this helps... I just went through this nightmare myself!

Another problem could be stuck calipers or calipers that don't retract properly because they are gunked up. If your grandmother isn't dragging her brakes with left foot driving, check the status of the calipers. They might be dragging anyway (and thus overheating) and need to be cleaned and rebuilt.

The status of the calipers is an often overlooked and misunderstood part of the braking system.

Spikeman84 ? Not sure what you mean by adjusting brake hoses ?
You mean to be sure there are no kinks ?