Questions about the brakes

[rbajjk]

1997 Aurora owner for 1 year - only had to replace the radiator so far. But now the brakes - I have a rhythmic (speed related) pulse in the front right. It is kind of like the warped rotor pulse, but not just when the brake is pressed - hence my brake questions (before I look into replacing the hub and bearing unit). I should also note that I have the gm shop manuals as well (if you send me to those as reference).

Anyway:
1)I look at the rotor and there appears to be a kind of scorched area on the rotor (maybe a quarter way around) - does this indicate a severely warped rotor, or a bearing assemply going bad? Pads are good on both sides.

2)At rest the pads appear to be flush against rotor. This may be normal, but I expected the pads to sit off of the rotor. I at least expected to be able to get a sheet of paper between the pad and rotor - no such luck. Might this indicate an aging caliper?

3)Saw replacement calipers (loaded with Akebono ceramic pads) on rockauto.com. Anyone recommend replacement/remanu calipers? Xan I reasonably expect the remanu to be of a lower (or higher) quality than current equipment? Given the potential caliper issue I noted above, would you take a shot and get one of these?

4) Finally, the rotors are original (83k miles now - most of the last 25k have been highway), any recommendations to replace, or suggestions of what to replace them with?

Thanks to all in advance for reading and hopefully replying. This is a great forum!

Brian

[old goat]

Here's a site that goes into some detail on rotor problems. Hope it helps. Vibration could be also be caused by unbalanced tires. Do a search for "road force" on this forum. It was recently covered.
http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/...otors_myth.htm

[rbajjk]

Any other ideas?

[dsatt12]

83k is a lot of miles for a set of brake rotors. The scorched looking spot may be where a hot pad sat there after you stopped and it caused differential cooling. It leads to a minute warping there. My advice would be to get all new pads and rotors. Unlike some I just get standard aftermarket ones at O'Reilly's usually. I can buy quite a few $35 front or $19 rear rotors for the cost of a slotted cross drilled one for the front. I am becoming a fan of the better pads (I wave Wagner Ultra-Quiets or something like that) as they leave a lot less brake dust than the $20 a set from O'Reillys. I wouldn't mind trying ceramic pads either, as they don't have dust that sticks to wheels.

Pads don't really retract from the rotors much at all- they just don't get squeezed. I'd not worry about that. If all your brake pads on different wheels are wearing at the same rate your calipers are fine. The inboard pad tends to wear out quicker than the outboard one, so that doesn't usually indicate a problem unless it's a HUGE difference.

I have one remanufactured caliper on my back right. I f'ed up the old one by trying to shove it straight in instead of twisting right after I bought mine. I've had no troubles, and it works exactly as the OEM on the other side does as far as pad wear and stuff.

[rbajjk]

Gotta love these boards!!

[Genopsyde]

i just replaced pads and rotors on the front this past saturday due to a squeeking on the left side. It was very easy to do, half hour per side, but for some reason, I still get a squeeking when i first press the brake pedal after the car has been sitting a while, but after that it doesn't.