|Many people don't realize that rotors need to be broken in. New Hondas will
|have somewhat of a soapy feel to the brakes when new, but will gradually
|break-in as material from the pads transfer to the rotor, and the heat
|generated from the braking will actually harden the surface of the rotors.
|I try to keep my braking reasonable and conservative during break-in...no
|stabbing of the pedal, no aggressive acceleration and stopping ..etc. After
|break-in, you get a good linear feel to the friction of the brakes.

Sort of depends on the pads and the rotor type. The more premium pads such as
Raybestos Super Stop and similar HD compounds should be bedded in pretty much
like race pads: Get the pads real hot with successively harder stops, then
immediately park the car and let them cool completely
Ttypical OE-type pads don't need this, but they do need a get-acquinted period
where the pads can wear to match the groooves and countours of the rotor face.
Initially, the contact area may be 80%, then over 90% within a couple of miles,
but after about 500 miles it should approach 100%

|Another reason the rotors get warped is often due to washing your car soon
|after the brakes are hot. I know a two honda owners who've made this
|mistakes.

I've heard that for a long time, but I've never known of a good cause-and-effect
example. If this were so, you should be able to warp a rotor by hitting a
puddle when the brakes were hot. If that were true, there would be a lot more
warped rotors.

|Of course, getting the brakes red hot (like in race conditions), will surely
|warp the stock rotors.

You'd think so, but actual road racing on stock rotors rarely warps a rotor. I
have a few years experience road racing production based vehicles - Jetta,
Pinto, early RX7. We get our rotors so hot they turn blue, and they regularly
crack, but I have yet to see a warped one.

In my experience, the 2 things that seem to cause this most:
1 - Rotors that have been turned down to the minimum or below. It used to be
common practice to fudge a bit on the minimum spec, often at the request of the
customer. "Just get the grooves out so I can sell the car". Modern rotors have
less than half the thickness range the old ones did. I wouldn't use a rotor on a
street car that was near the min thickness.
2 - Incorrect or uneven torque. This only affects cars with "hat" rotors, where
the rotor is separate from the hub. Mostly, this is the front rotors on a FWD
(the rears don't get hot enough). Integral cast rotors don't warp as badly and
can almost always be trued on a lathe without taking too much off.




Rex in Fort Worth