"alan" wrote

> So I've heard of this problem with Hondas where the rotors can sometimes
> "warp" when hot. I think I have this same problem too. When the rotors
> are cold, I don't feel any shimmy in the steering wheel, but when I heat
> them up I can feel it pretty bad. According to an article on stoptech,
> most rotors don't actually bend, but just develop "sticky" spots. So my
> guess is that my rotors aren't actually bent, but somehow the sticky
> spots get stickier when the rotors get warm. Does that sound
> reasonable? Are OEM brake pads abrasive enough (when cold) to scrub
> away this sticky spot?

Not "sticky"... more like "softer" or "harder" spots where the metal's grain structure
is different. After all, most of the cheap rotors are made in the back of a shack in some
third-world country where they melt down old cars, tin cans, broken AK-47s, or whatever
they can find. I very much doubt the metal is "pure" anything all the way through, or that
they properly cool them after casting to minimize distortion.

A few months back, I ordered some rotors. Right out of the box, I found 5 or 6 ventilation
holes right next to each other were still 1/3 full of casting flash that I couldn't chip out, the
internal fins were mismatched, like they didn't get the casting molds lined up properly, and
the vent slots wobbled, though the friction surface was straight (the only machined area).

The second set were the same, except that on both of these rotors, one surface was
already covered with rust.

We changed brands.... clean, dead-straight, fully-machined, perfectly matched cores.

The first set of pads was crap too. One pad had friction material that was twice as thick on
the inside edge as the outer, and not *quite* as flat as I'd like... it looked like a wedge-shaped
potato chip had been stuck to the backing plate with too much glue, which had squished out
around the sides. Real quality stuff.