Drove the wife's van, noticed the front rotors are warped pretty bad. They look like they're in fine shape corrosion wise, is there any point to turning them? If not, any recommendations on aftermarket replacements?

Also the rear rims are black most of the time, time to replace those pads with ceramic?

Thanks!

 

the brakes are awful on these....if the rotors were always warped it would be the best van hands down in my opinion. I have seen many posts about after market parts but nobody it seems states whether it actually fixes the problem. I have read it is undersized rotors but other dodge vehicles have the same issues, such as the journey

 

I'm going to try a new pair of wagner rotors on the front, see how long they stay in shape.

 

Yes the Soccer Mom, Groicery getter, people hauler's brakes were not engineered to withstand much aggressive like braking.

I have an 02 and when I put ceramic pads on they warped pretty bad the 1st time I had to do an aggressive stop. It was on interstate and there was a near miss ahead and we all had to jam the brakes. They warped immediately. It actually shook the steering wheel pretty hard in my hands. And I just had them turned that day.
Then they seemed to be less warped after a short while.

I talked to my parts counter man about it and his 1st question was "Did you put ceramics on it?"

I spoke with a Raybestos rep about performance rotors and pads for my truck and when we discussed warping he he said lots of the time its not warping so much as it is deposits on the rotors. I told him about the Van and said some of my Vans symptoms were warping and the deposits eventually wearing off had me thinking the warping was not as bad.

I have seen drilled and slotted rotors for the vans but am waiting for someone else to try them.

 

I replaced the rotors with wagners, bought from AdvanceAutoParts. A reviewer noted that they had 22k on the rotors w/o warp, we'll see if I have similar experience.

I sanded the pads to remove any glaze, and they still looked like they had a lot of life. I torqued the lug nuts evenly down to 100 ft/lbs.

I'll keep track and see how much time/mileage we get out of those rotors... and report back.

 

thanks...i and i am sure many others look forward to the information! It is amazing, doesn't matter what you do the things warp. My fronts were just changed again and I think the dealer put on ceramics....the only issue we have really had with this van.

 

My next rotors are going to be drilled and the lugs are going to be tightened by me.
These Vans have brakes designed or sized for casual driving so if you are a tad aggressive such as hitting an interstate declining off ramp and having to mash them pretty hard for any kind of duration you will be susceptible to warping.

Add the increased heat transfer of ceramics and bad wheel torque procedure and it multiplies.

For me with a 2002 it may be futile but I'm going to give it one more shot as far as an attempt to upgrade the parts.
Right now I am running the lifetime warranted Advanced Auto Wagner rotors and bi-metal pads. So when they warp and wear I just swap them out.

I am trying to decide between EBC or Power Slot for the rotors.

Now that I know how easily my 2002 warps I have modified my driving but still, they warp so easy!

 

It may be a quality issue with the rotor, or the fact that rotor material components have changed over the years?

In the 90s, I didn't have any problems with rotors - in fact I'm not sure I ever bought a new one. Even our previous van, 2001 GC EX didn't have this issue. My brakes lasted 50k+ miles w/o intervention, and sometimes I turned the rotors when I switch pads - based on how bad they looked. At one point I'd bead blast the rust away then have them turned.

Now it seems rotors aren't lasting through the life of the lining. Our 2011 van barely made it through 12k miles before the warp was so bad it we had to address it. Why? The size of the rotors don't seem to be a factor, they don't look thin or small in diameter. The caliper is the same technology as before, front anyway (rears are a different story, probably requires a different thread just to talk about it). Cooling wise, the large openings on the new wheels afford for much more opportunity to cool things off than the old steel wheel with hubcap setup.

The wheels... steel wheels are history for the most part. You do need to be very careful with lug torque, as the new wheels have different thermodynamic properties than the steel rotors. I noticed that years ago, don't pull the AL wheel down evenly and you're going to warp those rotors. This may be why I'm having issue, the tires are such crap that its necessary to rotate often to get any life out of them. I suspect that my wheel lug torque was uneven after a rotation - and couple that with dis-similar metals between the wheel and rotor, and we get warp? Maybe...

Oh well, time and vigilance with the torque wrench will tell.

 

I agree on the cheap stuff for sure.
And confess sometimes I have to nail them due to aggressive driving. I am a PI and sometimes during mobile surveillance I have to play catchup and rapid deceleration or get creative. I don't have to do this much but that's how I warped my last set. I had to come down from 80 real fast on a down hill off ramp in short order. Not to the point of activating the ABS and was still surprised to feel it because from 80 to 45 still shouldn't have.
And those were put on at a shop with an air wrench so.......

What torque spec are you using. I do 110 ft #. My studs are M12-1.5.

The Tire Rack Chart says 80# but it just don't feel right eh? When I get these drilled discs I may bite the bullet and go 80# because of the expense in the experiment.

 

More on the issue of what we call warping and whats really happening.

I called Raybestos tech again line today about shoe materials for another vehicle and then got into a discussion on disc warping.

He said most of the time its just material transfer and what we feel in the pedal is the thickness variation working the caliper piston in.

He noted in the event of a real warping the caliper will float with it and we may not feel it. If its warped enough to max out the floatation distance and started on the piston as well the vehicle would just about be UN-drivable, or at least an uncomfortable experience.

So if its really warped bad enough we will feel it all the time. Most of the time we feel it when we make it happen and then it gets less severe because some of the material transfer wears off.

He also says Ceramics will transfer materials faster than organics and that is why in my Vans case it was really bad in comparison to the organics I had on there. All according to the quality of the pads as to how bad. A junk organic may transfer easier than a very good ceramic.

He noted to avoid any issues when servicing to indicate the rotors at installation to make sure there is no more than .002 run out. And to torque them properly and to lube the caliper pins to aid in proper floatation and return.

The police version of pads are organic and are a hi-heat capable pad. Too bad there is not a part number for the van eh?