Why Rotors Warp

The #1 reason for warped rotors is excessive heat.

There are a few ways this can happen...(1) riding the brake a lot or stop/go traffic, (2) overtightened tire lug bolts (very common). Make sure they are tightened to the proper ft. lbs. (3) bad caliper cylinder that won't release (sticks).

I've got aftermarket rotors on my Legend and they work fine.
Also, have your brake fluid changed/flushed every 2 years (nothing to do with rotors, but always a good idea).

 

also FYI: if your abs is working, it's working on all 4 wheels, if it's not working then it's not working on all 4 wheels.it can't work on the fronts and not on the rears.

 

the fronts do do all of the work.. well 90% back does 10.. if the discs are warping then as 92leg says its cos theyre hot and the only thing that can do that is pads.. but the pads have to have something making them clamp and its either the wrong pads jamming somehow or the caliper clamping.. .. i had a sticky caliper on the back of mine and it turned out to be the wrong pads jamming between the piston and the caliper?(make sense?) and not releasing proppa.. you need to test your brakes by jackin the car up and spinning wheels to see if theyre stiff.. then applying the brakes and see if they jam on tight.. then cracking each joint along the way(master cyl, abs, brake hose etc) to see where and if the pressure releases......

EDIT:did this start to happen before or after the m/c install

 

I hear what your saying and realize heat is causing the problem. Problems started afer MC install, My buddy (Acura Mechanic) originally thought the lugs may have been overtighted but after two rounds of his setting the torque specs I highly doubt thats the prob. Also two sets of pads, probably not the wrong ones jammed in. While the fronts are doing most of the work, car shouldn't dive down in the nose according to him and he originally found that the setting on the MC was out of whack, but can that then go back to causing the problem?. Caliper issues could be the prob, but I'm wondering more about the MC and the Booster. Car has been serviced regularly in the past with Brake fluid flush etc. If I was having drag problems due to the Calipers wouldn't I notice the car pull or decrease in gas mileage? Most of the driving I do is highway.

 

To eliminate rotor warp, you need to properly season your rotors. If you also have new brake pads, you will also need to properly bed the pads. Once you have done these procedure, whether it is OEM/Aftermarket rotors, you practically eliminate warp rotors.

Most people eventually get warp rotors because they don't have the time nor do the necessary research to find out how to do it.

The rotor seasoning process is basically a procedure to heat cycle the rotors. By gradually heating the rotors to its maximum temperature and then letting it cool, then perform this several times, you are basically rearrange the crystal structure of the rotor to be able to handle a sudden large spike in temperature change. i.e. during sudden hard braking.

Here is the procedure to properly season new rotors and bed new pads. link If both the rotors and pads are new then they can be performed at the same time. The procedure should take about an hour. Make sure you do this on a long empty stretch of road.

 

I hear what your saying and realize heat is causing the problem. Problems started afer MC install, My buddy (Acura Mechanic) originally thought the lugs may have been overtighted but after two rounds of his setting the torque specs I highly doubt thats the prob. Also two sets of pads, probably not the wrong ones jammed in. While the fronts are doing most of the work, car shouldn't dive down in the nose according to him and he originally found that the setting on the MC was out of whack, but can that then go back to causing the problem?. Caliper issues could be the prob, but I'm wondering more about the MC and the Booster. Car has been serviced regularly in the past with Brake fluid flush etc. If I was having drag problems due to the Calipers wouldn't I notice the car pull or decrease in gas mileage? Most of the driving I do is highway.

not really as it only has to be on a little.. are you sure that yo mate adjusted the brake pedal proppa.. when do yo brakes come on?.. is yo pedal really tight?.. if all these probs started after the m/c install then logically there has to be something wrong there.. you could try adjusting your pedal to give it more play...

 

Newbie to the forum, could use some insight to a brake problem that I have been having on my 94 gs sedan. 87K orig miles now , relplaced master cylinder at 74K, at same time put on new rotors/pads. 6K miles front rotors warped bad Took to my friend who is a Acura mechanic in MD. Told me aftermarket rotors were no good. New Acura Rotors, 4K miles same problem . Took back to him relplaced front rotors and adjusted master cylinder as the nose on the car would dive upon braking as if the front brakes were doing all the work. 3K miles later front rotors warped again . ABS seems to only be working on the front as feedback is much less then it used to be. PS. Honda shop put the replacement master cylinder on. HELP!!!

At this juncture I would think that you need to change mechanic. You should also obtain the helminc.com service manual and study it intensly concerning the brake/ABS section.

A few things though. Brakes applications on all cars are usually 60 % front, 40 % rear. Cars usually dive or drop in the front when the brakes are applied due to physics. Never heard of, or did " break seasoning ". You cannot adjust the master cylinder. The ABS does NOT assist in braking but rather it is an intereference system, meaning that when there is one, or more, wheels locking up due to snow, ice, mud, etc the ABS cuts off the brake fluid to that or those wheels. If your ABS system is activated you will feel a kick-back in the brake pedal. If the ABS yellow caution light comes on it means that there is a fault in the system and the ABS disabled, and you will have normal brakes. You should have normal brakes ALL of the time.

Seems like your after market rotors (6000 miles ) are lasting longer than the Acurs ones ( 4000 and 3000 miles ). So stick with aftermarket .

I would do a thorough inspection of all the wheel calipers. Even though your car is low milage it is now 11 years old and there could be some corrosion in the caliper pistons. The calipers are rebuildable and of course replaceable with new, or, rebuilts.

Good luck. RAP

 

Missing the Big Picture......

There seems to be a problem from the repair. To me it sounds as though the dealership did not bleed the system correctly. Either that or they did not prepare/bench bleed the master cylinder before they put it on. Go through a master cyl bleed by having a person press on the brake pedel and then brake the seal at each line that comes into the master cylinder. This should make a mess but will get rid of the majority of air that I think is still in the system. Then bleed the remainder of the lines and if you can, bleed the ABS system. I don't know how, but check your manual. This should get rid of your problem.

 

At this juncture I would think that you need to change mechanic. You should also obtain the helminc.com service manual and study it intensly concerning the brake/ABS section. RAP

I couldn't agree with you more.

... Never heard of, or did " break seasoning ".... RAP

Then I suggest you read up on it with the link I have provided above. It'll tell you why and how.

The ABS does NOT assist in braking but rather it is an intereference system, meaning that when there is one, or more, wheels locking up due to snow, ice, mud, etc the ABS cuts off the brake fluid to that or those wheels. If your ABS system is activated you will feel a kick-back in the brake pedal. If the ABS yellow caution light comes on it means that there is a fault in the system and the ABS disabled, and you will have normal brakes. You should have normal brakes ALL of the time. RAP

ABS is not an interference system. It is a brake assistance device. When the system detect wheel locked up during braking, the ABS system pulses the brakes at approximately 10 pulses/second to prevent the wheels from continually locked up. This will allow you to contine to STEER the car around an object.

 

Read the LINK and all I can say is that the info is for the Baer co. promotional
efforts. Interesting, but mostly it will be of little value to the novice or young drivers and the common folk. You will note that the " seasoning " process is directed towards " racers ". For the rest of us, well, we install, or have installed, new brake parts and do a few brake pedal applications driving down the street, and call the job done if the car stops normally.

Insofar as calling the ABS an intereference system, my choice of words, I call it that because that is actually what is happening. There is a misconception generally about ABS in the sense that folks think it will assist in brake application or add more braking force to the wheels and of course it does not. My comments were not intended for the folks who know ALL there is to know about brakes, but to the unknowing, in words that I think are understandable. Of course if anyone is really interested in how any ABS system works www.howstuffworks.com is a good site for easy to understand info on, well, how stuff works, and is just a click away. Personally I obtained a service manual and did a thorough read on the Acura ABS since I do have that yellow light nagging me. Never having had a car eqiupped with such a device I wanted to learn all about this system.

As far as the original poster is concerned, my best guess, with the info provided, is that there is something wrong with the wheel calipers.

There is mentioned and recommending bench bleeding. I do not, and never have done bench bleeding. First off when replacing the MC, even after bench bleeding it, there will be some air introduced in the lines during the process. I install everything as it should be and bleed the entire system afterwards. Works for me and I ALWAYS have good brakes.

I hope the original poster is not all confused by this time and has found some help here.

RAP

 

Read the LINK and all I can say is that the info is for the Baer co. promotional
efforts. Interesting, but mostly it will be of little value to the novice or young drivers and the common folk. You will note that the " seasoning " process is directed towards " racers ". For the rest of us, well, we install, or have installed, new brake parts and do a few brake pedal applications driving down the street, and call the job done if the car stops normally. ....

RAP

The link does take you to Baer's website. As with any commercial website, the information contained will always be used to promote their product. The StopTech website also has a similar process, but they call it a "bed-in" process. In any case, the theory and procedure are very similar. I believe a reasonable person should be able to separate the facts from the promotions.

You are right that most people out there will not care nor want to invest the time to perform a proper break-in and seasoning procedure. When someone complain about warpped rotors, I feel that you can do something about it. This is the reason why I'd included the link. If people want to learn more, they have a starting point.