One thing that is more important than making sure your car can ‘go,’ is making sure that your car can stop; safely and effectively. This question arises while repairing bad brakes components. During a Brake Repair, it is often common to see brake pad wear, and to replace the brake pads once they become low. In a lot of cases, we will notice imperfections in the brake rotors as well and suggest replacement. Like many of your car’s components, your brake pads and rotors are disposal parts that wear down every time your car comes to a stop. By replacing warped rotors not only can we achieve optimal performance and safety while driving, but our brakes will also last longer.
What Do Warped Rotors Look Like?
Identifying Warped Brake Rotors can sometimes be challenging, and other times be obvious. A warped rotor will have an uneven mating surface that can develop over time. The most common case of warped rotors that we see while repairing brakes, is visible gouging, or grooves that are cut into the face of the brake rotors; these will appear to have layers with various high and low spots that you can visibly feel to the touch while inspecting (please make sure the brakes are not hot before touching). Sometimes the warpage can be less obvious and can appear smooth, but still have high and low spots on the face of the brake rotor itself.
How Do Rotors Get Warped?
Brake Rotors can become warped for a number of reasons. For example, improper bedding / installation procedures, hot spots from aggressive or hard braking, too much heat, and many more. In some rare cases, we have even seen brand new rotors that are already warped from the manufacturer. We have found that the best practice is to replace your brake pads and rotors at the same time. The reason for this is so that we have two new, unused components rubbing and wearing down at the same time. If we put new pads on old rotors, or old pads on new rotors, the used component is already worn down in a particular pattern or motion that will help degrade and wear down your new components much faster.
How Do I Know If My Rotors Are Warped?
Warped Brake Rotors will make noise and in most cases you can either see the warped rotors or you can feel vibrations through the pedal or steering wheel while braking. We use the highest quality parts available when performing brake repairs because we have found that the longer your brakes last, the less they end up costing you. We do free brake inspections for all of our customers. So give us a call today if you are wondering: Why Do I Need to Replace My Rotors?
Contact Us for a Free Brake Inspection
Throughout the years of performing brake repair at our Oceanside Motorsports brake shop located in Oceanside, CA, we often hear the question: Why Do I Need to Replace My Rotors? We’ll check your car’s brakes for free, address any areas of concern, and move forward with repairs. Or if your brakes are making a lot of noise, checkout our other article to discover why this may be happening: Why Are My Brakes Squeaking?