I have a question / story.

About 2 months ago (2000 miles ago) I installed new brakes and rotors on Beanzilla's MINI. All went well and she had smooth braking and no problems. Just last week she developed a warped rotor!

It's on the front (driver side I believe). And now we are about to have it taken care of as I'm too busy and the weather is too lousy for me to do the work myself again.

The new rotors were not OEM, they are however the same specifications as OEM except they're drilled. I've been told by someone who is constantly modding and playing with his Mustang that I should switch all the rotors out back to OEM. That he's gone through the same thing, and these rotors will just keep warping.

What especially sucks is that I bought two sets of these rotors, and was going to install the second set on my MINI next summer. I've just sent the rotor people an email asking them to contact me (we are 5 days over the warranty... of course), and am waiting for them to respond before I start naming calling and farting in their general direction. They may in fact end up being helpful (crossing my fingers), but I'd like some opinions please.

1. Anyone else have a similar story?

2. Should we get the troublesome rotor turned and wait and see (about $200 each time... or more)?

3. Should we just switch back to OEM? (new... I recycled the old ones)

4. Insert additional question/answer here.

 

Geeez, seems there isn't anything these days that isn't krap unless it is OEM. I had the starter go out on my Regal a few years ago and was told unless I wanted to replace it again in less than a year that I needed to get a NIB Delco and not a rebuild. But on a rotor? I mean unless they are being manufactured in some dung filled ditch on the side of the road in India, how could the quality be that bad? Maybe because they really were made in some dung filled ditch....yadayadayada

 

That's kinda what I thought. I figured maybe one was slightly warped and 2000k later it's noticable. But now being told that this could keep happening makes me wonder... not sure I buy into that. But at the same time I wouldn't know (however I don't want to find out!)

Should have also mentioned she hasn't braked hard recently or gone down a huge Mt. riding the brakes all the way. Nothing out of the ordinary... except for the new vibrations while braking!

 

I don't know if this is relevent or not, but as I sat this morning drinking my coffee, on NAM, with Speed Channel's Sports Car Revolution in the background, I heard this guy, I think from TCE, say that rotors don't really ever warp, they actually get worn deeper in one spot than another, and as the pad follows the contour, it feels like a "warp" to your foot. I think his point was that it is often the pads, not the rotors, which are at fault, or a bad combination of the two, or they got really hot once. I actually haven't a clue, but I think I'd call TCE and ask them what they think.

 

How were the wheels installed? Impact guns can warp rotors in a few seconds.

 

I've heard stories of cracking with drilled rotors, slotted seem to be ok, but I think you need to determine why it was warped first.

 

My mechanic told me they get warpped by getting real hot then cooled by going through a puddle where only part of the rotor gets wet and cooled while the rest remains red-hot. The thinner the rotor the more susceptible it is to being warped this way.

 

By hand, by me, with a torque wrench to 90 lbs. The reason I did the job in the first place was the local garage way overtorqued the wheels and warped her OEM rotors. So I'm doubley not thrilled about having them do the work this time around.... I kinda feel like I'm in a bit of a pinch here!

The installation was correct. And her ride was smooth for over 2000K.

 

The rotor people are going to send me a new rotor when I send them a picture of the warped one. Not sure what they will see on the picture, but hey, I'm ok with that.

Now I'm glad I got the extra set! In the meantime I'll have the local garage install one (or both if need be) of my front rotors.

 

you weren't using green stuff pads were you?

 

Nope, new OEMs. Why I heard green stuff was good, is it not?

 

I've used them and liked them. With stock calipers and agressive driving, you can get some fade. But I found that adding metal caliper bushings made all that go away.

Matt

 

At one time there was a lot of disc warping with them, if you weren't careful .

 

I am not a fan of drilled rotors for the street as you really dont build up enough heat to really use them and if they are not drilled right they can fail.
As far the warp problem: Did you bed them in proper? It is not a factor of not going done any Mt. roads its a factor of building up the heat stress in degrees slowly on the rotor until it is fully "heat treated". After that you can do what you want. If you go to some of the aftermarket brakes sites they will go though the proceedure.

I have used after market rotors (Zimmerman) on all my German cars of which i count the MINI for years with no issues.

 

Can you expand on that?

 

There is a great doc about how to break in brake pads and common problems with brakes on the StopTech brake site. They find very few brake problems are actually caused by warped rotors. It's a good read for everybody.