My brake pads are only making partial contact with my rotors. It looks exactly like this picture...

My brake pads are only making partial contact with my rotors. It looks exactly like this picture. They are brand new slotted rotors and brand new pads.

My calipers didn't do this before so it can't possibly be that. The new brakes stop fine - hell even better than my old ones by A LOT but I'm worried about this. What could it be? Should I just give it more time to bed in and flatten the pads? I've driven my car about 80-100 miles since I put the pads in. Half of it being highway.

Did you bed them or just start driving normally?

How new are we talking? Could still be breaking in.

Must be the pads that haven't been assembled that well, this happens all rotors this? If yes, give them a little time, you can't go hard on new pads, specially with new rotors too. Give them some time and brake soft and slowly. After a week or two, or maybe a couple hundred miles drive to a decent speed and brake hard.

Last monday new.

Yes, I bedded them in. But here's the thing.. When I bedded them in, my buddy didn't torque my lug nugs nowhere near enough -.-. So I re-bedded them after that.

5x 40-10mph hard
5x 35-5mph medium
cruise

Like I said, they stop just fine but I'm worried because I've never had this before.

I did some pretty hard braking today. For some reason out of nowhere, the pedal feels stiffer today than ever before and in good way. And it stops better than ever better but the partial contact is still there. It's only in the front and a tiny bit in the back.

What? Everything in this post is unintelligible nonsense

The lug nuts wouldn't make any difference. What does the other side of the rotor look like? You should be able to see if the pad is properly sitting square to the rotor. If not you might have had an issue with the caliper from before but couldn't recognize it since they were already worn in. Do you have a separate parking brake caliper? The OP pic looks like a parking brake dragging to me, would be a very strange issue to have the actual brake pad not contacting the inside of the rotor. Did you look at the new and old rotor next to eachother? Maybe it's a one size fits all kind of thing and there's more braking surface on the new rotor to work with various calipers.

Don't hard brake new pads and/or rotors, let them bed first.
It's normal, the greatest part of the weight load goes to the front of the car when braking, hence the front brakes are always more robust and bigger.

I have not checked the other side yet. No separate caliper. I have it more in the front than the back.

My last brakes did proper rotor wear. I know because they would get rusted and when I drove the rust would come off.

Both sides? Give it time

One side? Take apart and put back together the caliper so you know nothings wrong

Yes, both sides in the front.

Assuming this isn't normal operation due to caliper/pad design, there are three possible options. The rotors were incorrectly machined and are thinner toward the side that isn't touching, The caliper ears (part that presses against the outside pad) are bent. If pads are touching outside of rotor, ears are bent out and vise versa. Or the pads may be a little thinner at the top/bottom and just need more time to wear even.

What do you think is the most likely scenario?

The rotors are Powerstops and so are the pads.

bruh the brakes either work or they fucking dont. i dont know what to tell you. i honestly don't know what you are even asking. are the pads not making contact when at rest or when you're applying the brakes?

I mean there is not rotor wear where there WAS rotor wear last time with the old pads and rotors. They work just fine now and even better than before but I'm wondering if it's normal for new brakes to make partial contact until they bed in or something

what does rotor wear have to do with anything? is that what you are using as the indicator of contact? it takes at least hundred miles for the friction materials on the brake pad to work their way into the rotors

yes, that's what I'm using as an indicator

bump

Do you want some piece of mind?
Jack up your car, remove the caliper, remove the pads, remove the rotors and inspect everything.
It could be everything from having the wrong kind of pads in there to something stupid like a little dirt in the caliper rails that bends the pad instead of letting it slide flat and freely.

Get your hands dirty and check that stuff

Since these are aftermarket rotors, are the dimensions the same?
I've seen setups where they just used the same rotor for smaller pads/callipers.

As long as the pad is installed correctly and not hanging off of the rotor it should be fine. There's suppose to be a small area on the inside and the outer edge where the pad doesn't make contact when properly fitted.

When you bead them, go gently- if they're not aligned correctly, all that force can crack the friction material right off.

bump

The fuck are you bumping for?

you got the wrong size rotor

This thread is fucking garbage.
There's nothing wrong with your brakes.
Also apparently no one here knows anything about brakes.

>tripfag joins the discussion with a big pile of bullshit

What a surprise

Did you find "extra" bolts after the job? How sure are you that you don't have the rear pads in the front...

No extra bolts. There are only 4 bolts per brake. And it's impossible to fit the rears in the front.

Hey OP it's the meme chamfered leading edges the aftermarket pad makers do to their pads so you burn them faster. It supposedly to control "noise." Those kinds of pads literally won't have OE coverage until 30% of it has whittled away.

OE pads are flat new from 12mm down to the backplate. It is also possible that you didn't lube the slide pints for the floating caliper type and it's not clamping down straight.

Keep bedding you'll get it soon bud the key is to never stop bedding

Even when they're bedded in you MUST NEVER STOP BEDDING, EVER, NOT EVEN FOR A SECOND.