Best brake rotors?

My brake rotors always seem to warp in the first year of use.
Should I get drilled and slotted ones?
What brand can take the abuse of a half ton chevy van?

Find out why your rotors are warping first. That really shouldn't be happening. Have you confirmed that they are warped?

well I get a lot of pulsing in the brake pedal . I just assume that they are warped. If I replace the rotors the pulsing stops for six months or so

Rotors don't warp. They become out of round after accumulating too much lateral runout. Try adjusting your brakes to factory spec user.

>Try adjusting your brakes to factory spec user.
I have never heard this
How do I adjust them?

Chances are you have contamination on the rotors. When you change them change your pads, I assume you are doing this, and clean the pad groves in the capiler. Lube the groves and clean and lube the guide pins as well. I'd stick with vented rotors just make sure everything acting as it should and moves freely.
You could also try cleaning the rotors with fine sand paper to see if that helps.

So you guys are telling my that it was not the weight of pulling a heavy trailer and them getting too hot (just remembering now that this happened the last time they started pulsing) but rather contamination that is giving me trouble?
Man I need to read up on this stuff.
Back in my day, everyone just said your brakes are warped from heat. A bit of googling tells me this is no longer the conventional wisdom.
Anyone have a good link to help explain this stuff?
Also thanks for bringing me up to speed.

Do you keep the brakes locked after braking really hard? If so that's really bad for them and can warp them or leave nasty deposits on the rotors. Also make sure your slide pins are properly lubricated. If they're stuck on one side the caliper can sit at an awkward angle and cause vibrations.

Buy a trailer brake.

The caliper piston adjusts automatically but when you change your pads your new ones are considerably bigger than the worn ones. Ensure the pistons are pushed all the way back so they don't drag on the rotor and over time and cause lateral runout.

Brake rotors will never get hot enough to warp in any application. Unless you take a blowtorch to them and cook those bitches until they melt.

So I still need to buy a new set of pads and rotors it sounds like.
I want to order them off amazon.
Any recomendations?

If you get your rotors smoking or red hot on a weekly basis (like I do) then it's possible to warp them. Keeping the pads locked on the burning hot rotor will cause uneven cooling and warping.

I recently put centric pads and rotors on a car. So far so good and reviews said quality was good.

I'm not sure what kind of response you expected here but here's your (you). Next time you do a brake job check to see if your slides are both free, if not get new calipers in addition to rotors and pads

>check to see if your slides are both free
I will do that , thanks.
What is your favorite brand of rotor or does it matter?

why the fuck are your rotors getting to that stage anyway?

Depends how much money you want to spend my man. If the Cuccvan is notorious for eating rotors because of the heavy loads within, I would just stick with cheapos. Centric is ok

Spirited driving... And the fact that it's a stock brake system with small rotors.

>If the Cuccvan is notorious for eating rotors because of the heavy loads within, I would just stick with cheapos.


Ahh , interesting take. I was thinking the opposite , that what I needed was better rotors.
You make a good point.
You dont think a better set would last longer or not much longer.

Getting them red hot unless you have daily drive-shitbox-tier discs on an 140mph reaching car means that there's something really fucking wrong and its not just the discs.

And if you do spirited driving and your brakes fuck up why do you even replace them with the same shitty brakes? man up and buy actual performance brand brakes like wilwood or brembo.
WHY Do you even do spirited driving on a FUCKING van to begin with?

I mean it might, if high heat is an issue try slotted and drilled rotors like you originally mentioned. But before you go spending your $$ on fancy rotors make sure you don't need calipers too, otherwise it won't matter how nice they are, the Cuccvan will consume them

Slotted sure, drilled are a meme and the heat just causes them to wear out faster

Ok so check the callipers before I do anything.
What is the best way to do this?

>WHY Do you even do spirited driving on a FUCKING van to begin with?
I am OP, I have the van.
I am not the spirited driving guy. He is on his own trip.
I just sometimes pull heavy shit inna mountains .
Also I do have a trailer brake

When you take them off see if the caliper pins can move back and forth with not too much effort. If the caliper is seized they will be frozen in place from the heat. Get a tool that compresses caliper pistons, and compress the caliper. Then go to the other side and compress that one. Then go back to the other side and see if the piston has popped back out. If it has the calipers are probably OK, might not hurt to replace them if they look particularly old or rusty.

It could be from driving habits, heat cycling the brakes has a small chance of warping them, but the big cause of warped brakes is building up a lot of heat, and then stopping completely and letting them sit.

The calipers and pads won't dissipate heat as fast as the rotor and so if you build up a lot of heat and then stop (like braking from highway speeds and then coming to a stop light the caliper keeps one side of the rotor hot whole the other side cools, and this causes the warping.

Well, the rest still applies.

If your brakes fuck up like that so often, there's some other factor wrong (fucked calipers, you buy discs from a chinese manufacturer) or you just need to stop being dumb and get better quality shit.

In car shit for the most part what you pay IS what you get. You cannot get good performance for low price.

>My brake rotors always seem to warp in the first year of use.

well, don't be a dumbass and pretend that you're a race card driver. pretty simple. your parts will last a lot longer if you treat them well.

What about just getting the rotors turned at the machine shop?

>Rotors don't warp. They become out of round after accumulating too much lateral runout.

>don't warp
>too much lateral runout.

I don't know what bumfuck school you learned the definition of "warp" in, but if they have lateral runout, then they're warped.

drive hard and mash your brakes until they are smoking and the surface is carburized and checked with cracks. then measure the runout and tell me they aren't warped.

This nigga

Lol the information is pretty new so I can see why you'd think bumfuck. I learned it in when I was learning to resurface rotors in my brakes class. It was highly specified that rotors don't warp but become out of round due to lateral runout. Physical warpage of rotors is insanity and you have to be an actual mad man to get them hot enough to warp.

>I was learning to resurface rotors
So thats still a thing?
Should I take mine in to get resurfaced if they are pulsing pretty bad?

how about these?

op sounds like the calipers need a rebuild as well

do I have to buy bearings as well or do they come with the rotors usually?

resurfacing rotors is a last ditch scenario to save money/time ordering rotors since any shop with a lathe can generate 100% labor profit vs parts/labor

removing material leaves you with less rotor to absorb heat thus making the problem worse later

>You cannot get good performance for low price.

Didn't expect to read that statement on Veeky Forums. I mean you're right and I agree but to be frank, I'm surprised

Slotted rotors are fine, though I don't quite understand why you'd need them on a van or if you can find anyone who makes slotted rotors for a van. Stay away from drilled. They might look nice but they will not last as long and will not perform as well as a decent set of slotted rotors. They are also more prone to cracking also you don't need fucking black anodized rotors, I have no idea why those started being a thing but it's the dumbest shit I've seen in quite a while

My tundra eats brakes, as did my old cheby truck. Thet all warp within 6 months.
>inb4 there's no such thing as warp
So I can't help you, I'm in the same boat.
My 2003 Ford F-250 on the other hand, I really punish those brakes and they still work fine. No squealing or vibrations after 35,000 miles towing a trailer.

its a ford problem, their shitty caliper design eats brakes

you reading comprehesions

get one or the other drilled AND slotted rotors are factually shit and are more prone to failure than slotted OR cross drilled

all of the ones on amazon are either drilled and slotted or completely solid.

>My brake rotors always seem to warp
they're not warped. They have surface contamination or an inconsistent surface i.e. hard sports due to localized heating.

You try bedding in your brakes again, or get they faced on a brake lathe and bed them in properly.

Said contamination though is built up through heat/pad contamination (cementite) and can't be removed without resurfacing rotors, at which they have to be removed anyways.

Go with Autozone Duralast Gold and replace every year for free. More importantly change your fluid every year (invest in a Motive Power Bleeder if you have to) and get decent pads (semi-metallics, Stoptech or Hawk). Tires are also a factor, a car/van with stickier tires will use the brakes less to achieve the same stopping distances. Granted its a van, so as long as you're not using chinashit/max economy and fuel mileage tires you'll be fine.

You can absolutely warp metal without needing to get it red hot. Take any newly machined piece that isn't absurdly massive and stick it in the oven at a few hundred degrees then let it cool. Most likely it will have warped at least somewhat, although it will probably not be enough to be significant to something like a brake rotor, i.e. less than a thou depending on the size and shape of the piece.

I had this issue with an older Saturn Vue. if the disks are solid, buy vented. if they're vented, get vented and slotted/drilled.
also, try to brake lighter and more evenly.
if this is a repeated problem like I had, your solutions are temporary. best to just improve dissipation

Did your problems finally go away?

yes, the OEM GM disks were tiny and shit, so upgrading to vented got rid of the chattering. keep in mind we went through 2 new sets of solid disks before trying this, so I assume this was the issue.

Try turning up the gain on your brake controller. You may have trailer brakes, but you need to actually use them.
>inb4 i don't have a brake controller
Then you don't have trailer brakes.
This. If you're consistently encountering brake problems, either you're buying shitty parts or you're buying good parts and running outside of their designed usage scenario.

Rotors don't have bearings. They're discs that get sandwiched between the wheel and the wheel hub, and held on-center by the wheel lugs. If you're replacing rotors, you should be replacing pads too, which are sold separately.
The brakes surviving under abuse is because of shitty design?
>being surprised that a set of brakes has lasted 35k
~50-75k is expected life on a set of pads, with rotors being needed maybe every other pad change. Sounds like your problem with the yota/chebby was using a half-ton truck to do a three-quarter ton's work.

How important is bedding in?
My brakes stated pulsing weeks after being redone

if it's happening regularly it to sounds like your hub or calipers are misaligned or something.

Ayyy

Ive stomped on brakes when a deer ran in front of me going about a 100. The rotors were not visibly warped, but after a prolonged drive the brakes would start to squeal like an old train braking. No matter how many times the brake pads have been sanded even or afterwards changed completely, the squeeking always came back, until both rotors were changed.

I should however add, it was a shitbox with thin, uncooled rotors.