Uneven rotors- resurface and reuse pads?

[vinu_neuro]

Over the summer the car was driven pretty hard and mid-high speed braking has become very shaky. Rotors either need to be replaced or resurfaced. The car is mostly driven highway so the pads still have quite a bit of life. Any harm in resurfacing the rotors and reusing the pads?

 

[Bgallagher]

You might be able to save the rotors and slap new pads on it but I would replace both pads and rotors to be on the safe side.

 

[buck91]

You can try. I've done it on a few vehicles...Never solved the shakes for long.

 

[CT8]

Replace the pads.

 

[Superflop]

Originally Posted By: vinu_neuro
Over the summer the car was driven pretty hard and mid-high speed braking has become very shaky. Rotors either need to be replaced or resurfaced. The car is mostly driven highway so the pads still have quite a bit of life. Any harm in resurfacing the rotors and reusing the pads?
unless you have hub mount runout issues the problem is the pads take a wire wheel or roloc dsc to both sides of the rotors to remove the tranferred pad material and slap new pads on.

 

[philipp10]

Depends upon how the pads look. How much material is gone. Replacing a perfectly good pad is just wasteful. However, I would not reuse marginal pads and then have to redo the job within a year.

 

[silveravant]

First thing I would do is to try to rebed the disks. 6 hard stops from 60 to 10mph and then drive for 5 mins. without stopping. Not really easy to find a place to do this, but my Jetta had the same problem and after rebeding the pads it has been perfect for 20,000 miles. Only after trying the above would I think about replacing any parts.

 

[djb]

I used to change my pads with the weather. I don't consider it to be a significant job, so I don't hesitate to reuse pads with new rotors or swap them out with a different set.

I've had bad rotors (Ate, grrrrr). They are easy to check, if you know to look at the rotors for the problem instead of the tires. If they aren't out-of-plane, try them with different pads for a while. If the rotors are bad, just buy new. It's been a few decades since rotor lathes were considered a good solution.

 

[ddtmoto]

Pads and rotors are relatively cheap, unless you drive an Italian sports car. Just do it right. No need to cheap out on brakes with all the online sources these days.

 

[Leo99]

Originally Posted By: ddtmoto
Pads and rotors are relatively cheap, unless you drive an Italian sports car. Just do it right. No need to cheap out on brakes with all the online sources these days.


Yes, pads are cheap and easy to change out.

 

[vinu_neuro]

Originally Posted By: silveravant
First thing I would do is to try to rebed the disks. 6 hard stops from 60 to 10mph and then drive for 5 mins. without stopping. Not really easy to find a place to do this, but my Jetta had the same problem and after rebeding the pads it has been perfect for 20,000 miles. Only after trying the above would I think about replacing any parts.


Thank you for this advice. It mostly solved the issue.