Thread: Front Rotors Hot

First thing I would do is lift the front end and just try to spin your wheels by hand, no need to remove anything to test it, you'll know for sure if they are. Have the car in neutral and the rear wheels chocked/e-brake on of course while you do this. If the wheels don't spin freely, then your calipers are likely locking up. Did you specifically use caliper pin grease when you greased your pins? If the grease isn't rated to a high enough temperature it will harden up pretty quickly and lock the calipers up. The clips that hold the pads sometimes get rusty too, I usually clean up the rust and put a tiny bit of anti-seize on them when reinstalling the pads.

Also, are they squealing all the time or only when braking? Because some pads will just make noise while braking, and rotors get very hot even under normal operating conditions. If they squeal even when you're off the brakes, and your wheels spun freely, then it may not be the brakes. There's normally a little bracket or "backing plate" of sorts that sits between the ball joint and the rotor, attached to the steering knuckle/wheel hub. You may have bent it to the point where it's rubbing on the back of your rotor, I did this accidentally last year and had a crazy scraping/rubbing noise until I realized and bent it back.

Don't concern yourself with the end links, they won't affect the brakes. If you wind up needing calipers, get new or refurbished ones, it won't be worth the time and money to rebuild them with how cheap they are. And as a tidbit, the way the caliper piston retracts when you let off the brakes is due to the design of the piston's inner seal (behind the dust boot you can actually see). It's a square cut seal that deforms and rolls slightly when the piston moves out, and then rolls back once pressure is released, pulling the piston very slightly back into the caliper.

who puts new rotors on with the old pads? thats a sin for real. if the rotors are not all cut up already, buy and install new pads asap.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

who puts new rotors on with the old pads? thats a sin for real. if the rotors are not all cut up already, buy and install new pads asap.

*Shamefully raises hand*

But I got 1 new pad on at least because my slide bolts were seized good and couldn't get 2 new pads over a new rotor.

if the set are that old, check the pads, they maybe low and hitting the squealers.

While you hear the squealing noise, If hitting the brakes on and off do not affect the sound at all, I wouldn't doubt something else is the cause.
This was my issue, not the brakes.

That happened going straight too, only when braking. That ended up being my wheel bearing. Somehow it learned to play the violin.

Well all 4 of my wheel bearings are brand spanking new some I'm hoping I can rule that out. I had the front passenger side bearing on before I did both front control arms and the other 3 bearings this weekend, and I had no problems whatsoever with squealing before that. Another thing I thought of: I had a brain fart with my driver's side control arm off and the steering knuckle pretty loose. I tried to loosen the big spindle nut and something gave in the axle. I rotated the nut (or moreso the axle I guess) back to where it was, got everything secure and put a bar in the rotor to hold the axle like I'm supposed to and spun the nut off the right way. Haven't noticed any problems as far as that goes but it's been worrying me. Any way that could be related or does anyone have any ideas as to what may have popped in the axle? Hoping I didn't break anything I guess. I know I'm just full of questions... just trying to keep you guys on your toes.

Keep in mind my car has 220,000 miles on it so it's not like I'm screwing up a brand new car. Probably wouldn't be doing the work myself if the car was still worth anything significant so keep the scolding to a minimum and productive input as the focus please.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

who puts new rotors on with the old pads? thats a sin for real. if the rotors are not all cut up already, buy and install new pads asap.

This is blasphemy.... this is madness!

Originally Posted by zkc27

More importantly, how the heck are you getting 37 mpg???

It states 37 MPG highway, not average... and a lot of guys are getting 35 with decent tunes.

I'm running a lean AFR with open loop tuning to squeeze some more out of it.

Alright so the question for this thread was (or should have been): What would make the backs of my front rotors look like Edward Scissorshands made violent love to them? The correct answer was: The steering knuckle/wheel bearing bracket. Thanks for the suggestion nik12937. You win this day.