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Question about rotors...

loopy smurf

loopy smurf

New member
When I get my tax return, it's brakes time. I'm not changing calipers or doing anything ridiculous as this car is a DD, and not worth putting huge amounts of money into. My main concern is the rotors. The car is an '01 GP GT with the torque star wheels, so you see the rotors quite easily. The ones on there now look like absolute crap. The center hub sections are rusted (shock...I know), as are the edges of the rotors. Anyone have any suggestions on what I can put on there that won't rust like that, but won't cost a fortune? Thanks!
 


I see you're new to cars. Welcome.

That is surface rust and normal. You can get new rotors, which will build surface rust quickly due to the inability to coat brake parts. Alternately you can sand and paint the portion bothering you.

There are 2 reasons to replace rotors
1) Warping
2) You let the pads go so long that the metal backing wears deep scratches into the rotor.
 
Explicit_Spade said:
I see you're new to cars. Welcome.

That is surface rust and normal. You can get new rotors, which will build surface rust quickly due to the inability to coat brake parts. Alternately you can sand and paint the portion bothering you.

There are 2 reasons to replace rotors
1) Warping
2) You let the pads go so long that the metal backing wears deep scratches into the rotor.
Click to expand...

Not really new to cars...just never had a car where I cared about what the rotors looked like before...lol. These are the original rotors on the car, and they have about 90,000 miles on them. The pads are about due to be replaced, and while I was doing the pads, I figured I'd replace the rotors since they're probably worn out of spec. Just wasn't sure if there was another option out there since I'm buying new rotors anyway. I didn't really want to paint them as I suck with paint...lol
 
I just used brake clean on new rotors to get rid of oils, then taped off area where pad touches on the face and sprayed with caliper paint.
Or buy AC Delco Advantage which are coated(painted) in those areas
 
Anything zinc plated won't rust.

You pay for what you get, I would say R1 concepts is the best bang for your buck rotor set out there, you can find them on EBay. I had them on both of my GP's and my old Cobalt. I didn't use their pads though, as I always used EBC red or Hawk HPS standard pads. I've never been a fan of ceramic pads as their quick heat/glaze over rate.

A very nice upgrade for you since you're there and there is nothing more involved other than taking off the brackets (which you have to do anyways to clean everything up or install new grommets/brake hardware...is the 12" upgrade. Which is rotors/pads/brackets from a '00-'05 Monte Carlo, or a WBody Regal...those are the two best/easy options for ya.
 


My pads/rotors are currently almost 3 years old. Got the car with 160K on it and have 212,960 on it now.

R1 concepts eline with their scorched pads. No break in and awesome performance. I've never been as impressed with brakes. Te rotors have no rust. It's purely amazing to me. yes, it's a DD all weather
 
Okay - here's something new and different...

I got the e-line OEM style rotors from R1 and the ceramic pads. They came in yesterday, and I'm putting them on today. I started on the drivers side, did the rear and everything was fine. Did the front, and I can't get the caliper back over the new rotor with the new pads. I pushed the piston all the way back. It's not even hitting on the pad - there's a little lip on the inside of the caliper that kinda raises around the pads, and the rotor is hitting that. Only way I could get the caliper back on was to switch out the outboard pad with the old one. Once I did that, it fit no problem. Do I need to grind down the new pads to get them to fit or what?
 
I pushed the piston back. The rotor isn't even hitting the inboard pad - it's hanging up on a metal piece that's part of the caliper. It's not something removable on the piston - it's part of the cast piece.
 


take the caliper back off and thread the topslide bolt into the caliper then slide the assemlby into the top of the bracket. this will allow the caliper to swing back and forth if the caliper does not want to seat on the pads in the bracket then you either need to push the piston in more or remove the brake fluid cap to allow the pressure to escape
 
All right - lesson learned...no more shortcuts. I went back in there, separated the caliper from the bracket, and everything fit perfectly. Thanks for your help guys.
 
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