Thread: Question about rotors...

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!

Originally Posted by Explicit_Spade

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.

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

Go R1 concepts, and they are having a sale right now.

Cool...thanks guys!

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.

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.