Brake rotors, Dodge Dakota PU

Thats a pretty common problem on Chrysler and GM products now.
Probably others as well but I can't say for sure... Turning the
rotors seems to be a very short term fix. The material removed by
turning just weakens further a rotor that was already not strong
enough to resist warping.

I've had better luck with Wagner products than with the factory or
"shelf stock" at the discount places. Also make sure you are putting
your wheels back on with a torque wrench and have all the lugs
tightened to the same setting.

Steve B.

 

OE rotors are generally recognized as garbage on late Chrysler products.
Start checking the country of production on rotors found in name-brand
boxes (Raybestos, Wagner, NAPA-United, Bendix, EIS) and when you find some
that are made in the US, Canada, Mexico or Europe, buy them.

DS

 

If you are not doing the job yourself (or even if you are) you may want to
be sure the lugs are being tightened to proper spec and in the proper
pattern. Quickest way to a warped rotor is over torque the lugs.

 

For those that aren't aware of this, NAPA's United Brake brand are
manufactured by Raybestos. I do know that their LH car rotors have
"CANADA" cast into them. I do not know if that is true for all
Raybestos/United Brake part numbers or not. So maybe NAPA would be a
good first place to check (they carry two lines - the oversees-made True
Stop or True Value brand or something like that, and the United Brake
(Raybestos) line - you want the latter.

As has been pointed out before, there are those who believe that what is
often assumed to be rotor warpage may be due to one or more of a number
of other phenomenon causing vehicle shake on braking, including (1)
uneven filming of the rotor by pad material (resulting in varying
coefficient of friction around the rotor rubbing surface), and (2)
uneven wearing in the two sides and in different locations around the
rotor (possibly also related to the uneven filming of (1)) causing a
different type of warping which is more specifically referred to as
out-of-parallel. The technical articles say that the amount of
out-of-parallel condition to cause noticeable symptoms (shaking) is a
fraction of the amount of classic warping that it takes to cause the
same degree of symptoms.

That could explaim why people report different results re: rotor warping
depending on the brand or type of pad they use. I tend to believe this
more and more as time goes on. I recently experienced what felt like
slight classic rotor warping go away shortly after switching over to
ceramic pads with the same rotor (unturned). Lugs were properly torqued
before the ceramics and after the ceramics. Rotors generally do not
"unwarp" themselves.

I have also had rotors that seemed to be slightly warped *only* after
they warmed up slightly from a few brake applictaions, and then seemed
to flatten out totally when allowed to cool. I wonder too of the
possibility that that is also an uneven and changing filming scenario.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')

 

I have ordered and used two sets of Rotors from Tire Rack. They are from
Brimbo. The Town & Country pair were made in Italy, the PT Cruiser set were
made in Canada. I have had great luck with both sets and they were not too
expensive. Skip the drilled and slotted sets for street use.

Richard.

 

"Brembo" 8^)

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')

 

I've had a lot of trouble with Chrysler products in general and
specifically with my 1998 Dodge Dakota truck with rotors warping. The
first set was turned until they were under the service limits,
replaced and the second set is warped and needing to be turned.

Has anyone had any good experience replacing the disks with higher
performance components. Slotted, vented, cross drilled, better
material, etc. Or with better pads. I hate it when make a high
speed stop and having the truck shake while I'm stopping.

My '99 T & C suffers from the same condition, not quite as bad.

 

Bill Putney wrote:

I don't know what the answer is, Bill, but this describes my LH braking
problems *exactly*. The first dozen or so brakings lead to a situation
where the thing is wobbly as hell, then as they cool they become
progressively smoother and smoother.

The other odd thing about it is that a truly *hard* brake application
during the 'wobbly phase', if you will, produces a smooth stop.

I've just deemed it the nature of the beast, but I'd love a better
explanation.

--Geoff

 

All I can add, Geoff, is that that was with the original (AFAIK - I
bought the car with 58k on the ticker, so can't be sure) rotors that
came on my Concorde. In my effort to smooth the whole car out, which I
successfully did, one of the first steps was to replace the rotors at
about 70k mles. Haven't had that problem since. Warping or some
variable COF?? I still don't know. Replaced pads at the same time, so
that destroyed more evidence if the pads were contributing to problem
with variable COF/filming (possible and likely that the pads were not
the originals at that mileage).

While the following is pretty much a no-brainer solution, replacing the
rotors and pads is certain to eliminate the problem, especialy if you
were to go with the a good ceramic pad like the Akebonos (showing my
increasing leanings towards the filming being at least part of the cause).

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')