Warped Rotors?

[legion]

I posted this in OT too to respond to a thread that I accidentally posted there...

I jacked up the right side of my car, then the left.

I did a "wiggle" test on each of the four wheels. All were tight (no excess play). I don't think it is the wheel bearings.

I turned each of the four wheels by hand. The last time I did this, all of the wheel turned freely. The rears turn freely. The front left has constant resistance. The front right has intermittent resistance, corresponding to the same point while turning the wheel each time. I hear a very slow version of the "noise" when doing this.

I took out my battery powered impact wrench. I can't budge the lug nuts with the POS. (See my thread on wanting a decent air-powered impact wrench.) I tried a breaker bar, but the wheel just turns while off of the ground and I can't figure a way to "lock" it while jacked up.

My theory is that I have a warped right front rotor, and the left caliper is too close to the rotor.

Questions:

1) Is it safe to drive the 150 miles to Lafayette, Indiana under these conditions?

2) Can I have the rotors turned until I can get suitable replacements in? (I'm probably going to go with frozen rotors.)

3) Can the front left caliper be backed away from rotor so as not to rub?

4) Does my diagnosis sound correct?

[jcommin]

I find it hard to believe you have a warped rotor. Having said that:

Why don't you break loose the nuts before you jack up the wheel? I believe part of your problem maybe that the piston is 'frozen' causing the constant rub. Try a little brake cleaner on each caliper and some grease where the brake pads slide on the caliper.

I would look into doing the simple stuff first, I got to believe you can see a bad rotor as you rotate it seeing the clearance or lack of it to the pads.

[nynor]

1. probably safe
2. if they are that warped, you need replacements
3. No, not safely
4. yes

[many944s]

You should be safe for the drive, once your here we can put the big MF'n impact wrench on it to remove the lug nuts, then check the calipers and rotors.

With the wheel off it won't take long to track down the issue.

-Nick

[legion]

The thing that sucks (and really pisses me off) is that I bought brand new Zimmerman rotors in 2005 when I bought the car. I've only put maybe 3000-4000 miles on the car since then.

[ae1969]

I also find it hard to believe you warped the rotor...... Once you have the wheel of verify it with a dial guage....

[Dave L]

The calipers may be sticking, if they are they wont fully release the brake and will wear your pads and rotors very quickly. They will also get very very hot (you can feel the heat in the wheel with your hand) and could certainly warp the rotors. I would get the wheels off and fully inspect everything.

[legion]

Yep, all four calipers are sticking. The fronts more than the rears.

Could it be the master cylinder?

[flash968]

warping is EXTREMELY rare, but it does happen occasionally when calipers freeze up

most likely nobody did the required system flush every 2 years - this allows gunk to build and calipers and such to jam up - your master cylinder could indeed be jammed up as well

rotors can usually be turned once, but depending onthe damage, perhaps not - you will need to measure them to know

i would not waste my time or money on "cryo" - it's more hype than anything else - while it can "extend" rotor life, it does so at the expense of braking - this is one of the "magical gadgets" that doesn't really work, once you consider the physics and metalurgy - what the process does is reduce friction by hardening the surface - this makes pads and rotors last a bit longer, but the reduced friction means reduced braking - but, they won't tell you that - they just tell that the rotors last longer, and have less warping and such - sure - that's because they make less friction, therefore less of the damaging heat and wear - but, less friction means less braking - also, this can be a very temoporary condition - on a street car, the process will last a few thousand miles - on a race car it will last about 10 seconds - you cannot permanently alter the molecular structure of a rotor with freezing, once it has been cast and cooled - the best you can hope for is to harden a surface - once that surface wears, or it gets back up to temperature (like on a race car), the process is lost, and the rotor returns to its normal condition

this process could work if they froze them while they were still red hot, right out of the cast, but that isn't how any of them i have seen have been done - it would be incredibly expensive too

get the hydraulics worked out, make sure the rotors are cooling properly, and install a good pad (i am particularly fond of the porterfeild 4S)