Uneven rotor wear on new pads

[exitwound]

I installed new brake pads a few weeks ago to replace the 5-year old ones that came with the car when I bought it. I rebuild the calipers last week. Here's what I'm seeing this week:



First of all, what looks like a gouged out ring is camera trickery. It's not wearing uneven on that shiny ring. What I'm curious about is the inner 1/2" to 1" of surface rust that's not being removed. From the outer edge, it's wearing well. Until that last 1/2", there's no contact with the pad. I removed the pad to see what's happening, and there's only wear on the pad on 3/4ths of it, with one side seeing no contact at all.

What's going on? This is my first brake job.

[kdjones2000]

Well, it looks to me like you didn't have the rotors sent out to be turned.

If that's the case, and the rotors are uneven to begin with, this looks like normal bedding in of your pads. As the pads continue to wear down, you will start contacting the lower areas.

Right now I would be careful when following cars/preparing to stop, as your braking effectiveness is compromised until you are contacting the full pad area.

The other suggestion would be to have your rotors turned. That way you would start out with pretty much contacting the entire pad surface.

Good luck,

Keith

[exitwound]

There is a difference in braking ability since changing out the pads. It feels like the pads aren't very strong at this point. But after a week, they're gripping slightly more. I was hoping that with a little bit of time, the pads would even out.

[Techno Duck]

How many miles are on the pads in the above picture? I had the same experience when i swapped the pads on my n/a when i still had the single piston calipers. It took a few hundred miles before they wore in completley.

[exitwound]

About 50 miles

[Slam]

Interesting. Did you check the proper orientation of the brake piston when you reassembled the caliper?

[exitwound]

Hmm. What would happen if the horseshoe wasn't oriented properly?

[Aslet]

The piston "horseshoe" is what applies the even pressure to the brake pad, and therefore gives you smooth braking. This could be part of the problem... If you think you reinstalled them correctly, then I would say use them more, like Techno Duck said. Even though brake pads wear and may seam to make a lot of dust, they are still very hard and can take a long time to fully bed.

P.S. I would not think it has anything to do with the rotors... They look to be evenly wearing on the outer area and I would find it hard to beleive that inner inch is worn down so much below the rest of the rotor that it isn't making contact with it at any point...