Pulsing brakes

[H3LLON3ARTH]

OEM rotors = junk. I haven't had any luck with OEM GM rotors not warping since I bought my TA in 2001. Every new car we have had the rotors warp on. GM uses steel from south america that has a higher tin content (as do most OEM manufacturers and the better part of chain stores for their less expensive brakes). Plus side they are cheap, downside they don't like heat so one good stop from highway speed and they can warp. I swapped mine out for EBC rotors about 4500 miles ago, pulsing went away and ahs stayed away so far.

Last time I check with ebc they didn't have anything can you give part numbers

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[Blue Angel]

For anyone that's interested, StopTech has a whole bunch of good reading on their White Papers page:

Technical White Papers

Lots of good brake-related articles there, including the one I linked to above.

[jblackburn]

Some brakes specifically tell you NOT to bed them in.

I used Akebono ceramic pads and Zimmerman rotors on my last car, and I liked them a lot - so much so that when they wore out at 90,000 miles, I went back for a 2nd set. Not a lot of dust, good stopping power when driven hard, but still good street stopping power. Occasionally there was a squeal when reversing in the rain, but that was it.

[NBrehm]

What pads are you using?

I put EBC Green Stuff pads and Power Slot rotors on my last Saturn after having good results with the same parts on my previous Saturn. I bedded them in properly, and took them off the car after a few months of easy street driving because they were pulsing so bad. Since I would soon be selling the car I replaced them with the cheapest pads/rotors, drove it that way for a few months and the brakes had NEVER felt better. In my experience there's been no rhyme or reason to why one set of brakes works/lasts better than another. Aftermarket parts are a total crapshoot, unless you're spending big bucks on a proven combination.

Good or bad, at least you know what you're getting with the oem parts. In my experience, OEM has had a higher success rate than aftermarket. I've never owned a big-buck brake upgrade so I can't comment there.

Having said all that, there's almost NOTHING worse than pulsing brakes... they remove all confidence you have in slowing the car, and it is extremely annoying to boot.

TOUCH WOOD, my Eco's brakes have been perfect so far, but I am really easy on brakes compared to most people (look at my Fuelly report). I doubt my brakes have ever been warm let alone hot. I purposely DID NOT do a "bed-in" procedure on these brakes as I've had mixed results with that also (though I do believe a performance car that will be used as such will defenitely benefit). The one common element of bedding in your brakes is that everything gets so hot that all protective plating and/or coatings on your rotors burns off, leaving bare unprotected iron exposed to the elements. It also tends to affect the caliper finish as well. Listening to myself, it's almost a bit embarassing to be thinking this way as I usually value performance over asthetics, but a wheel full of rusty brake parts just looks terrible.

I just went with the standard Ulti-max stuff from EBC for pads and rotors. One of the "tricks" I have always used when breaking in HP pads is put them in the BBQ, you can heat/cool them evenly for specific times. I didn't bother with these since it is just my DD but heat cycling them off the car works great. I normally use centric stuff on all my DD cars, but as of now they didn't have anything in stock for the Cruze. Best cheap pads/rotors I have ever used


Edit: Here is the process http://www.team3s.org/FAQbrakeBBQ.htm

[NBrehm]

Also if you use that procedure do not stand in the smoke, it can lead to health issues down the road. There is bad ju-ju in brake pads

[Blue Angel]

One of the "tricks" I have always used when breaking in HP pads is put them in the BBQ

Nice! That makes a lot of sense. When I last bedded pads in on my Corvette the pad material up to about 1/8" away from the rotor face turned almost white. I would imagine based on the quick heating nature of the procedure that the bads were baked from the rotor surface in, meaning they were unevenly heated. Doing this in the BBQ would heat them evenly through the thickness of the pad. I may have to try this out!

Have you noticed a reduction in pad deposits on the rotor using this method? One the pads are baked, I would assume a very easy low heat bedding process would suffice, just to get the pad surface worn to mate properly with the rotor? I may send the guys at Stoptech an email with these questions...

[NBrehm]

After i bake them I sand lightly with 1000 grit to clean them up, put them on and drive. No additional bedding. Unless you plane them or something they will never be perfect but the biggest things is getting the gases out. All of my pads I have done this way wore very evenly. It virtually eliminated deposits on the rotors, i normally use HAWK HPS pads or SSBC Big Bites for hi-po vehicles and they are the only ones I have BBQ'd so I can't tell you how an EBC pad with that stupid break in coating would react or other makes. Works great on those 2 though. You may need to repaint the backing plate if you go too hot, that is the only problem I have seen. Also pretty much eliminates "glazing"

[DevilsRule]

I had a 2000 Cavalier that I bought new. I had the car for 12 years. I had problems with warped rotors constantly. Started checking torque on wheel lug nuts when returning home from tire balance and rotation. I set torque on all wheels to 100 lb ft. Most shops just throw the wheels back on with air gun and the wheels are not properly torqued per the owners manual. I have had my 2012 Cruze Lt for 14000 miles so far and have had no problems. I believe that unevenly torqued wheels will lead to premature rotor warpage which will make your brakes pulse.

[Blue Angel]

Also if you use that procedure do not stand in the smoke, it can lead to health issues down the road. There is bad ju-ju in brake pads

Also the reason I told my buddy not to powder coat parts in his kitchen oven!

[NBrehm]

I had a 2000 Cavalier that I bought new. I had the car for 12 years. I had problems with warped rotors constantly. Started checking torque on wheel lug nuts when returning home from tire balance and rotation. I set torque on all wheels to 100 lb ft. Most shops just throw the wheels back on with air gun and the wheels are not properly torqued per the owners manual. I have had my 2012 Cruze Lt for 14000 miles so far and have had no problems. I believe that unevenly torqued wheels will lead to premature rotor warpage which will make your brakes pulse.

Overtorqued could, can also damage the wheel hub/bearing. I hate places that do that. I use a gun to put my wheels on, but I use the lowest setting and just snug them, then go back and hand torque them. If the torque wrench clicks on any lug without tightening it I back it off a turn and re-torque it. I've seen those idiots just hammering on the lugs with a 1/2 impact. At the very least if you get a flat you will probably not be able to get the wheel off by hand unless (like me) you keep a breaker bar in the trunk