Warped Rotors ?

T

tranceduden

Member
Taking my FX35 to the dealer next week, I have 14K Miles on it.

I noticed over past week or so , when I brake, there is a slight pulsation in the brake pedal. From my limited mechanical knowledge, that feels like the rotor(s) may have warped ? Anyone heard of warped rotors on low mileage gen2's ?
 
No problems here, but it sounds like warped rotors from your description.

We have a Honda Odyssey and it had warped rotors after 15K miles. So warped rotors can happen at early mileage. Honda did not cover it under warranty and we finally got them replaced and problem solved.
 
Heavy braking in the rain could be the culprit. All that hot and cold and hot and cold puts the steel in a bad mood.
 
tranceduden said:
Taking my FX35 to the dealer next week, I have 14K Miles on it.

I noticed over past week or so , when I brake, there is a slight pulsation in the brake pedal. From my limited mechanical knowledge, that feels like the rotor(s) may have warped ? Anyone heard of warped rotors on low mileage gen2's ?
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Nope, no problems here. I'm at 35K on the original pads and rotors never replaced or resurfaced. While it's pretty low miles for that to happen, it's really nothing new. I've seen rotors warp at 7K on some cars.

Good luck with the dealer:tup:
 
porkandbeans said:
Heavy braking in the rain could be the culprit. All that hot and cold and hot and cold puts the steel in a bad mood.
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That'd be pretty shitty steel to warp after 14K miles regardless of the weather conditions or any other factors:confused.:

Anyway, the other reason why I suspect warped rotors is because when I was at the dealer previously , I over heard another customer talking to service , he had a G37S and his rotors were warped and the service guy was telling him that as a "favor" they machined the rotors no charge. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time but it's starting to make sense to me now...
 
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I also have warped rotors on my 09. Try this... When you come to a stop and you are waiting for the greenlight don't keep your foot on the brake. Shift it into N and put it in D when you are leaving. I think this is the main reason why you have warped rotors. After hard braking when you keep your foot on the pedal the pads leave a small deposit on the surface of the rotor and that makes an uneven surface.
 
baias6230 said:
I also have warped rotors on my 09. Try this... When you come to a stop and you are waiting for the greenlight don't keep your foot on the brake. Shift it into N and put it in D when you are leaving. I think this is the main reason why you have warped rotors. After hard braking when you keep your foot on the pedal the pads leave a small deposit on the surface of the rotor and that makes an uneven surface.
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Warped rotors get that way from excessive heat, and you're right that hard braking just before stopping does contribute, but the reason is that once the rotor stops spinning the super hot pad prevents only a small portion of the it from cooling. That heat difference across the rotor is what causes warping. The "small deposit on the surface..." theory is wrong. The term "warped rotor" describes a rotor that is actually misshapen. Dust from the pads is normal and unrelated.

Also, shifting from N to D while stopped without your foot on the brake is bad for the transmission and borderline dangerous.
 
tchuck said:
...The "small deposit on the surface..." theory is wrong...
Also, shifting from N to D while stopped without your foot on the brake is bad for the transmission and borderline dangerous.
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How come the theory is wrong? Technicians from stoptech who sustain this theory are wrong?

And why shifting from N to D whitout your foot on the brake is bad for the tranny?
Thanks:tup:
 
I'm not saying that the pads don't leave deposits, I'm saying that those deposits in and among themselves do not constitute a "warped rotor". I suppose if you want to split hairs (like in the Stoptech article) it would more accurately be described as a "misshapen" rotor. Semantics aside, the deposits are only a concern when bedding in the pads. It's not an ongoing issue.

I'll find you a proper explanation for the transmission thing. Please hold...

This is from the 1st gen FX owners manual:
Do not depress the accelerator pedal while shifting from P (Park) or N (Neutral) to R (Reverse), D (Drive) or manual shift mode. Always depress the brake pedal until shifting is completed. Failure to do so could cause you to lose control and have an accident
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I haven't found any real info on the transmission issue. I'll look more later. Basically the reason you don't want to shift into D without the brake is that it's abrupt and it places more stress on all the mechanical parts involved without any benefit. Think about what would happen if you did it while revving the engine to 5K rpms. Same idea but on a much smaller scale. At minimum it's just good practice.

 
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Agree with tchuck but with a couple of additions.

First of all you really want to make sure you have warped rotors and not something else. Pulsation could be the steering rack (common FX problem) but warped rotors are far more common.

Leaving pad deposits on the rotor will only happen when you have really worked the brake system hard over a short period of time - say like at a track. With normal street driving, you are not going to get the system hot enough to worry about the pads sticking to the rotors. At the track, I use the EB after my session and never use the foot brake for exactly that reason. The pad will absolutely leave material on the rotor that you can feel the very next time you drive.

To REALLY diagnose your rotor problem, you want to have rotor run-out measured on the car. They remove the wheel and put a gauge on the hub that measures the rotor flatness all away around. If it is warped, turning down the rotor is the way to fix it. Turning it down (machining it flat) makes it thinner and you can only do this so many times before you run out of rotor material. Thinner rotors can warp even more easily so if the cause of your warping is driving style or environment, it will probably happen again. On the positive side, places like brake shops and pep boys can do this for much less cash than the dealership wants.

Check your brake pads for flat even wear also. If they are wearing at an angle, there could be something wrong with how the system was installed.

I would not say it is at all normal to have warping after such low mileage but it has definitely happened. If the stars align and you do exactly the wrong things by accident, they can, have and do warp.
 
Depends how you drive man, you can warp rotors after driving for 45 minutes lol, heat them up, slam on them...heat them up, spray them with water, even drive through a puddle....new rotors + pads, pressing down on them when warm too much at a full stop: warped..... Mine are warped now too Im pretty sure..and I have 11k miles.

This was something the first FX50 testers noticed, the brake fade, I I recall correctly one magazine even said soemthing along the lines of "The brakes faded at an alarming rate compared to similar vehicles in its class"

needless to say I'm having them checked at my next dealer visit, and although it is a wear-and0tear itema nd not covered I'll whip out the oldest trick in the book.....reporting it to corporate "why did my rotors warp after 11k miles, etc etc" We'll see what happens.


But yeah, rotors can warp regardless of mileage.
 
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I dont drive like a Maniac , just regular driving, in fact for first 5K miles I was driving it like and old granny to make sure the break in goes nice and smooth. We'll see what the dealer says and I'll report back. Thanks for the feedback guys.
 
Whenever I'm going down the mountain I always use the manual shift to downshift and hardly ever have to use the brakes.
 
What about overtorquing or unevenly torquing the lug nuts ? wouldn't this cause a warpage?
 
Well , turns out I was right, but it wasn't the front rotors, the rear rotors were warped , which is weird.

Anyway , they machined the rotors under warranty without any fuss, so that makes me think it's a pretty common issue on the new cars, maybe a crappy supplier sold Nissan the rotors and now they are paying the price.
 
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