Help! Front rotors keep warping
 

Title stays it all but I’ll give some insight. I have a 2018 LS 1LE these issues have only been from daily driving. Haven’t used the car for autocross in over a year due to warped rotors.

Hoping someone has some insight into what could be causing this. My mechanic cleared out any rust on the bearings and inspected all components of the brake system. He hand-torqued everything to the proper specs as well. We can’t seem to figure out what is causing this to continue to happen. He doesn’t think the pads are sticking because both fronts are warping at the same rate.

His thoughts on next steps would be to upgrade the 4 piston Brembo to a bigger system.

Back story

In late 2022 my OEM rotors warped and after some research, I settled on EBC pads and rotors instead of going back to OEM. Got the EBC pads and rotors installed end of December 2022.

Followed proper break-in procedure per EBCs website and included instruction pamphlet. After 1500-2000 miles the rotors were extremely warped. Contacted EBC and the replaced them for free under warranty. Again, after 1500 miles the rotors were shot again come March.

I contact my mechanic and have him put on OEM pads and rotors and he says everything looks good. And with no surprise, 1000 miles later they start to warp as well. He turns them and things were good for about another 1000 miles.

On mobile so apologize if formatting sucks.

I had the same problem with stock rotors. had them turned and all good now, I think they will warp from heat then finally take a set. once they set then u can turn them and they wont warp again.
I also put the power stop pads and drilled and slotted rotors. They never warped but they do make some noise. Its weird but put them on backwards from what power stop says and they stop just as good but make a lot less noise. this noise is a scrubbing sound when stopping epically when getting on them hard.

ie the slots will be digging in vs going with the way they spin meting the pads.

I haven’t warped a rotor in 20 years. Surprised to hear this.

Yeah, randomly started having this issue. I've been driving like a grandma since December and it is still happening lol

Rotors don't warp. It's uneven pad transfer layer. There's many reasons for this.

https://www.centricparts.com/media/t...c-8-2018_1.pdf



More brake info:

https://www.centricparts.com/technical-bulletins

Very useful readings. Thanks for posting those. Like many others in this forum, I also started experincing vibration when braking. I am planning to do some proper bedding soon - just need to find the time and the place!

I agree with the pad transfer. Do about 10, 60-15mph very hard braking, get the abs to activate and don't come to a complete stop.

You mean do NOT activate ABS.

Bedding In Brake Rotors

Anytime you install new brake rotors, brake pads, or both, it's advantageous to bed in your new brakes. Bedding in your brakes is just an industry term to explain breaking in your new brakes. Bedding in your brakes helps transfer an even layer of brake pad material onto the brake rotor which assists in smoother brake operation and improved braking power.

Having a uniform layer of pad material on the brake rotor is essential to minimizing brake squeal and vibration. For this procedure, you will need a good stretch of road and no traffic.

Use common sense and take precaution as BrakePerformance does not take responsibility for erratic driving, accidents, or damages done.

Note: When using Brake Performance Zinc-Coated rotors, as soon as you start braking, the friction from the pads will strip the zinc from the pad surface, turning it Silver and leaving the holes, slots, and the rest of the rotor zinc coated in the color you selected.

Perform 3-4 medium stops from 45mph. Slightly more aggressive than normal braking. You don't need to come to a complete stop for each pass. This brings the brake rotors up to temperature so they are not exposed to sudden thermal shock.
Make 8-10 aggressive stops from 60mph down to 15mph. For this set of semi-stops, you want to be firm and aggressive, but not to the point where ABS activates and the wheels lock up. It's important to note that you don't come to a complete stop but rather a semi-stop (~15mph). Accelerate back up to 60mph as soon as you slowed down to your semi-stop.
The brake pads and brake rotors are extremely hot at this point and sitting on one point will imprint the pad material onto the surface unevenly. This can cause vibration and uneven braking.
You may notice that your brakes will start fading, and sometimes smoke, after the 6th or 7th pass. This fade will stabilize and will gradually recess once your brakes have cooled down to normal operating temperatures. Drive carefully as your brakes may feel softer for the next few minutes.
Try not to come to a complete stop and find a stretch of road where you can coast for 5-10 minutes, preferably without using your brakes.
After the break-in procedure, there may be a light blue tint on your brake rotors as well as a gray film deposit. The blue tint shows that your rotor has reached the appropriate temperature during the bedding process, and the gray film is some of the pad transfer material.

Some cars and trucks require two cycles of the bedding in procedure. This may be the case if you are using old brake rotors with new brake pads, or new brake rotors with old pads. This may also be the case if you don't think you fully heated up the brakes in the initial bedding procedure. In any case, it's required that you wait at least 10-15 minutes between each cycle as you don't want them to overlap.

I have been dealing with this same exact issue for over a year now so I have a ton of experience with this. Only difference is I have an SS.

DO NOT try bedding them in again. That's only going to make things worse. Trust me.
I just changed my rotors and pads a 5th time believe it or not (a couple times under warranty). Like you they would go bad in 1200 miles or less with zero hard driving. I did have one key difference this time, I also changed the front hubs. I know your mechanic said he cleaned off all the rust, but depending on how rusty it was, he may not have actually cleaned off all the rust (and just told you he did). I started installing new rotors 2 weeks ago, when trying to install the passenger side, we could not clean off all the rust off the hub. There was so much rust that there was kind of a raised spot on the hub. That will definitely eventually cause the vibration to come back. We stopped the install and I ordered new hubs. Finished up the install last weekend. I can't say my problem is fixed because I haven't put very many miles on it, but since you also have gone through multiple sets in a very short amount of time like me, you should definitely consider changing the hubs. GM also revised them because I noticed the new factory hub I ordered looked a little different. I honestly believe this may have done the trick. Installing the hubs is easy (most of the work is removing the rotor).

What I would do If I were you is hone the rotors like the above user suggested, install new hubs and reinstall everything. If the vibration doesn't go away then I would order new rotors again and a different street pad since you mentioned you just do normal driving.

Short of making a very minor cut on the brake lathe, just enough to give a fresh surface, I have used this with success:

https://www.amazon.com/Brush-Researc...07INTEMC&psc=1





ON very rare occasions, depending on the severity and duration of brake use while uneven pad transfer is apparent, it may be possible that a fresh cut rotor via a lathe or the above rotor hone will not keep uneven pad deposits away. Those high spots can actually create enough heat to change the metallurgy of the iron, causing it to be permanently damaged.

I had this exact problem on my 2SS used as a daily driver. Rotors replaced once under warranty, 2nd time they just cut them.

Knowing it's not my braking style, I immediately switched to ceramic pads following the refacing of the rotors. Basically no problems since, and I'm up to 46k miles on the car now. 1st rotor replace was at about 10k, and recut was at about 20k.

for whatever reason, the stock semi-metallic pads were hard on the rotors in what was basically a casual daily driving situation. we all know these pads wear the rotors pretty hard because of the dust complaints. That "dust" ain't pixie dust, it's powdered steel which quickly oxidizes to brown rust.

I believe my v6 1LE and your SS use the same brake components, what was the part number you ordered for the hubs. I’ll have to do some research to verify of course.

Have you been sticking with the OE pads and rotors or tried anything after market?

I would say that this is a Caliper or Master Cylinder issue. Something is causing the calipers to keep to much pressure on the rotors causing overheating.

We commonly hear people refer to rotors as "warped" because they feel a pulsating sensation or vibration under braking. As noted above, there are more common causes.

What I see a lot is caliper guides getting stuck, causing a restriction in movement on the top (usually) or bottom (occasionally) and this will present as a warped rotor.

Caliper guides should be cleaned and greased with every pad replacement, but this is commonly ignored.

Obviously, if a runout gauge is used to check rotor wear and shape, then you have proof either way.