Warped rotors = vibration at speed?

CRiZO

I believe my front rotor(s) are warped, I have the typical vibration in the steering wheel and pedal on braking.

But I also get some vibration in the steering wheel around 70-80mph, can rotors cause that?

Tangent, but do people like the Z1 2 piece rotors? May just swap to those while I'm at it.

Thanks!

gomer_110

A few things:

1. Rotors rarely actually warp. The phenomena that generally is to blame is brake pad deposits on the rotor face. Doing some hard braking from ~55 to 5 mph 5 or 6 times in a row and then allowing the brakes to cool without having the brakes applied at all may help.

2. Vibration at or above a certain speed with everything else being the same often indicates a wheel (or wheels) that are out of balance.

3. I like the Z1 2-piece rotors on my car but for a non-competition or HPDE car they are probably just a waste of money.

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CRiZO

Thanks for the reply. Probably a coincidence of timing from two separate things then.

I'll give the hard braking a try, then get my wheel balance checked.

Car won't see more than hpde, but reducing unsprung weight is always a good thing and they're pretty and I just want an excuse

CRiZO

So the hard braking may have helped. It's definitely not as bad now when braking.

I changed my oil this morning and checked out my wheels while it was up, and it looks like the weights were knocked off of the wheel. So here's hoping they just need balancing and that's that.

kaliwraith

The rotors warped on my wife's Toyota Highlander. You could feel some major vibration when braking. The harder you braked the worse it was, and it was obvious all the way down to <5 MPH.

ZCanadian

This.

Here is a good primer on the subject:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/power...5888830742846/

Depending on what kind of pads you have (abrasive or adhesive), it could indicate an issue with the tire (flat spot) where the rotor is getting additional buildup or wear from the pads. But more likely either wheel balance or perhaps a tire defect coming to light.

True rotor "warping" is very rare. They are typically cast. Cast things don't warp, they crack and break. But a lot of shops will tell you they are warped because it's easier to part you from your cash. And more profitable than removing and turning the rotors or diagnosing and solving the real problem.

Ventruck

Indeed the term "warped" gets misused in most contexts, including for our cars where we have this issue come up in multiple threads. Like described already, the rotors may have indeed become subject to defects, but not because they're warped. It's more likely pad deposits and abrasion/embedding. That would create inconsistency in rotor thickness, but not necessarily warped.

It's not like the caliper outright wrangled the rotor at some point, and it's unlikely you subjected rotor to a temperature that starts to make it deform — pretty select circumstances. I'm pretty sure people can do multiple track days just fine on the same rotors.

Culprit seems to be the OEM pads and how they handle with wear and heat. I've been in the same braking situations using OEM and Centric Posi Quiets (which are still a street pad). The latter has put up with more....sessions and still no vibration.

cv129

I believe Crizo has an automatic and his profile says he drives "in traffic". After fixing the pad deposit, just learn to be mindful on how hard you are pressing on the brake pedal when car is not in motion. Perhaps switch to neutral during longer red lights to allow for a much lighter brake pressure (or neutral plus light hand brake). Especially in the hot Texas summer.

I've never had this problem with pad deposit in automatic cars.

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Tractionless

Before installing new pads I had my front rotors turned which removed all the old deposits. Zero braking vibration now at 80mph that I had before.

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markesc

Have had the z-1 two piece front and rear on for about 18 months. ZERO issues. Infact, the amount of sheer abuse they take is comical. I've been using EBC redstuff, I'm sure there are better pads but these were pads I was familiar with coming from the pos wrx world (money pit, I feel sorry for anyone that owns this and their credit card balances!!!).

After this change, I can finally say I own a car that actually has merely adequate brakes for once.

CRiZO

That may be it as it's my first automatic. It comes back pretty much no matter how careful and light I am. The heat lately and how bad traffic has gotten is very likely the culprit. I've driven in it for years though with a similar braking setup Mazdaspeed3 without issue so it's all just weird to me. I definitely have to ride the brakes in the Z though thanks to the automatic and traffic being slower than a first gear cruise. Luckily that's only an issue for about another month before my schedule changes.

I'll update once I check the brakes out. It's been like 100 in the garage so I'm happy with some shakin' for now lol.

It's super minimal shake now, more of just a rough feeling rotor, and feels more like buildup than warped after getting the wheels balanced. Dallas streets knocked my wheel weights off it seems