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I have seen cracked and broken rotors before but this type of crack is a new one for me i am assuming they are OEM the car had 71k miles on it when I bought it
Often that type of crack is an indication of a sticking caliper. It creates excess heat and an uneven load on the rotor causing a crack between the hat and friction surface.
If that was in fact due to a sticky caliper, the chances are that the pads on that side will have less pad material compared to the other rear pads.
I would replace the pads at the same time. AT 71K it may be a good idea to do the front brakes at the same time. Also check the parking brake shoes for excess wear; it might be possible that the parking brake may have been contacting the rotor and caused heat buildup.
It also looks like the pad wasn't wearing the rotor in as wide of a path as the pad is wide. I have seen that a lot on the inside of the rotors where sometimes the pad is only sweeping half of the rotor. Might be a good time to go through the system checking caliper slides, caliper pistons, caliper brackets (I had to replace a rear caliper bracket once due to wear which let the caliper move around too much). If you are doing the work yourself you could probably go through the complete system without spending too much money. The only PIA is setting the parking brake shoe holding spring.
I installed a set of PowerStop Z23 carbon pads with drilled/slotted rotors today. I inspected the calipers and cleaned/lubed all the pins. everything looked good and showed no unusual wear. I thought the stock rotors and pads worked well. These powerstop really drag her down fast and controlled
2001 cracked rear rotor
