ffr1352

2016 Z06 with steel brakes mainly easy highway miles had warped rotors at 15k miles and dealer replaced front rotors and now at 29k miles same problem and GM said no coverage due to rotors being a wear item! Owners manual does not state rotors are a wear item and under the brake maintenance section declares pads are wear item and to inspector rotor surface, so I have emailed mary barra again to try to get gm to fix it under b2b warranty. If they refuse and or after the b2b warranty what rotors and pads will last more than 15k miles? Anyone have any luck with the powerstop pad/rotor kits which are more affordable than oem? For street use are the oem ceramic brakes proving to last 100k miles without rotors warping or pads needing replacement? Any suggestions? The rotors are warped , not pad deposits...

Vegas1500

3 Z06ZR1

Go get on your brakes heavy and repeat. Watch it go away!

Thomasmoto

Check out Powerstop. I've been running their pads and rotors for years. Never had an issue with anything from them and I have run in the Optima series for 3 years now which includes autoX, speed stop challenge and road course. Not to mention drag racing the car as well so I've put them to the test.

KNSBrakes

Pacembellum

Bill Dearborn

First, rotors don't warp (see StopTech White Paper on Braking Myths http://www.stoptech.com/technical-su...nd-other-myths ). Rotors are a wear item. They wear out slower than pads but they are still a wear item. That is why a minimum rotor thickness is stamped into the edge of the rotor.

You seem to think pad deposits aren't the cause of your thumping. Pads lay down a transfer layer on the brake rotor when they are bedded into the rotor. You can't see that layer. If that layer isn't laid down properly during break in there can be variations in brake friction as the rotor turns causing the thumping you are experiencing.

Bill

rwheelz

Agree with the others, most likely pad deposits. That said, make sure you are torquing your lugs correctly. Do NOT trust the dealer. They put mine on at over 150 ft-lbs on some of the lugs (while others were shy of 100).

Road machine

Very good info here. Check your lugs. Most shops just use the gun and hope it's close. Lugs should be run up tight with gun then Torqued to final tightness.

Bill Dearborn

I am not sure that means much anymore. Back when the wheel bearing and lug studs were part of the rotor that might have made a difference. However, with the sealed wheel hubs we have now the rotor has nothing but holes in it and is clamped between the hub flange and the rotor. I doubt a difference in clamping force between one lug and another would do anything to the rotor. If there is any affect it would have to be due to distorting the hub flange sufficiently to cause flange and thus rotor run out. To me the major problem with rotor run out comes from not insuring the hub is free from corrosion and dirt when installing the wheel. Just a small burr or piece of dirt can can keep the wheel from seating properly against the rotor thus causing wheel run out and subsequently rotor run out. I found when swapping wheels on a number of my cars over the last 30 years that if I got a thump after the swap that I could get rid of it by going back and making sure the wheels were properly seated against the rotors. This was especially true on the daily drivers that were exposed to salt/sand from road clearing mixtures used during the winter. The hubs tended to get very corroded and make it difficult to remove/install the wheels without cleaning the hubs.

Bill

LagunaSecaZ06

I agree with the posts about pad deposits and driving style. When the brake vibrations occurred on my 2013 ZL1, the dealership turned the rotors for free and the problem was cured. I also told them I tracked the car and they didn't care. They were going to re-use the old pads, and I offered to pay for new pads to be installed with no labor, which they did. If your pads are worn out, I would just recommend that you get the rotors turned and new pads installed and just pay for it. While this may sound like it shouldn't be the case, many people are realizing that Z06 ends up costing more to run. Guys with alignments that are out of spec(from the factory or due to a techs error) end up paying for new tires and alignment, which is usually about $1,600+(in less than 10,000 miles). So paying for a set of pads to be installed every 15K miles based on your driving style, while it seems like it should be covered for free, really is a wear item.

ffr1352

I purchased a dial indicator and found my front rotors on the outside face surface measured .001 and .002 run out while the rears measured .001 and .005 run out, and disc thicknesses were 1.335 front and 1.016 rear. Does anyone know the j56 brake specs as to acceptable run out and acceptable thickness? I think the .005 rear is out of spec and considered warped (dealer said rotors were .005 and considered warped and needed replacement). I can turn all the rotors by hand and they don't seem to having binding spots, but a consistent slight drag. Sunday AM i did about 25 60-15 aggressive stops per the manual burnishing procedure for track use and when done it felt like 80% of the "warped rotors" was gone, but you could still tell the brakes and braking was not smooth like new. I may try to turn the .005 rotor and then see if the "warped rotors" sensation when braking is gone.

Looking at the powerstop rotor/brake kit on rock auto which is around $1100 but out of stock, it appears their new rotors have a .003 spec run out so not sure if it meets oem specs, although i don't plan to track the car so i think the z26 low dust pads would suit me just fine. It seems Thomasmoto is happy with his so i may try it too. The dealer quoted $3,900 for all new oem rotors and pads!

Any other thoughts?

KNSBrakes

We have DBA replacement discs for your Z06 that work with your OEM hats which are very high quality and all manner of pads that work well. Price is somewhere in between the cheaper P-Stops and expensive dealer parts.

That said - I would scuff the hell out of everything and flip the pads and do more bedding. It does not always work or work the first time but I have driven a set of rotors out of huge brake judder before but it took about 2 weeks of random 'bedding' events.

-Ken

LagunaSecaZ06

I would look on the rotor for the minimum thickness specification. If you have brake pulsation or judder and not just a measurement out of spec, then I would have the rotors turned and use fresh pads(unless the existing pads have more than 50% meat left). My ZL1 rotors were turned and new pads installed and all was fine. If you replace these two piece rotors every brake job, that is crazy. I tracked my ZL1 (similar to Corvette iron brake set up) is the first viable option. Obviously, if turning the rotors and replacing the pads don't work, then buy new rotors. I just saved you $1,000+.

LagunaSecaZ06

In my past experience of tracking cars for 20 years and driving for 30 years, I was also an ASE brake certified tech in the mid 1990s for three years. As a professional mechanic, I would always cut rotors for a basic ("hang and turn" ) brake job. I did this for two reasons. I was able to charge more for the labor and it eliminated the possibility of having a comeback. If I just hung pads(and did not cut the rotors), and there was a pulsation, the customer would then return and cause a situation of having to charge them for cutting the rotor. It was just good business and mechanical sense to do the job right from the start(hang and turn/cut).

In the intervening 25 years, tracking cars, changing lots of pads and not doing brakes professionally, my position is different. I've been able to swap out pads (always the same brand, typically the same pad material) without cutting rotors and 90% of the time not having a brake pulsation. When I did get a pulsation, cutting the rotors always eliminated the problem going forward. My theory on the cutting the rotor, versus replacing rotor, always fixing the brake pulsation is the following. The old rotors get heat cycled and the molecular structure becomes more stable after track days or 10,000 miles. Then when you cut the rotor, the metal is more stable (heat cycled) and it stays true. New rotors are typically not heat cycled. I have never use cryogenic rotors but this is a similar concept. Its just my experience. The benefit of this experience, is that is significantly cheaper to just change pads(not your problem), if there is a problem, cut rotor, and then see what happens. This is a more time consuming process, instead of spending the money on a new rotor, but may have better results. Hope this helps.

AORoads

It could just be pad transfer of material and it will scrape off after one or two hard but not lockup stops. Give it a try. It's really cheap to do.

X25

So you emailed Mary Barra for your brake job? Don't you think that's a bit much? : )

Vegas1500

X25

Makes sense. The OEM iron rotors are not directional, which is a big factor in cooling capacity. I think you could easily mitigate the issue by switching to DBA rings or something similar. The directional tittie cool much faster. In my tests at the track with temp paint, it was in order of hundreds of degrees.

ffr1352

A brake job every 14k miles of highway driving... Don't you think that's a bit much? : )

PS- My 1988 5.0 Mustang went 189k miles before the first brake job...