Front Brakes - WHOA

[CMB]

Hi All,

I felt a pulsation when breaking over the past couple of days. I was thinking it was a warped rotor. Well, this is what I found. Needless to say I'm in search of rotors. Should I stick with OE or is there a quality after market pad and rotor set? I read good things about the factory severe duty pads but couldn't find the part number.

The important thing here is what caused this? I do haul a 14' tandem axle dump trailer but this seams extreme for such a small load. We received a lot of rain recently, could hot breaks being quenched by water from the road cause this? Input is appreciated as I'd like to fix this once.

Here's the kicker- truck only has 64k miles on it

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Dl5treez]

good gravy....I don't know what caused that but yikes! Good catch!

 

[JackFate]

Don’t want to be a peanut here but, I’ve been trying to find good rotors for over 20 years. I wish you luck, really
Watching

 

[MConyers]

Had that happen on a 77 Cutlass, no towing and no power like our trucks; don't know what would cause that...

 

[CMB]

I'm not going to break it down until I have the parts to fix it. I'll post more pictures once she's apart. As far as I know, the truck still has all the OE parts.

Strange, very Strange.

 

[Ozymandias]

That happens sometimes but seldom, we see it more often on Class8 Trucks hereover.
I'm happy with the OEM Rotors but in the future I'll go with the Centric Premiums that I use on my LandCruiser. They do not Rust.

 

[CMB]

While looking up the torque specs for the caliper bolts I found some interesting information. Torque spec list. I haven't validated these values but thought it may help. 275 ft/lbs for the caliper mounting bracket bolts. ..... sounds real tight but I have seen multiple articles with this same value. Can anyone confirm it? Thanks,

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com...rain-2010-up-202/4th-gen-torque-specs-292109/

Cheers,

 

[Wayne M.]

That's a good find, and while you were looking for an answer to your pulsing pedal, this is why preventative maintenance (including yanking wheels) is so important.
I think OEM or the most premium aftermarket painted rotors with OE pads are good. I like centric, but they can be hard to find.
275 ft/lb for the caliper bracket bolts? Yea I buy that, plus blue loctite.

 

[gsbrockman]

Evaluate the difference in brake pad wear not only from the inside pad to the outside pad but ALSO compare between the L/F wheel and the R/F wheel. There may be a good chance that there is an issue with a caliper, brake hose, or the slides causing the brake(s) to not release, thus wearing unevenly, and subsequently overheating the brake rotor.

 

[bboxall]

Air in a caliper will keep a brake pad engaged and overheat a rotor.

There are 5 of us here at work that own 2500's, one 2015 and four 2016's. I have found a small amount of air in one 2016 brake system and a fair amount in my 2016. I recommend a power brake bleeder and pull fresh fluid through the system.

 

[jray]

I replaced the rotors on my 03 3500 using Frozen Rotor. I can honestly say these rotors were a great purchase. Not only did they resist warping (they did not warp) but they looked great when replacing brake pads. I will buy them again for my 2018 when needed.

 

[seafish]

The OEM rotors on my 2005 were well suited for going yet another 100k when I changed the pads at 100k,
I didn't even need to turn them, just cleaned everything up, flushed ALL the brake fluid and slapped in a new pair of pads.

All that being said, there is NO telling if the quality of rotors on current trucks is the same as they were in 2005...
One would HOPE that the OP's brake rotor problem is an exceptional problem.

 

[Dan_69GTX]

Well, Chris.....what did you end up doing?

 

[Cummins12V98]

If under 100k it should have been covered under warranty???

 

[Hootbro]

If under 100k it should have been covered under warranty???

Brakes are considered a wear item and generally would not be covered under warranty. A case could be made there was a material defect here but at 64K, that would be a stretch for FCA to cover it. Even then, they still would have you on the hook for covering the pads and if you wanted the other side done for good measure, would be on the hook for that.

 

[kthaxton]

Further....they wouldn't be covered under the 100k powertrain warranty anyway.

 

[Cummins12V98]

I'm talking rotors not pads. I would contact Chrysler on this one!

 

[CMB]

It's been a while but I wanted to report back with the findings and possible causes. During the disassembly process the pads were extremely difficult to remove from the caliper bracket. I had to pry with the big screwdriver and tap with a small hammer. This may be somewhat normal however the new pads would not fit back into the slots. It appeared as though the pads were about 1/16 too long. As you can imagine I already applied a light coat of brake lube to the slot and to the pad ears to find there was a problem. I definitely don't want this lube on the pad surface. Knowing what I know now I will dry fit them first. The new pads came with the stainless sliders (for lack of a better term) which I installed with out noting how tight they were to install in the first place. ..... After wiping off the brake lube and removing the sliders the problem was obvious. It could have been the salt used in the winter or just water in general but the slot in the caliper bracket where the sliders rest had rusted considerably. The tolerances are tight leaving no room for this obnoxious oxidation. So after 2 hours with a dermal, file and wire brush i was able to hand fit the sliders and pads in the bracket. I'm sure there is a more efficient way to remove the material but I didn't want to remove to much. After the first 15 minutes it becomes a test in patience.
The cracked rotor....... well caliper pushes pad/ pad moves/ expanded slide slot doesn't let pad relax/ heat builds up/ rotors crack. ........ It's Plausible. Now I know, dry fit pads first. ......

Thanks for the replies.

Cheers

 

[CMB]

This is how far the crack progressed

 

[CMB]

A clean slot