$10 to turn a rotor?

[jlee]

If time is money then why are you wrenching on your own car in the first place?

My time isn't worth $95/hr yet.

 

[Ramses]

My time isn't worth $95/hr yet.

Or hoping the guy doing it knows his stuff lol

 

[JulesMaximus]

Or hoping the guy doing it knows his stuff lol

Knowing a good mechanic helps. Guy I go to has been doing this for decades and I've known him for a couple decades almost. Totally trust him and his work.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Turning a rotor for $10 seems a pretty decent deal, but given the time required to:

1. Lift the car
2. Remove the wheel
3. Remove the caliper
4. Remove the rotor
5. Turn the rotor
6. Install the rotor
7. Install the caliper
8. Install the wheel
9. Lower the car

How does a repair place make money at $10 for this? OK, if they charge of new brake pads and tire rotation the total work might be reduced to items 3-7 that's still a good chunk of time -- I wouldn't do it for $10.

Frankly, given the relatively low cost for new rotors I'd prefer to pay to change it than have a low paid grunt worker do machining on my rotors. If they're only charging $10 how careful are they likely to be?


Brian

 

[Ramses]

Ten bucks is you hand them the rotor.

 

[Midwayman]

Turning a rotor for $10 seems a pretty decent deal, but given the time required to:

1. Lift the car
2. Remove the wheel
3. Remove the caliper
4. Remove the rotor
5. Turn the rotor
6. Install the rotor
7. Install the caliper
8. Install the wheel
9. Lower the car

How does a repair place make money at $10 for this? OK, if they charge of new brake pads and tire rotation the total work might be reduced to items 3-7 that's still a good chunk of time -- I wouldn't do it for $10.

Frankly, given the relatively low cost for new rotors I'd prefer to pay to change it than have a low paid grunt worker do machining on my rotors. If they're only charging $10 how careful are they likely to be?


Brian

That is almost certainly an 'off the car' price.

 

[jlee]

Turning a rotor for $10 seems a pretty decent deal, but given the time required to:

1. Lift the car
2. Remove the wheel
3. Remove the caliper
4. Remove the rotor
5. Turn the rotor
6. Install the rotor
7. Install the caliper
8. Install the wheel
9. Lower the car

How does a repair place make money at $10 for this? OK, if they charge of new brake pads and tire rotation the total work might be reduced to items 3-7 that's still a good chunk of time -- I wouldn't do it for $10.

Frankly, given the relatively low cost for new rotors I'd prefer to pay to change it than have a low paid grunt worker do machining on my rotors. If they're only charging $10 how careful are they likely to be?


Brian

That's $10 if you walk in with the rotor and hand it to them. I guarantee they aren't pulling it off the car.

 

[steppinthrax]

Turning a rotor for $10 seems a pretty decent deal, but given the time required to:

1. Lift the car
2. Remove the wheel
3. Remove the caliper
4. Remove the rotor
5. Turn the rotor
6. Install the rotor
7. Install the caliper
8. Install the wheel
9. Lower the car

How does a repair place make money at $10 for this? OK, if they charge of new brake pads and tire rotation the total work might be reduced to items 3-7 that's still a good chunk of time -- I wouldn't do it for $10.

Frankly, given the relatively low cost for new rotors I'd prefer to pay to change it than have a low paid grunt worker do machining on my rotors. If they're only charging $10 how careful are they likely to be?


Brian

This is a "carry-in" price. Also you probably don't know what a "one the car/wheel lathe" is. Most major brake shops can turn rotors on the car frame.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Turning a rotor for $10 seems a pretty decent deal, but given the time required to:

1. Lift the car
2. Remove the wheel
3. Remove the caliper
4. Remove the rotor
5. Turn the rotor
6. Install the rotor
7. Install the caliper
8. Install the wheel
9. Lower the car

How does a repair place make money at $10 for this? OK, if they charge of new brake pads and tire rotation the total work might be reduced to items 3-7 that's still a good chunk of time -- I wouldn't do it for $10.

Frankly, given the relatively low cost for new rotors I'd prefer to pay to change it than have a low paid grunt worker do machining on my rotors. If they're only charging $10 how careful are they likely to be?


Brian

You would have to remove the rotors yourself and take them to the shop for the $10/rotor price. Takes about 5 minutes to turn a rotor.

 

[Ramses]

This is a "carry-in" price. Also you probably don't know what a "one the car/wheel lathe" is. Most major brake shops can turn rotors on the car frame.

Are they still common? I always thought it was a better way but they seem to have fallen by the wayside with floating rotors being everywhere.

 

[MongGrel]

$10 bucks for someone walking in with a rotor just to make money off a machine they have in shop that isn't doing anything at the moment is a no brainer, more or less.

I's sure it would be more for a complete brake job.

You could clean one up in under 5 minutes I imagine.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Check the thickness and turn them....

lot of German companies make them thick to get you to buy new rotors at every brake change...

 

[Ramses]

Check the thickness and turn them....

lot of German companies make them thick to get you to buy new rotors at every brake change...

Up until the early 90's at least, the modus operandi of most German-ish co's was use soft pads that wore relatively quickly but were cheap and easy to change to preserve the rotors. Unusually hard use, hard pad material or running pads past where the warning light comes on not withstanding, it was a good system. Just dusty. You generally see these cars with McParts store rock hard dustless pads destroying the rotors pretty quickly once the car is 2-4 owners in. Not much experience with newer stuff other than Porsche and they seem to eat rotors fairly quickly, but they are what they are. No comment on individual service center practices.

 

[bruceb]

Depending on the age of the rotor and how worn or grooved it may be, just replace them. I would suggest Raybestos brand rotors (from any NAPA store) as their quality is much better than the el cheapo Chinese made rotors.

 

[Greenman]

Are they still common? I always thought it was a better way but they seem to have fallen by the wayside with floating rotors being everywhere.

The F150 front rotors had to be turned on the vehicle a few years back, I'm not sure if that's still the case. I assume it was done to stop shade tree mechanics from replacing brakes.

 

[BUTCH1]

This...
My last car was sold at 140K with the original factory rotors.
No pulsation. Technically still in spec (but I will admit they were borderline when I sold it). Not bad on a then 13 year old car with close to 140K)

My current car (a 2002 with 77K on it is also still on the original rotors.

Since I'm "inexperienced" at this constantly replacing \resurfacing rotors thing I always interested when others talk about it.

I follow a few simple rules and I'm still running on my original 10yr old rotors, 1st off is ALWAYS check the torque on the lugs with a torque wrench, even if they say they do I don't trust tire places. 2nd is when you have to make a hard, sudden stop from high speed try (if possible) and get your foot of the brake pedal ASAP and slip it into neutral or park. From what I've read when your pads are really hot (like they get from hard braking from high speed) keeping the pedal down could form cementite nodules to form on the rotor and then as you put more mileage on the car the nodules grow in size and brake "shuddering" starts happening.

 

[Ramses]

The F150 front rotors had to be turned on the vehicle a few years back, I'm not sure if that's still the case. I assume it was done to stop shade tree mechanics from replacing brakes.

Regular cars years ago you had to remove the inner and outer tapered roller bearings to pull the rotor off, it's messy to replace grease and reset the preload. I figured doing it on the car just saved shops some time and money.
I like the idea of them being turned in place though, no worry of them not being centered or such. There used to be some interesting stuff for doing drum brakes when they were still the primaries up front too, the goal being to get the pads to uniformly contact the friction surface inside the drum, which they never do if you just toss them on there. I don't miss drums.

 

[Ramses]

I follow a few simple rules and I'm still running on my original 10yr old rotors, 1st off is ALWAYS check the torque on the lugs with a torque wrench, even if they say they do I don't trust tire places. 2nd is when you have to make a hard, sudden stop from high speed try (if possible) and get your foot of the brake pedal ASAP and slip it into neutral or park. From what I've read when your pads are really hot (like they get from hard braking from high speed) keeping the pedal down could form cementite nodules to form on the rotor and then as you put more mileage on the car the nodules grow in size and brake "shuddering" starts happening.

Excellent advice. :thumbsup: Much like a clutch driving habits can do a lot to extend brake life. And fluid flushes.

 

[BUTCH1]

Excellent advice. :thumbsup: Much like a clutch driving habits can do a lot to extend brake life. And fluid flushes.

Yup, mine gets flushed every 3 years even if the pads are fine. I don't buy into the "lifetime fluid" bullshit from GM, every time I flush it's got some discoloration. I do the same with coolant and transaxle, 100,000 mile Dex-cool?, no way I'm buying into that crap, 30K it gets changed.

 

[soccerballtux]

As long as the machine isn't bent and the operator knows how to read, measure and use the machine, and gives a damn, turning rotors is OK. I generally just replace em anymore though, $30 ain't bad.

what's the deal with only being allowed to turn them once? that steel is over 1cm thick on each side, I could turn them 3 times and still be fine if I had to guess.

 

[Ramses]

Long as they are in spec printed on rotor I don't have any problem with multi turns myself. . They are either thick enough or not be it from cutting or just wear.

 

[soccerballtux]

Long as they are in spec printed on rotor I don't have any problem with multi turns myself. . They are either thick enough or not be it from cutting or just wear.

what's thick enough?

 

[cabri]

what's thick enough?

Link

Nominal Thickness:
Nominal thickness is the thickness of the rotor when it is new. This thickness is not usually used on a daily basis, but is listed in most specification books.

‘Machine To’ Thickness:
This is the thinnest a rotor can be machined to and still be put back into service. The purpose of having a machine to thickness is to provide enough rotor material to last the life of one set of pads. The assumption is that if the pads are replaced and the rotors are over “machine to” they should not experience enough wear to allow them to go below discard thickness through the life of that set of pads. The average difference between nominal and machine to thickness is .050″ to .060″. The typical difference between machine to and discard is .015″.

Discard Thickness
The discard thickness of a rotor is the thickness at which the rotor should be replaced. The common understanding of the definition of discard thickness is that it is a heat-related dimension. It is generally understood that if a rotor is at or below discard thickness, it cannot dissipate the heat generated. This is not correct. Discard thickness is the thinnest a rotor can wear to so that in the event the brake pads wear to nothing, the caliper piston won’t fall out of the caliper housing. It has nothing to do with heat.

 

[MongGrel]

Pretty much this.

If they are too thin for the pads to engage right, turning them down is a moot point.

They need some meat on there to grip right more or less, heat isn't a factor if they don't work and you're pads are having trouble getting a grip on the rotor to begin with.

 

[nerp]

I'd just pop on new rotors.