Rotor replacement?

[rh71]

2013 Sonata - my wife was hard on the brakes and there were plenty of stop signs on her commute, but the commute is no longer necessary. Anyway after 25k miles we need new front pads as they're down to 3mm. But do the rotors need replacement also? I don't think Mavis (where I just sent tirerack.com tires for install with this job and they have a special on a brake pads job*) will do resurfacing and they always want to sell both jobs at the same time. New pads installed* = $89. New rotors & pads installed = $250.

Do these rotors need replacement? I measured with a digital caliper and it's pretty close to standard spec still (28mm) whereas replacement is 26.4mm. Rotors should last 3x brake pads from what I'm reading. Is the scoring on 1 of the rotors a big problem?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I've seen lots worse. The 1.6mm difference between current and minimum thickness is partially so you have fudge factor for resurfacing, but I wouldn't bother resurfacing them unless you were getting pulsing or wobbling in the brakes.

 

[rh71]

Well the forum maintenance threw a wrench into my hopes of getting many replies before I had to make the decision so I went ahead and had it done. Hopefully won't have to touch these for another 40k+.

 

[MadScientist]

They look fine. A little rotor scoring will not affect braking.

 

[mindless1]

The scoring makes it less likely they can be resurfaced and remain within tolerances, but in this case you might have to have them checked.

A small amount of scoring will reduce braking performance until the pads wear in to match, then there will be minimal difference. It will wear out the pads faster. There's no way to put a % on how much faster, but we're not talking about a large amount (depending on how the rotors wear from this point forward).

In this case the choice might boil down to the best guess about which is the less costly option, particularly when paying someone else for labor. The actual labor to do the rotors is minimal once it is at that point in the brake job.

The cost of mid-grade rotors for your vehicle is reasonable (about $30 - $40 ea.) so in this case, the addt'l charge of ( $250 - $89 = ) $161 to throw in a new pair of rotors seems excessive. They might be Hyundai OEM rotors as an excuse to justify the price, but odds are someone else makes the rotors and you could get the exact same rotor cheaper under the manufacturer brand, or an equal quality rotor under a different brand as cheap or cheaper.

Frankly it stinks when shops hide additional profit by marking up their parts prices. If you can get equal quality parts elsewhere cheaper, that alternate source was still making profit! I can understand if they want a slight overhead for the storage space to stock parts for an expedient repair or paying some shop grunt to drive to a parts supplier (at minimum wage), but that does not account for an over 200% markup. Billing should be transparent about their costs and yours, not a monopoly where they will only install parts you buy from them if there isn't price parity. They are entitled to make a living but should be honest about it. [/rant]

 

[EXCellR8]

I didn't actually think that you could get rotors resurfaced or "cut" anymore, but they're relatively cheap to just replace anyway.

However, those in the pictures look like they'd go for a awhile more. Front pads and rotors always wear faster and scoring is pretty common.

 

[mindless1]

^ Have you asked or just assumed you couldn't get them resurfaced? I haven't done a poll but around here, there's Pep Boys or Midas and "most" of the older, locally owned repair shops. Seems like I had it done at a Napa a few years back but don't know if they do any longer.

The thing is, I recall it used to cost about $7 to $10 per rotor but kids these days don't want to get their hands dirty so the price has gone up. Now some places have "on vehicle" lathes, so they don't even have to take the rotor off, but that on vehicle lathe costs more than the lathe they already had for off-vehicle, so the price went up?

It's a little ironic, in that some places (mainly chain stores) now charge more for turning old rotors than their budget grade replacement rotors cost. It's no wonder people opt for new, but it does seem pretty wasteful to throw them in a landfill, and hardy worth the bother to sell such a small amount of scrap to a recycler (unless you've been piling up scrap for a long time because you live where your neighbors don't mind and you have an old pickup truck or trailer to haul it into town).

 

[EXCellR8]

I've never had it done, ever. That's mostly due to me wearing rotors down to minimum thickness before replacing though. I'm sure if I wanted to get it done that I could find someone who knows somebody, who knows somebody else but I'm not that hard on brakes--so by the time I need parts replaced it's just a better solution to swap em out. Last pair of rotors were brought to a metal scrap place by a friend, said he could make a few bucks so I juist gave them away.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I think just about what everyone else said is fairly accurate info.

I had it done once -- rotor resurfacing. It was my understanding that it was absolutely necessary if the pads had completely worn down, or you would have to replace the rotors.

I just let my tire-reseller decide what's necessary, but we check pad wear about every six months. Just had new heavy-duty pads installed with no attention to rotors.

 

[C1]

Just had a brake job done on a 2013 Corolla (wife's car - 39K miles) & one rotor needed to be replaced. Meanwhile, had braks done on my 2004 Corolla (75K miles) and the OEM rotors were reusable.

To me it is interesting that the front disk brake of a motocycle (which does the bulk of the stopping) is never turned or replaced (unless obviously damaged). These are not mentioned in the repair manuals for the machine(s). In 50K + miles of my Yamaha motorcycle, the front pads were changed probably five times. Never was there address in the OEM repair manual for that machine to resurface the rotor. At the end (ie, before I sold the machine) the ridges/grooves on the front rotor were easily 0.030". The bike always braked fine afer the replacement pads mated to the disk which usually involved only a good hard ride, so go figure.

 

[EXCellR8]

Well, a car weighs a lot more than a motorcycle... which therefore doesn't require as much distance or braking force to stop.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Just had a brake job done on a 2013 Corolla (wife's car - 39K miles) & one rotor needed to be replaced. Meanwhile, had braks done on my 2004 Corolla (75K miles) and the OEM rotors were reusable.

To me it is interesting that the front disk brake of a motocycle (which does the bulk of the stopping) is never turned or replaced (unless obviously damaged). These are not mentioned in the repair manuals for the machine(s). In 50K + miles of my Yamaha motorcycle, the front pads were changed probably five times. Never was there address in the OEM repair manual for that machine to resurface the rotor. At the end (ie, before I sold the machine) the ridges/grooves on the front rotor were easily 0.030". The bike always braked fine afer the replacement pads mated to the disk which usually involved only a good hard ride, so go figure.

Doesn't surprise me. Most people put a lot fewer miles on a motorcycle than on a car, and rotors on a car easily last 100k miles. Why waste ink writing about stuff that most owners will do once in 20 years, if ever?

And if you're going through pads every 10k miles and 5+ sets of pads without significantly wearing the rotor, chances are the pads are much softer material than you'd usually find on a car. Sucks for pad life, great for rotor life.