Sheared rotor

[DrPizza]

Wow, anyone else ever experience this? Last night, I was slowing down in a 45 zone to make a right turn, and KATHUNK what the heck was that?! Sensation of loss of braking, car pulling a bit to the left, pedal felt really soft. I instantly aborted any idea of turning & took my foot off the brake & applied the parking brake. After I was stopped, I carefully started moving forward and testing the brakes. I stopped, but they felt just slightly soft or something - I seemed to have lost quite a bit of braking. I grabbed my flashlight and checked everything as well as I could, without taking the tires off. No sign of fluid, brake lines were okay, rotors looked fine, all the pads were there & had plenty of life left. But, a slight grinding sound, so I figured that maybe something got kicked up on the road & temporarily got stuck & scratched the rotor/damaged the pad. I waited until about 1:30 am (I was near the drive-in, so hung out there and caught a couple movies) and returned home at 30 mph & primarily used engine braking just in case.

Took the wheel off this morning to see what parts I'd have to buy - holy cow! The rotor had sheared completely off at the hat. The rotor spun freely (and provided absolutely zero braking.) I am sooooo thankful that it didn't happen on a hill; it didn't happen heading toward a busy intersection, and worst of all, that it didn't happen while traveling down a hill toward a busy intersection hauling 3500 pounds of boat.

And, as all repairs seem to go, I expected the worst; but had the wheel off, old rotor off, new rotor on, lubed the caliper sliders, new brakes, and tire back on within 10 minutes. Then, smiling, I went to the other side to replace that rotor and brakes, and a couple hours later, with a torch, penetrating fluid, and bfh, I finally got the rotor off.

I just got new tires put on within a week... coincidence?

 

[phucheneh]

Never seen that. Not on one piece rotors; not on two piece rotors.

I would be highly suspicious that something was loose. Inspect your lug nuts and studs very carefully. Look at the back side of the studs and make sure it doesn't look like they're trying to pull through the hub. I would probably go as far as to partially thread a lug nut on a few of them with the wheel off, and try and rock the studs back and forth. They should be firmly seating with no wiggle room.

Did the nuts thread on and off cleanly by hand? Do the holes in the rotor hat look distorted? Does it fit slugly over the lip in the center of the hub?

I'm assuming this WAS a slip-fit rotor, right? I'd like to see some pics if you still have it.

 

[DrPizza]

I shot a quick video clip before I took it off; uploading now.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQmz9U09mg0&feature=youtu.be

Lugs & nuts seemed just fine. Screwed on very easily. The holes look fine. And, it was a snug fit, though I only had to tap it once or twice to break the hat free of the hub & lugs.

This is inspection month for the vehicle anyway, so I'll have the garage take a closer look at it, in case I missed seeing something. If it hadn't happened, then within the next 2 to 3 weeks, I would have replaced those rotors anyway - getting ready for the summer & towing. I've still gotta get the new rear rotors on. I was going to replace the rear rotors this winter (purchased them), but the weather sucked when I replaced the rear brakes, and the rotors weren't grooved too much, so I decided to wait until this month & I'd simply replace the brakes again on the rear. (A whole 25 bucks for an extra set of pads, so no big deal. It was worth $25 to avoid spending more time sitting in the ice/slush/snow.)

 

[michal1980]

holy shit is right. how old were the rotors?

 

[iamwiz82]

They were rusted pretty badly. How long were they on there? It would take a long time for cast iron to rot completely through but it's completely plausible.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Woah...

 

[BUTCH1]

From the looks of it seems road salt played a role, you can see the white residue and the rest of the rotor around the cooling vanes looks really bad too..

 

[Jimzz]

Between rust (NY Salt state), heat, and age it happens. I have seen things like that mostly on 4x4's but I lived in the south, no salt on the roads.

I would recommend getting some premium rotors if you plan on keeping the car for a long time like centric premium or raybestos advanced. They come fully coated/painted except on the pad face. Hold up better than basic rotors.

 

[Fenixgoon]

damn.

 

[Gillbot]

I have never seen that but heard of it before. Every time I had heard of it, the "cause" was old age or abused rotors.

 

[phucheneh]

Does look rust-related. Must be a northern thing.

I am generally grateful I do not have to deal with rust.

 

[SSSnail]

Yeah, those rotors look like they belong in museums, from a zombie apocalypse movie...

I replace my rotors every time I replace the pads.

I still have no idea how yours sheared like that... What the heck are they made out of, waffles?

 

[phucheneh]

My guess is that it's a matter of steel hub plus iron rotor. Salty water collects around the crevice between the outer edge of the hub and the rotor hat. Then...that happens.

 

[DrPizza]

My guess is that it's a matter of steel hub plus iron rotor. Salty water collects around the crevice between the outer edge of the hub and the rotor hat. Then...that happens.

Gotta love the salt and sand on NY's roads. It's almost weird that the driver's side rotor was just fine; not even close to the condition of the passenger side. Though, it's got a lot of small sledge hammer marks on it now from beating the heck out of it to get it off the hub.

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

It seems to me those mini vans always burn up the rotor much more on one side than the other. On my brother's old paint van(always over loaded with weight) one side would warp or burn up about twice as fast as the other.

 

[twinrider1]

Gotta love the salt and sand on NY's roads. It's almost weird that the driver's side rotor was just fine; not even close to the condition of the passenger side. Though, it's got a lot of small sledge hammer marks on it now from beating the heck out of it to get it off the hub.

I have a theory based on the roads being crowned. Rain flows to the curb. Snow is shoveled to the curb. The passenger side spends more time in puddles and general muck while the driver's side stays comparatively dry.
This came to me when a sealed hub on my Durango went out, on the passenger side. The driver's side hub is still fine years later. I don't aim for puddles any more.

Not the same thing, but similarly freaky....some part of a friend's Liberty brakes/suspension rubbed against the inside of the rim. Like a lathe, it cut into the rim until it split the rim in two. I thought he had just blown a tire and walked back along the road to see if I could identify what cut his tire. I kept finding long, curly, aluminum shavings, fresh ones. Hmmm, those might be a clue, I thought to myself.

 

[phucheneh]

Pretty reasonable theory. Now that I think about it, I'm always doing passenger side hubs and tie rod ends.

So we can hypothesize that the broken rotor was probably a result of more exposure to moisture and salt, plus a lot more vibration and shock.

 

[Lounatik]

Yep, happened to me in a 35 ft long International reefer truck with a full day's load of frozen pizza on it, ironically. Was on a back road and the truck started to buck like crazy and then the next thing I knew, the road was tilting at a weird angle. Hit the brakes as hard as I could and came to a stop about 150 yards down the road. Damn truck was on the edge of a 6 ft or so drop off and I left an arcing gouge all the way down the road where the axle dug into the road. The truck's back driver side wheels were about 2-3 feet off of the ground, because the passenger side was where it sheared. I found the whole wheel assembly, hub, rotor, 200lb steel wheel, up against a house in the woods. If the house was a bit closer t the road, the freaking whle thing would have gone through the house. Lucky for me, this happened at 3 am when nobody was on the road. Cops were amazed that I didnt flip the truck over. Found out that the night before, our "mechanic" had done a front brake job on the truck and probably forgot to pack the bearing. Though it was never proven.

Peace


Lounatik

 

[twinrider1]

OMG, please tell me the pizza was saved. To lose that much pizza.....the horror, the horror.

(Glad you were ok).

 

[Topweasel]

I haven't had that problem but saw rotor's like that on my Neon. In Mi and I probably went through 2.5 sets of rotors in 100k. The car liked to pack snow and salt in the tire well every time it snowed more than a couple inches.

 

[Squisher]

Wow doc. weird.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Seriously, this is exactly why I ONLY buy napa premium or OEM brakes.


We have had multi page discussions with people who seem to think that china only has one 'rotor foundry' and it makes no difference which brand you buy, which is completely false.


You and your family's life depends on your brakes and tires. Cheap out on spark plugs, oil, air filters if you must.. But please buy quality brakes and tires for your vehicle.

 

[phucheneh]

...because NAPA rotors are totally stainless steel... :whiste:

 

[SpatiallyAware]

...because NAPA rotors are totally stainless steel... :whiste:

Yes that is how alloyed metal works. You only have low quality pot metal iron, then stainless steel. There are no other choices.

 

[DrPizza]

I have a theory based on the roads being crowned. Rain flows to the curb. Snow is shoveled to the curb. The passenger side spends more time in puddles and general muck while the driver's side stays comparatively dry.
This came to me when a sealed hub on my Durango went out, on the passenger side. The driver's side hub is still fine years later. I don't aim for puddles any more.

Not the same thing, but similarly freaky....some part of a friend's Liberty brakes/suspension rubbed against the inside of the rim. Like a lathe, it cut into the rim until it split the rim in two. I thought he had just blown a tire and walked back along the road to see if I could identify what cut his tire. I kept finding long, curly, aluminum shavings, fresh ones. Hmmm, those might be a clue, I thought to myself.

That's a brilliant theory. Last time I had any dangerous problem with a vehicle, it was the brake line at the front passenger tire on my previous grand caravan. Very very little rust on any other part of the underbody. But that section of the brake line had completely rusted out. Having your foot go to the floor is pretty scary. Thankfully it didn't happen a day before when I was heading down a mountain. What was left of the brake line on that side was literally just falling apart. I had never seen one piece of a vehicle get so rusty compared to everything around it.