jfarhat87

Ive had the same bad experience with machining rotor. Btw i dont know if my actual rotors are oem because im the second owner. Is it possible to check the thickness and if they are oem ?

ukrkoz

Here's what you do.
Stop listening to sales pitch or various opinions. Go to any parts store and buy 2nd from the bottom price up rotors and pads. Do NOT buy ceramics. Rotors will cost you about same than resurfacing and why bother?

Buying local you have advantage of ease of return if something goes wrong. Also, far as I know, Highlander and RX rotors and pads are same. If for some unknown reason you really can't do without fancy rotors, buy slotted ones online. Not drilled, slotted.

With that done, what you REALLY have to do, no matter how cheap of expensive those parts are, is you MUST bed in pads and rotors IMMEDIATELY after instal, so plan that carefully. Or, you will end up with what is commonly called "warped" rotor and resurfacing and noises and what not.
Rotors do not warp. Period. Unless it's really some sort of POC metal who knows from where. Otherwise, they do not.
So here's the wisdom:

Myth # 1 – BRAKE JUDDER AND VIBRATION IS CAUSED BY DISCS THAT HAVE BEEN WARPED FROM EXESSIVE HEAT.

The term "warped brake disc" has been in common use in motor racing for decades. When a driver reports a vibration under hard braking, inexperienced crews, after checking for (and not finding) cracks often attribute the vibration to "warped discs". They then measure the disc thickness in various places, find significant variation and the diagnosis is cast in stone.When disc brakes for high performance cars arrived on the scene we began to hear of "warped brake discs" on road going cars, with the same analyses and diagnoses. Typically, the discs are resurfaced to cure the problem and, equally typically, after a relatively short time the roughness or vibration comes back. Brake roughness has caused a significant number of cars to be bought back by their manufacturers under the "lemon laws". This has been going on for decades now - and, like most things that we have cast in stone, the diagnoses are wrong.With one qualifier, presuming that the hub and wheel flange are flat and in good condition and that the wheel bolts or hat mounting hardware is in good condition, installed correctly and tightened uniformly and in the correct order to the recommended torque specification, in more than 40 years of professional racing, including the Shelby/Ford GT 40s – one of the most intense brake development program in history - I have never seen a warped brake disc. I have seen lots of cracked discs, (FIGURE 1) discs that had turned into shallow cones at operating temperature because they were mounted rigidly to their attachment bells or top hats, (FIGURE 2) a few where the friction surface had collapsed in the area between straight radial interior vanes, (FIGURE 3) and an untold number of discs with pad material unevenly deposited on the friction surfaces - sometimes visible and more often not. (FIGURE 4)In fact every case of "warped brake disc" that I have investigated, whether on a racing car or a street car, has turned out to be friction pad material transferred unevenly to the surface of the disc. This uneven deposition results in thickness variation (TV) or run-out due to hot spotting that occurred at elevated temperatures.In order to understand what is happening here, we will briefly investigate the nature of the stopping power of the disc brake system.

PREVENTION

There is only one way to prevent this sort of thing - following proper break in procedures for both pad and disc and use the correct pad for your driving style and conditions. All high performance after market discs and pads should come with both installation and break in instructions. The procedures are very similar between manufacturers. With respect to the pads, the bonding resins must be burned off relatively slowly to avoid both fade and uneven deposits. The procedure is several stops of increasing severity with a brief cooling period between them. After the last stop, the system should be allowed to cool to ambient temperature. Typically, a series of ten increasingly hard stops from 60mph to 5 mph with normal acceleration in between should get the job done for a high performance street pad. During pad or disc break-in, do not come to a complete stop, so plan where and when you do this procedure with care and concern for yourself and the safety of others. If you come to a complete stop before the break-in process is completed there is the chance for non-uniform pad material transfer or pad imprinting to take place and the results will be what the whole process is trying to avoid. Game over.

http://www.stoptech.com/technical-su...nd-other-myths

Dats it. But it may not be easy to do, as you need a long empty road stretch to bed in rotors AND you need to get THERE somehow practically without using brakes. Easy on me, I live out in farmland, so I simply roll down the hill past gate, take R turn and hee-hah! Hence, location where job is done is instrumental for the procedure.

Btw, I am dead serious about this. I had CR-V that "warped" rotors every about 15 000 miles till I learned about bedding. Swapped rotors and pads, bedded in - sold car 75 000 miles later without any need to do anything in that respect.

ukrkoz

Not to forget. Make sure you have absolutely well lubricated caliper guide pins and all brake pads/caliper contact points. LIBERALLY. Caliper has to slide back fore from hand about 4mm without any effort. This has to be done once a year, to ensure even pads wear pattern. Or, you WILL kill rotors and wear pads prematurely.

Clutchless

I agree with rotor and pad break in tips posted above. New is better than machining and does not cost any more. You need to break in or burnish your new brake pads, it really makes a difference.

OEM rotors are not better than aftermarket ones that have an anti-rust coating. My OEM front rotors had extreme rust, especially in the air vent vanes such that pieces were falling off and 2 state inspectors advised I replace them. In Virginia we have to get a safety inspection every year. After the second time a year later when a state inspector said my front rotors were falling apart, I finally replaced them. However the rear rotors were not bad and left alone. I only had 40 some thousand miles and plenty of front pad left but replaced everything so the new stuff would match up.

iolmaster

iTrader: (1)

I don't know where you live in Virginia, but here in Roanoke we can get rotors machined for ten bucks each. Not sure how that is the same as new.

Clutchless

Northern Virginia outside DC where everything is over-priced. I would still prefer new ones as the old ones, being thinner would likely not last and given the horrible rust on mine, turning was not an option as most of the deterioration/rust was in the air vent vanes and outer edge

m1964

Hi all,
When replacing any part on a vehicle, traditional thought is that OEM part is usually better than aftermarket.Therefore, when I needed to replace the front brakes again, I ordered original Lexus pads and rotors.

The vehicle has 57K miles. I drive in a stop-and-go traffic most of the time. This was the second brake job, first time I replaced pads only.

I had some trouble removing the pass. side rotor so I had to torch it and use light hummer. There was large amount of rust- both on the outside and inside the rotor. In some places, the edge of the rotor disintegrated because of the rust.

After removing the passenger side wheel, I noted bad scoring on the inside surface of the rotor.I pulled the caliper and noted that both piston seals were damaged on the side that faces the rotor (inside). It looked like the rust from the rotor "ate away" the rubber. In addition, the inner pad had uneven wear- I suspect that one of the pistons was seized, causing scoring on the inner surface of the rotor and uneven pad wear.

The driver side caliper was the same way- the piston seals were damaged. I was lucky to find a store that had both calipers in stock (on Sunday).

Our other car is Audi, before that we had an LR and Volvo so I used to buy rotors made by Zimmerman or Brembo. Those rotors never rusted like the ones I removed yesterday.

Lexus brake rotors and pads are made by Advics, and the box from the rotor says "Made in USA".I was very disappointed to see the brake components of so poor quality installed on a "premium/luxury" vehicle…

Clutchless

There are aftermarket brake rotors with anti-rust coatings that are superior to the Lexus/Toyota OEM rotors with respect to rust deterioration. My rotors failed inspection due to rust long before the pads and rotor surfaces themselves were bad. This was rust on the edges and inside the vents. They were falling apart. I replaced with Raybestos ones that had a coating. Look at Rock Auto as they have a good selection.

vlad_a

I ordered OEM parts for the 450h and rotors were made in Japan with Toyota branding on them. I believe same was with the pads, although I'm not sure who the OEM is for them.
I will note this as well, Audi is faring much better in salt conditions than Lexus was.

iolmaster

iTrader: (1)

Akebono makes most of the pads for Lexus/Toyota.

vlad_a

Makes sense

reedcooper

No shortage of quality rotors are pads at local auto parts and online stores. Use their 'premium' branded solid blank rotors and pads.

Another option, if rotors are thick enough, are simply to get them turned. They have a fail spec for thickness. As long as they are thicker than that, keep using them. Turn and reuse until they are under spec.

Pepboys have their "Pro-stop Platinum" pads. They also have EBC yellow pads which are excellent and the Akebono ASP Ultra-Premium. Pepboys Pro-Stop solid rotors are cast from G3000.

AdvanceAuto has their Platinum pads. They also have the Akebono ASP pads and PBR pads too.
AA stocks their Carquest coated rotors and the BeckArnley ones. Advics rotors are part of Aisin.

OreillyAuto has their SelectCeramic and ImportDirect pads. Oreilly sells QuiestCast rotors which are G3000. They can also order the EBC Ultimax OE equivalent rotors.

Autozone has the coated Duralast Gold high carbon rotors and can order the Brembo rotors. Can't go wrong with the Duralast Max pads, and they also can get Brembo pads.

Napa has Ultra-Premium rotors and pads. They also have Adaptive-One pads, the PBR's XBG and ULX pads, and the Advics Carbon Ceramics.

Tirerack has "Hawk" pads and cryo-treated Centric solid blank rotors.
Rockauto has great prices but stock quality alongside the junk, and charge for shipping. Be selective prior to shopping there and find an online/forum discount rockauto coupon code. Skip over their economy pads. Raybestos EHT or ATD, Advics, Powerstop Z23, are a few I would consider. And, they have solid Raybestos and Advics rotors.

Most of the local auto parts stores, with online shopping discounts, and email coupon codes, can get me to the 'rockauto' price level. After dealing with wrong parts delivered, damaged parts, lost in shipping, returns, customer service, big orders shipped from multiple locations..... just makes me shop locally more often.
However, before making a final buying decision, you need to profer research and analyze the product. I have found this article informative and useful. Hope it will help you.