ok, i just replaced both my front rotors (non-1le 10.5 inch) with valucraft ones from autozone, and the pads are brand new hawk hps. well i put them on, and they're rubbing the rotors now. not bad enough to stop the wheel from spinning, if i give the wheel a good spin it'll stop in about half a turn. havent driven the car yet but im guessing there will be a bit of noise. im assuming this isnt normal lol, is there anything i can do to spread the calipers more? or did i miss something when i installed them? (first time) thanks
Shaun

 

As long as the caliper sleeves have been lubed, try driving around the block to see if the calipers center around the rotor. Aside from that -- I'm out.

 

Are you sure its the pads and not the wheel bearings not packed properly, or adjusted too tight? I'd be willing to bet that's the problem if its your first time. Though, I guess the other thing could be the piston didn't get pressed into the bore enough, in which case I'd assume it should fix itself driving around the block once as mentioned.

 

i lubed the inside of the sleeves with silicone grease, its just the inside you lube right? pretty sure i packed the bearings right, theres no play, and i tightened the castle nut just enough that there was no play, so it shouldnt be too tight or too loose. i guess i'll find out tomorrow when i take it for a drive. thanks for the fast replies as always

 

one more thing, the only thing holding the pads in is the clips on the inside ones right? the outer ones just sit there? seemed odd to me, but i couldnt find anything in the manual about using any sort of glue, although on the back of my old outer pads there was something that was similar to melted tar.

 

Oh...so I'm halfway jumping in here without reading. When I said to make certain the sleeves were lubed, I meant the OD of the sleeve where it passes through the caliper, but since these are new (the part I didn't read), that shouldn't really be an issue now. I was coming from experience a few years back when I was delivery driving in a Corsica all day long. I'd rip through a set of pads about every 8-12 months. After doing this for maybe 2 years, the driver's outside pad was worn down after only 6,000 miles. Turns out the sleeve was seized in the caliper. So whenever you replace pads, it's a good idea to pull the sleeve and lube it.

 

well its the old sleeves, bolts and calipers. all i replaced was the pads and rotors.

 

Well...it may or may not be the cause of your problem, but pull the sleeves from the caliper, lube the inside of the bosses that the sleeves run through and put a light coat on the outside of the sleeves then reassemble. Assuming that the brake pads aren't slammed up against the rotor, you should be able to slide the caliper toward & away from the engine with not too much effort.

 

Its normal to have the pads always in full contact with the rotors.

You are fine.

 

Its normal to have the pads always in full contact with the rotors.

lol WHAT? sorry but i dont know about all that... i thought of something else i might be though, in the instuctions i found on here, it said to hammer the inner seal until it was FLUSH with the outside of the rotor. im pretty sure autozone gave me the right seal, and if they didnt, they didnt twice because i got my rotors and seals on seperate trips. when i put it in, the outside rim of the seal came over the top of the rotor by maybe a 1/16 of an inch, just enough that it could make it stick out enough to rub those pads. and when i looked on my old rotors, they were sunken down inside the rotor, i couldnt tell if it was the same seal or not with all the grease. however, the only way the new seals are going like that is if i really start bashing on them with a hammer, or possibly if i tightened the castle nut really tight then backed it off. any thoughts?

 

If the seal is sticking out far enough to mash it back in in the manner you're speaking, then it runs a decent possibility of being damaged and leaking (That wheel bearing grease becomes very fluid when it's hot). If so, it could leak all over your brakes and that'd make for a bad day. There is a particular Autozone near me that gets everything wrong. I don't blame them because the management there truly SUCKS. The manager makes fun of customers and employees to their faces and this is very obviously meant to be malicious. I'd recommend taking the rotor off and trying to tap the seal in -- if it's the right seal, you should be able to get it in and if not it needs to be replaced anyway and that would be a good time.

NOTE: If this is your only transportation, buy the seal before you start working and if you don't need it, return it later. I've wasted too much time going back & forth with auto stores. Now I buy more than I need and return what I didn't use.

 

well it isnt sticking out, there is a lip, and the bottom of the lip is flush with the rotor. but the lip is about 1/16", maybe 1/32" thick, so the top of the lip sticks that far above the rotor. but on my other ones, there doesnt appear to be a lip, the seals are actually a bit inside the rotor.

 

You said above that the rotor will spin about a half rotation with the caliper and pads in place. That is normal. Think I don't know brakes? do a search under my name, you might be surprised what you see.

Before you decide to laugh in my face (LOL) next time, if you were such an expert maybe you wouldn't have to ask
You never want a brake pad to leave contact with the surface of the rotor. They will always at the very least lightly touch. If they donot then you have a frozen pistonand that caliper will not function to help stop the vehicle.
When a brakepad leaves contat with a rotor, it is called pad knockoff. This will generally occur with fix calipers and larger diameter rotors in a hard corner(you have floating calipers).

 

i've seen brake pads GRAZE a rotor. this isnt a grazing. im talking if you spin it as hard as you can it stops within half a turn, along with a metallic grinding noise that brakes in working order do not make. i never claimed i was an expert, you'll notice in my first post i wrote this was the first time i've repacked bearings or serviced my own brakes, but in my limited knowledge, i dont think the pads should be making grinding noise when i spin the wheel.

 

Well...I still say give it a short drive around the block and then recheck the calipers. If they are a few years old, then the pistons may have partly seized in the bores (i.e.: the pistons can be pushed out during braking, but will not let up so much when the brakes are released.). If that's the case, I'd expect it to be really difficult to spin the rotor at all after the test drive. If it's calipers, I got the standard RS iron pieces for $12 & $14 for the front left and right (after core). If the calipers are fine, I'd say it has to be the bearings. If nothing else fixes this then:

·Pull the rotor
·Spin the bearings around the races one to unseat them
·Put the rotor back an and tighten the castle nut to (I think) 12 ft-lbs
·Loosen the castle nut about 1 turn
·Finger-tighten the nut and put the cotter pin in

Just to eliminate tight bearings, this might be the best place to start, but if you did everything right with the rotor bearings the first time around there should be no difference

 

you're right, i drove it a few miles today to get the front end aligned, stopped a few times on the way to make sure it was cool and they loosened up. i'm thinking maybe the pistons were sticking like you said. thanks everyone!

 

If they were sticking, keep that in mind because it could cause lockup at speed and become a bit dangerous. Just keep an eye on things for a while.

 

yikes... might want to keep it under 120 for a while...

 

....

In any case, replace the damn calipers. They are $12 each at Autozone. It can't possibly hurt anything unless you don't know how to bleed brakes.

 

i dont know how to bleed brakes lol

 

THats unloaded. For like $40 you can get ones assembled with new pistons and seals. Well worth the extra money in my opinion.

 

The $12 price includes pistons/seals too. Loaded means it includes the pads and mounting hardware (the caliper slide pins). Like you said, not a bad price, but he already has new pads. Might as well just buy the pins separate. I think I actually took mine on my bench grinder with a wire wheel and then lubed them with brake stop-squeak.

 

In my opinion, that should be done everytime. I just throw them in a bench vise and go nuts with a wire brush, but a wire wheel is even better.

I just use wheel bearing grease on mine, make sure it's disc brake (or synthetic better yet) grease, not drum grease. It'll cook down too quick.

 

I guess I got ripped off by autozone, mine didn't come with pads or mounting hardware. It was $12 at the store for just the caliper frame, and the loaded one had a piston, e-brake bracket, etc.

 

Hmmm I didn't think Autozone carried just the unassembled caliper. When I bought mine ($12.99 each I believe), they came assembled. All I needed was pads and they bolted right into my current hardware.

 

Mine were $12 & $14 (passenger & driver, I believe) which included the iron core, new piston, seals & copper crush washers.

The remanufactured rears were $41.99 each.