Brake material build up.

Anyone ever come across this problem?

I knew I needed new pads so I finally took things apart.
I decided to pull the rotors too and grease up things.
Well for a sec it looked like my rotors were super gouged.
Until I hit them with a hammer. Then I really start to freak as the nice shiny machined surface was just flaking off in big hunks.

Turned out it wasn't my rotor. It was brake pad build up. It was 1/8 to 1/4 thick on some parts. The back sides was the worse. Major bumps and groves. But not in the rotors. Just in brake pad build up.

So after taking a hammer to them to get all the lose rust off and the brake pad build up off. I had level but rusty rotors. I gave them a gentile sanding to get ride of the rust and they looked good.

Sucky part my life time pads are the top of the line ones from autozone but but... They are a different style now, with the beveled ends. Aren't those FWD pads when they are beveled like that? Though the original set was from 99 and the price went up $17 since then.

anyways, it was very very strange. I never seen rotors have a build up like that on it. Usually its the rotors themselves that get grooved or wavy.

very odd.

 

You must live in the northeast as the only cars I've seen with this come from there. I'll also wager you took this car on a trip to the south recently. It's typically caused by road salt residue attaching to the rotor and chewing the pads up and going to the beach kicks it into overdrive! This corrosion will leave pits in the rotor that are nearly impossible to get out so replace the rotors as well.
P.S. - tapered pads aren't FWD or RWD specific, they are that way to promote even pad bed-in and wear...