ok, so I put some new brakes and rotors on. About once a month the driver's side rotor warps and ruins the pad and I have to have it turned again. I went to autozone with this problem. I thought it might be a ball joint of tie-rod end loose. The guy there said it was the wheel bearings or possibly the caliper. I bought inner and outer wheel bearings for the front with new seals. My question is, is there a way I can test to see if it's the caliper b4 I buy that too? It's a little expensive... I would like new calipers one day, but I just don't have the cash right now. Bearings were cheap as hell though....

Secondly, when I do go to get the calipers, what brand is good?

 

The remains are cheap. Check the price at your local auto parts store. If you can summon up the cash, you might also consider the hoses.

JamesC

 

Is it always the inner or outer pad, or are they wearing evenly?

Does it exhibit any pull while driving or braking?

Does the caliper piston retract easily when installing new pads?

As for the replacement calipers, I've always had good luck with Morraine. In other words, any good remanufactured unit should work as well as the original, and maybe even better.

Make sure the caliper bracket is clean and rust free so the caliper can float freely. A little EP grease on the guide pins can't hurt, either.

 

While stopping the left front wobbles but it doesn't pull at all. Both pads wear evenly. The only problem I'm having is that something keeps warping the rotor. The caliper piston is easy to push in, it just requires 2 thumbs and some pushing, no c-clamp. So what do you guys think? wheel bearings or caliper?

 

The shudder (wobble) on brake application may be warpage, or it may be annealing of the rotor(s). Low-grade cast gray iron replacement rotors tend to do that rather quickly. Higher-grade iron/nickel rotors (usually domestic, North American) replacements tend to resist that problem. Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. castings usually are the higher grade parts, whereas eastern imports tend to be the cheaper gray iron parts, sometimes also suffering porosity, voids, and contamination.

The machine shop which is turning the rotor(s) should be able to tell almost immediately whether the rotor is annealed or hard-spotted, thereby rendering it almost useless. The tool noise on the iron should be a clue, even if they don't use a Rockwell tester to qualify the cores.

 

Well, an o'reily autoparts just opened up and they turn rotors according to the sign on the window... should I not go with them? Those people don't seem like they would know anything lol - not to be mean, but I doubt they are all expert machinists. Know what I mean?