The situation: I have an 02 wrx with mostly 04 STi components (everything except wiring and body basically). When I did my swap I installed new centric rotors and stoptech pads along with ss lines and ATE super blue and the STi master cylinder. A few weeks after the swap I noticed a wobble in the steering when I would brake on the highway. Braking from slower speeds around town wouldn't give the wobble. Also if I brake hard it goes away. Just a light brake (like getting off an exit) causes the steering wheel to shake. It doesn't take the car out of control or anything but its still extremely annoying. I had Brandon at allpro turn the rotors for me and it went away for a while but its back again. All signs point to the cheapo rotors warping from normal use as I have not tracked the car nor had extended periods of hard braking like a mountain run. I'm looking at getting some DBA rotors as everyone seems to be very satisfied with those. Questions: - Are the rotors I have really so pitiful that normal braking will warp them in a couple weeks? (I know they were cheap, I had to cut corners somewhere with all the other stuff I was doing with the swap) - Is there anything else that could be causing this? Is something wrong with the car that's warping the rotors instead of the rotors just being crap? - If I get new rotors, am I gonna need new pads too? All thoughts and advice appreciated
maybe not warped, but not true to begin with (heavier on one side than the other). so no amount of shaving will fix it. wouldn't be the first time i've heard of lower quality rotors skipping a final test balance/quality check before heading out to be shipped
What type of stoptech's? Did you bed the pads? Did you bed the pads after allpro turned the rotors? Most cheap (autozone/centric) rotors are 100% fine, but I don't believe all cheap rotors are the same as I have seen some convincing pictures of rotors torn to bits. Also, Centric owns StopTech.
Here is a great article on what you are feeling straight from StopTech. http://www.stoptech.com/technical-support/technical-white-papers/-warped-brake-disc-and-other-myths
After reading the stop-tech article, I realize I definitely did not bed the pads in properly (either time). Unfortunately, the fact that I've been driving the car like this for some time means I have most likely got a substatial cementite buildup and have toasted the rotors and possibly the pads too. I'd hate to go through this again so I'll probably end up get new rotors and pads and bed them in properly. Thanks guys!