I have owned Chevrolet products for many years and have always had issues with brake and rotors. I took my 2004 Silverado in for insp. and was told 3 of 4 rotors are bad. Needless to say it won't pass a safety insp. The truck has 11,000mi on it and my mechanic showed mewhat appears to be a problem with the casting of the rotor. My observation is they are castusing very porous material. The rotors have done in the pads so I'm looking at a 7-$800 repair bill. Anyone else have similar problems (not limited to '04' models)? Anyone have similar problems? I am in touch with Chev and will post outcome of conversation. Thanx

 

wat do u mean they r bad? only problem i have seen with the rotors is that they r bad about warping.

 

The casting is very porous, rusting from the inside out. I was a trained navel machinist and it is definitely in the material. I have seen several other rotors recently with similar condition. I will try to get fotos, difficult to explain but much like water freezing in cement.

 

Is the price for replacement from the mechanic ? I would think that you can change with a mid grad pad and rotors for half that or less if you do it your self. There is no need to turn the rotors because it weakens them or it did on 2000 Z 71 and I still had to replace them.

 

I have been a mechanic for many years now, and I've seen this problem time and time again. Most of the time brake rotors warp because people dont know how to drive properly. They race up to red lights and stop signs and power brake at the last second. A couple decades ago, you could do this because rotors were made of much thicker and denser material, and were able to dissipate the heat. But now days brake rotors are made in china, mexico, and canada. The quality has suffered, and they cannot dissipate the heat from repeated heavy braking, and they warp. However I have never seen a brake rotor rust from the inside out. And I live in minnesota where we have salt all over the roads in the winter. I guess if your having a problem with rusting rotors, I'd try a different brand. Try to find something made in the USA. It might cost you more per rotor, but if you don't drive like a manaic they'll last you twice as long. There is no need to replace the pads if they are still good, when you replace rotors unless they are contaminated. My personal opinon is to never turn or machine rotors. Like I said before in the past, this practice was common because rotors were thicker, but these days, they are much thinner, and when you machine the rotor down to make it true, it simply just doesn't have enough metal to properly dissipate the heat, and they will quickly warp again. These days rotors are a one time use item in my opinion.

 

that and be sure not to drive with foot resting on or against brake pedal as dick brakes run at a close tolerence and it will overheat and wear them out very fast you used to be able to that with drum brakes

 

I do intend to do the rplacement myself. But I am not willing to to pay for others problem. This is a material safety issue and am trying to find others with similiar problems before I file a complaint with the NHTSB.

 

i don't think ur problem is within the material. we have been getting alot of cars from up north. that the rotors r rusted up really bad an wearing down all the brake pads with only 30k miles on them. i think it's just from all the salt and snow up there that's rusting ur rotors. not from them material and not rustinginside out.