trevorthetrekker

Hey guys, so, I'm so confused right now.

About a month ago, I turned my front rotors and installed new ceramic pads. I had never done brakes on a Toy, so I installed the anti-rattle springs the wrong way.

Immediately, the brakes were pulsing and they would click every revolution. I was on a strict timeline, so I had to just leave it for my drive down here to Klamath Falls from Portland. I assumed that the shop who turned my rotors turned them at an angle, causing the warp and pulsation.

Today I had the time to check out what was going on. First thing I noticed was uneven wear on the outside of my right rotor. Not in the usual direction though, where one caliper piston sticks, so only the one side wears. It's perpendicular to that kind of wear, so there are two concentric rings on my rotor, one worn area, one that hasn't been touched. Was this from oil or something on the brakes?

Second thing I did was to reinstall the anti-rattle clips to fix the clicking every revolution.

I don't have a dial indicator so I skipped checking rotor warp, plus I assumed it was warped already.

Upon test driving, the click disappeared, as was to be expected from reinstalling the clips. However, now the pulsating is gone as well.



The only thing I did was take out the bottom caliper pin, and installed the clips.

How in the world did fixing the clips fix my pulsating brakes?

So, so confused.

HighLux

Caliper hanging up that broke free upon last repair?

trevorthetrekker

Hmmm, maybe if one side of the caliper was hanging, it was trying to brake with only one side of the rotor, and now it's using both? I would think after driving 400 since the new brakes, that would have warped the rotor for real by now. Maybe since it's so cold they just never got up to temp. Plus I've been paranoid about warping them more, so I've been downshifting and coasting as much as possible.

Hmm...

HighLux

I dont think that would warp a rotor. As far as downshifting...I was always told (by drivetrain instructor in tech school) to never downshift to slowdown.
He said brake pads are cheaper than tranny bearings. I rend to think alot of downshifting is hard on them myself.

So...everything is working good now?

trevorthetrekker

Oh yeah for sure, especially since my tranny already sounds horrible when downshifting. However I'd rather downshift, have my tranny explode, then still have brakes, vs. using my brakes, warping them, which can also glaze them, leading to not having any brakes, then trying to stop by downshifting. Especially here in Oregon where there's not much flat land.

Yeah I guess everything is fine now. I just like knowing why things happen.

trevorthetrekker

Oh, I forgot to mention I installed brand new calipers as well.