hello


has anyone heard of turning brand new front brake rotors?

does anyone do that?

 

no, don't know why someone would need to turn new rotors.

 

For that matter, you don't often hear of people turning old rotors. With steel from India as cheap as it is (a new rotor from Autozone is $25), it's hard to justify the effort unless you've already got the machine sitting right there. And modern rotors are designed with the cheap replacements in mind; they're a lot thinner.

(I do de-glaze the rotors with wet-or-dry sandpaper when I change the pads.)

 

I worked for a brake manufacture back in the 70's and 80', we always surfaced a new rotor.
The purpose of re-surfacing is to make the rotor true or straight, also eliminating a pulsating brake pedal. They get banged around in transport. But rotors were of better quality back in the day. On most foreign cars you would dismount old rotor from hub and re-mount new rotor. I would definitley surface a rotor under those conditions.

As for newer vehicles a lot being front wheel drive, rotors mostly slide right on, so the need for surfacing is not as critical. Also the quality is not as good as it used to be. If your old rotors are in spec its a matter of choice weather you want to re-surface them or not.

I personally would replace my rotors if doing a brake now a days as rotors are cheap. I use OEM brakes pads and hardware. No squeaks.

 

A new rotor should come straight and true, although a good cleaning and scuffing to help the pads set surely won't hurt, I don't see a need to turn a new rotor.