(Ive searched) Big ordeal with Toyota dealership today which has left me confusedan soured. Besides that I am just going to replace my front pads. Now toyota thinks I should drop 200$ to turn my rotors to get rid of rust (there is no rust on them). If im going to do anything with rotors its going to be replacing them when the time comes, but they appear in good condition and I have no shake/vibration under any type of braking. The dumb question is, can I not just change my pads without touching the rotors ?!?! Thanks for any help.

 

Yes you can just replace the pads so long as your rotors are in good shape - not warped, grooved, excessively rusted, and over the min thickness. Rotors have a minimum thickness - if you go below that, they have to be replaced or they will warp. What did they measure? (not that I know what the min thickness is, but somebody here will know)

All that being said, $200 is A LOT to just turn rotors - that's more like the price to REPLACE rotors.

Any reason you took it to the stealership instead of Midas, Meineke, etc?

 

Thanks for the help. I took it to toyota just to get the pads as I prefer them and the price is very comparable. In my city I do not trust Midas..bad experience with them overtightening a oil plug and everywhere else here kinda seem like more crooks than the stealership if you can believe that one.
The rotors are fine, no warp, no shudder when breaking, and no rust. If they were below thickness im sure they would have suggested replacing other than machining.
I think i may just bring it somewhere that isnt biased to inspect them. The reason at the dealership was.."theres some rust" in a quiet voice as the guy looked down and away. LIAR!! haha.

 

Once you confirm the thickness of the rotors are within spec, simply take 120-grit sandpaper and sand in a "saw" fashion in the opposite direction the rotors normally turn. Do this on both sides.

I have done this a few times on a few different vehicles per the recommendation of a mechanic. Never had a problem with squealing or any other problems. Obviously this completely depends on the condition of the rotors. Your call.

 

Ideally you would just pull the rotors, take them to a garage or parts store and have the rotors turned (usually costs about $10-20 each). I have replaced just the pads many times on quite a few vehicles and most of the time it is fine but you need to be careful at first because the vehicle won't stop properly until the pads have been broken in to conform to the existing grooves in the rotors. The rotors may also get hot spots during break in which can cause the rotor to warp later. The right way to do it is definately to turn them first.

 

ya it would be best i suppose but the cheapest place is like 150 bucks to turn the rotors if they are coming off of the truck. can rotors be turned while still on the vehicle?

 

No, they need to be pulled off.

 

im goin to look around town today to find a better price. 200 bucks to turn the rotors just doesnt sound right to me. is there anything that i am missing that makes this so difficult?

 

I bought "new" rotors from Autozone for $60 each and they have a 2-year warranty (no questions asked). You can order them online then pop them on yourself. And they do stand by their warranty, as I have discovered once.

$200 is a ridiculous price to turn rotors when you can just by them new for less. But that's the dealer for you.

 

for 200 u can get yourself a set of brembos. I paid 7/drum to get them turned

 

ya this is quite bizarre.. and the only reason that they gave me that they wanted to turn them was because there was some rust on there. there is no rust at all on them. ill look around for some rotors that ill put on later, first thing is the pads. so brembo is a good choice i hear. maybe ill look for some and just get them to throw them on when they change the pads.

 

they will probaby charge you up the ying yang for that! www.tirerack.com has brembo rotors. stopping power is noticable. if the factory ones are still ok, i wouldnt mess with them. dont worry, they will be warped soon enough.

 

Brembos are great. You also have the choice for extra $ on cross drilled or slotted directly from Brembo.

 

If rust is the only problem I wouldn't bother getting them turned, unless it has caused pitting. All rotors have rust on them, even brand new ones get rusty after a few weeks, at least they do here in the rain forest. Slight rust on the braking surface gets removed as soon as you brake, and rust not on the braking surface doesn't matter.

And like other prople have said why pay $200 to turn rotors you can replace for less.

 

Like I said, if they are quoting more than $10-20 per rotor to turn them, then keep calling other places. For $200 they should be getting replaced at a minimum.

 

i believe the $200 dollar quote is accurate in the fact that the rotors don`t just come off the hubs. you have to re&re the locking hubs and remove the rotor/hub assy as one unit. repacking the bearings would be included in that too i would think. i`m alittle unsure of those turnem on the truck machines. the flat rate on this job is 3 hrs.@??/hr., could add up quick!!

 

.....on a 3rd gen, once you get the caliper removed, the rotors just about fall off the truck.
So, no, it is not even close to $200.

http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/4Runne...enance/brakes/

 

Yeah, we used to turn them for $20 each but you had to pull them off and bring them in yourself. Why would they turn the rotors to get rid of rust? The shiny part where the pad makes contact is pretty much all that gets messed with when you turn a rotor and that's only done to avoid brake squeal or smooth out a slightly warped surface. I do know of some shops that did it regardless as a policy, or replaced the rotors if the old ones didn't have enough meat.
Have you gotten a quote from another shop?

 

I have also replaced the pads on my T100 several times and sanded the rotors to clean them up since there was no scoring. You can measure your rotors and look up the minimum spec to see if it is worth turning them. Turning the rotors will take off about .006" per side with one fast cut and one slow cut per side. Total this is about .012" off the width of the rotor.

On my T100 the rotors are behind the hubs and house the bearings so they are more involved to pull off. If your rotors come right off after taking the wheel off, then you could bring them to a NAPA and have them turned.

By the way, on-car brake lathes are in use and pretty common. They will give the best results since they cut the rotor while on the vehicle and correct and runout, parallelism, and freeplay in the hub.

Cross drilled rotors are not necessary and their high cost is not usually worth the small gain in performance. I would stick with stock OEM parts as I have had very good experience with them.

 

I've had my front pads done was twice. 06/23/99 (60K) & 03/20/03 (120K)
Last time it cost $263.69 including tax.
They did turn the rotors and I was told they had a machine to turn rotors on the truck.
Do you think this machine exists? Was I lied to?