Is it possible to clean rotor discs

[RJSakowski]

I buy brake parts from Rock Auto (rockauto.com). They generally offer a large selection of rotors over a price range from economy to top of the line.

I replace my rotors when they are grooved. The cost is reasonable and I can do a complete brake job for a small fraction of what it would cost if I take it in. Brake jobs are one of the easier repairs for a shade tree mechanic. They require a minimum of tools and you can usually do a wheel in a half an hour or less, start to finish. Half that time is jacking the vehicle up and pulling the wheel.

Vehicles that use a drum arrangement for the parking brake can be a mere difficult if the drum is worn to the extent that there is a ridge on the oedge of the drum. The adjuster will need to be backed off enough to clear the ridge in order to remove the drum. Some times, there is a rust buildup on the hub that also makes removal a PITA. I had one case where the parking brake cable was rusted tight and it prevented the shoes from backing off sufficiently to clear the ridge .but some WD40 and a little patience won out..

 

[WobblyHand]

Rotors are like $50 for a cheap pair and $200 for the premium slotted pairs. Pull the old ones off and put the new ones on with new pads is really easy. The first corner takes an hour and the remaining 3 wheels take 20 minutes each tops.

I haven't paid to have a brake job done on 35 years! It is one of the easiest operations to do on a car. If you can't handle a simple brake job with new rotors and new pads yourself we are going to have to kick you off if this site!

I've always done my own brakes. They're pretty easy to do, especially the disc brakes. I measure the rotor thickness with a micrometer, if it's under, I just replace them without a thought. If they are in bad shape, I replace them. If they pass thickness but are a little rough, I just do a bunch of stops to clean them off.

Sometimes they just need to be rebedded, like when you replace the pads. You can look it up, but it's just a series of high speed stops to get a more uniform surface of the pads and rotors. Some say there's transfer of pad material to the rotors. All I know is if you bed the pads, you get smooth firm braking from your new pads. Been bedding pads for 40 years, seems to work for me.

For my Subarus I mail order the OEM rotors. The price used to be ok and I was guaranteed a good fit. Likewise for the pads. I remember getting after market pads and stuff was missing, or I had to do a bunch of grinding to get them to fit. I don't miss that at all.

Please don't threaten to toss anyone off the list, we all have different abilities or experiences. I know you weren't really serious, but we don't need to do that kind of thing on our friendly forum. We all have to start from the beginning...

 

[7milesup]

Get them from Rock Auto. I just replaced the ones on my daughter's Subaru Impreza. It cost me $141 delivered for the front rotors (GeoSpec), new premium brake pads and brake pad kit. An independent shop wanted $600+ for the same 1 hour job. Sometimes, I think I should have gone into automotive repair.

 

[MikeInOr]

I buy brake parts from Rock Auto (rockauto.com). They generally offer a large selection of rotors over a price range from economy to top of the line.

I replace my rotors when they are grooved. The cost is reasonable and I can do a complete brake job for a small fraction of what it would cost if I take it in. Brake jobs are one of the easier repairs for a shade tree mechanic. They require a minimum of tools and you can usually do a wheel in a half an hour or less, start to finish. Half that time is jacking the vehicle up and pulling the wheel.

Vehicles that use a drum arrangement for the parking brake can be a mere difficult if the drum is worn to the extent that there is a ridge on the oedge of the drum. The adjuster will need to be backed off enough to clear the ridge in order to remove the drum. Some times, there is a rust buildup on the hub that also makes removal a PITA. I had one case where the parking brake cable was rusted tight and it prevented the shoes from backing off sufficiently to clear the ridge .but some WD40 and a little patience won out..

Yep, RockAuto is where I get my brake components from too. I usually choose the middle of the price range pads and rotors. If I am having brake issues and it has been a while since replacing them I just replace them. No measuring, no fussing, it takes no more time to replace them than it does to remove and thoroughly inspect them.

Yes, drum brakes are a pain in the rear. It is a Subaru Impreza though... I have HotWheels cars that use the same rotors and pads!

 

[tim81]

Rotors are like $50 for a cheap pair and $200 for the premium slotted pairs. Pull the old ones off and put the new ones on with new pads is really easy. The first corner takes an hour and the remaining 3 wheels take 20 minutes each tops.

I haven't paid to have a brake job done on 35 years! It is one of the easiest operations to do on a car. If you can't handle a simple brake job with new rotors and new pads yourself we are going to have to kick you off of this site!

I can guarantee that for $850 you get the $50/pair ($100/car) rotors and those are retail prices. They probably pay $60 for the 4 rotors.

All you need for fancy tools is a big C clamp to push the brake piston into the caliper. For rotors and pads there is no bleeding the brakes. The brake lines remain sealed. The only time you need to bleed disc brakes is if you swap the brake caliber too.

Just the rotors if you bought them on-site at Subaru.

 

[tim81]

I do everything myself at the car that’s why is past 167’000 miles on the 2020 Subaru Impreza and counting.

 

[wachuko]

So many brake rotors lathes for sale… there has to be a way to repurpose them for something else…

On topic - ditto on what @WobblyHand said.

 

[tim81]

I've always done my own brakes. They're pretty easy to do, especially the disc brakes. I measure the rotor thickness with a micrometer, if it's under, I just replace them without a thought. If they are in bad shape, I replace them. If they pass thickness but are a little rough, I just do a bunch of stops to clean them off.

Sometimes they just need to be rebedded, like when you replace the pads. You can look it up, but it's just a series of high speed stops to get a more uniform surface of the pads and rotors. Some say there's transfer of pad material to the rotors. All I know is if you bed the pads, you get smooth firm braking from your new pads. Been bedding pads for 40 years, seems to work for me.

For my Subarus I mail order the OEM rotors. The price used to be ok and I was guaranteed a good fit. Likewise for the pads. I remember getting after market pads and stuff was missing, or I had to do a bunch of grinding to get them to fit. I don't miss that at all.

Please don't threaten to toss anyone off the list, we all have different abilities or experiences. I know you weren't really serious, but we don't need to do that kind of thing on our friendly forum. We all have to start from the beginning...

I always smoth out the edge on the pads before I mount them So they don’t create the ridges and then I go on secondary roads to let them settle in. It works always. I was looking for ways to clean ridges if the overall thickness was ok. As now that I got both lathe and mill sounds logical to try and save rotors that have life in them but state inspection want to change. I can affort to change them but why spend money for nothing I work hard to earn them.

=Tim

 

[WobblyHand]

Just the rotors if you bought them on-site at Subaru.

The last time I bought OEM rotors for my Subaru I bought them online, and they were about 60-70% the price as buying at the dealer. My experience with Rock Auto for pads was they were missing the anti-squeal shims and the fits weren't good. I had to grind and file the metal to get things to fit. The OEM pads come with all the accessories needed and everything drops into place.

Using https://parts.subaru.com/p/Subaru__/Disc-Brake-Rotor-Brake-Disk-Rear/49236071/26700FJ000.html I see MSRP for the rear rotors are $85.80, and the fronts are $96.20. Your dealer is charging above MSRP.

At https://www.subarudirectwholesale.com/oem-parts/subaru-rotor-26300fl02a the front rotor is $67.24, and the rear is $59.97. Maybe the savings gets eaten up by shipping these days, but it is worth looking around. Hope this helps, if not now, then perhaps in the future.

 

[tim81]

The last time I bought OEM rotors for my Subaru I bought them online, and they were about 60-70% the price as buying at the dealer. My experience with Rock Auto for pads was they were missing the anti-squeal shims and the fits weren't good. I had to grind and file the metal to get things to fit. The OEM pads come with all the accessories needed and everything drops into place.

Using https://parts.subaru.com/p/Subaru__/Disc-Brake-Rotor-Brake-Disk-Rear/49236071/26700FJ000.html I see MSRP for the rear rotors are $85.80, and the fronts are $96.20. Your dealer is charging above MSRP.

At https://www.subarudirectwholesale.com/oem-parts/subaru-rotor-26300fl02a the front rotor is $67.24, and the rear is $59.97. Maybe the savings gets eaten up by shipping these days, but it is worth looking around. Hope this helps, if not now, then perhaps in the future.

Thanks a lot will definitely use them. For rockauto I had good experience but with parts from ram1500 did not use it for Subaru my friend who had one told me to get only Subaru parts from Subaru. I found the 50$ each but was from autozone