What are the consequences of just replacing worn pads without bringing the rotors in to have them turned?

My car is a 2003 with 44,000 miles. I just had pads replaced and rotors turned about 6 - 9 months ago.

 

You can certainally just replace the pads,but you wont get the propper bedding of the new pads that you would with a freshly machined surface.

 

unnecessary noise and wear that would have been preventable

 

u can expect your pads to wear faster, maybe the rotors too.

 

I turn the rotors when replacing pads. After turning, the surface will be new, flat, and no groves.

 

not recommended.

you will get less braking performance, sometimes uneven braking performance, and more wear, worse hot spots...

 

I can't decide which one is the funniest/most silly comment here...
You guys sure got the brake shop sales pitch seriously!

Rosko, rotors rarelly need to be turned. If yours are still within specs thickness-wise and the don't have any funky pad deposit or extensive surface cracks, go ahead and mount your pads on the rotors.

Drive around slowly at first, avoid hard braking for the first ~100 miles as you'll be braking on an les than perfect contact patch. Then do a good bed-in as per the pad manufacturer's instructions.

Keep your hard earned money.

 

75% brake pads gone in one track day because i did not turn rotors that were horribly chewed up. not a sales pitch at all but in my case (track days), i destroyed my oem rotors because i let the pads go down to the metal. had i not worn the rotor as much as i did, i would just leave it and get new pads and do a proper bed in. i was too lazy to remove my rotors at the track to get them turned and considered them throw away rotors at that point.

 

I agree with Kolia. If the disk was smooth and not noticably messed up with the last set of pads, then don't bother with turning them.

A friend of mine owns a Midas and told me not to bother. I swapped on some Hawk HP+ pads and everything is perfect. Not even any squeeling.

 

why would you only wipe your buTTocks area on every 5th dump???? Spend the money for good brake pads I like Hawk HPS and turn the rotors you want to start the life of the new brake pads in the best case scenario. You life is resting on your brakes....nuff said

 

So you'de rather drive around on thinner, less heat resistant rotors? That's what happens when you turn them.

Do whatever you want guys (my previous comment was a bit harsh... hehe). But you're wasting money is you're turning your rotors each time. Well, each time... One time because most of the time you can only turn them once before your reach minimum thickness.

Juste take a bit more care during your bedin and keep your rotors for years.

 

A precision lathe with a PRECISION operator can true rotors in 0.001" increments. There are 0.03937" in a mm.

Not considering rotor wear from pads you could retrue the rotors 39 TIMES.

Most techs are rushed and just retrue by removing 0.005 -0.01 effectively taking off way too much to avoid having to waste 10-20 minutes doing it over and over and over again.

Not fair to repeat urban legends or second hand comments UNLESS you have personally set up rotors on a lathe and trued them yourself!

 

Then wouldn't a rotor need to be machined 0.001" beyond the depest circular groove on the rotor to be of any use ? In that case, it's a lot more material thickness that'll be taken out.

I personnaly like my circular groove. In the end, once the pads have worn a bit and complied to the uneven surface, I get more surface contact.

 

I've only turned/replaced my rotors when they're noticeably grooved or uneven and I've never had any problems, pads lasted just as long as the originals did. Now, I also try to match pads with the rotors hardness because buying harder pads than stock will eat at the rotor more, learned that the hard way!