edgalang

I'm going for my 22,500 mile oil change and my steering wheel shakes like mad on the freeway. I asked my dealer (Oakland) if they would warranty the work on resurfacing the rotors and they flat out said no and it'll be $150 to do the fronts only, since the brakes are considered to be normal wear and tear. I then went to my family trusted mechanic and they offered $15 to resurface each rotor. Just posting to warn you folks in case you had no clue on how much resurfasing costs (like me), so none of you guys get shell shocked when the time comes. BTW, after I get the car back, I'm heading over to the nearest autoparts store and buying me my very own torque wrench since I seriously think I caused the shakes by swapping my rims out and not tightening the lug nuts properly.

Edub-TL

Yeah, resufacing isn't a big deal.. just stick them in the machine, set it, and let it do it's work..

but, shiet, when did you get CL-S wheels? Who did you swap with?

edgalang

Veilstylez. Remember I told you about it on the last meet I went to? I made a road trip out of it and met him halfway at I-5 and gave him a lil test drive of the TL-S while we were at it. Afterwards I spent the day at Hearst Castle and drove up on HW1 the following day.

BTW I wasnt by myself so dont think I'm ghey like that. lol

vperkins2

Hee, hee... I was hoping you'd tell another one of your girlfriend stories! Figured you two crazy people had to be up to something!

Later,

V.

edgalang

lol almost. We got lucky and caught the night tour at Heast Castle (some fools didnt show and the next available one is at March) and was planning on getting "lost" while we were inside, but dayam! Once we were up there, there were guards with dogs sniffin round the area, so I didn't even try. But the TLS rode smooth through HW1 during the rain though! Too bad I didnt find any turtles crossing the road when we were passing through Big Sur. It would of been a cool commercial.

tea elle

Acura is covering the cost of resurfacing the rotors for many different TL owners (including myself at 9,000 miles a few weeks ago). They know darn well that their rotors are succeptible to this kind of $hit.

I'm surprised to hear that your not getting taken care of on this one. Theres a bulletin within the acura service departments that instructs them to resurface the rotors AND replace the brake pads...so why aren't they covering yours? Maybe your miles are too high.

edgalang

Grrrr......dont make me come over there and choke you...I already drove my car to the shop! I read another post of another TL owner here in my area going to the dealer and not having it covered either. I hate to hear my money being wasted and going down the drain.

RedLined

Man, your dealer sucks! I had mine resurfaced at about 20000 miles and they charged me nothing, no questions asked. They felt that was far too early for the rotors to warp, so they (I guess Acura, really) covered it. I would have thrown a fit had they not covered it.

RedLined

Man, your dealer sucks! I had mine resurfaced at about 20000 miles and they charged my nothing, no questions asked. They felt that was far too early for the rotors to warp, so they (I guess Acura, really) covered it. I would have thrown a fit had they not covered it.

edgalang

Just got back from my mechanic and was charged a total of $91 for resurfacing the front rotors and the usual 22.5k mile oil change. The funny thing is, before I left, he warned about making sure I torque the lug nuts correctly whenever I take my wheels off since he said that is what most people overlook and is one of the most common causes for premature rotor warpage. The thing is, I never told him I ever swapped rims, and when I told the dealer about what I thought caused the problem, they told me the complete opposite. They claim that it has nothing to do with the lug nuts and torquing it, but that it was my style of driving. I even mentioned to them how I took my wheels off and made a mistake of not having a torque wrench with me, but again they claimed that it has nothing to do about torquing the lug nuts because rotor expansion would only play a role if I barely have the wheel mounted with enough space for it to wiggle.

Man...thank god I have this board to cross reference the info I get. Much easier to weed out the BS from the legit facts.

rominl

ok, that brings me to the next question. where can i find out how much torque i have to put on my nut lug? i took my rims off when i installed the kits but i have no idea how tight i have to put the nut lug back on for...

edgalang

80lbs...its in the manual about putting on the spare tire. It's also on the back of the genuine acura TL wheellocks.

99LagunaTL

The difference in price is probably due to the fact that the dealer cuts the rotors on the car, while the mechanic takes the rotor off the car and cuts it off the car. IMO, you are better off cutting the rotors while they are still on the car, even it may cost you more.

Geezer

Amazing. I took my car in for the 22,500 service and mentioned the steering wheel shake. 2 hours later the service manager came to get me and said that they'd finished the service, and replaced my rotors and pads under warranty. That's Radley Acura in Northern Va. Guess I got lucky with my choice of dealers.

bricot

I've got mine torqued at 88 lbs. Also after taking a wheel off and putting it back on, if you really want to be on the safe side, a suggestion I got from my tire installer.

Torque when you initially put the wheel back on
Torque at 25 miles
Torque at 75 miles
Torque at 150 miles

rockinTLS

I have never had any trouble going to a reliable shop and having the rotors resurfaced off the car even though the mfr recommended otherwise.

$.02

evolaerok

Dayam your dealer sucks, I took my car in and they resurfaced my rotors and replaced my cracked fog lense all for free.

Throtex

Hey Geezer, good to know Radley is responsive. My dealer was a guy called Lincoln Tucker (definitely a car salesman name, but why for Acura?). He knows his stuff and is extremely helpful. I just bought my car in December so it hasn't gone back for any service yet, everything's running great (knock on marbled fake wood).

While I own a Type S and can thoroughly appreciate the quality of this driving machine, I'm far from a gear head. How would one tell if a rotor is warped? Is it enough of a change that you'd notice it by looking, or would you feel some sort of wobble while braking? Thanks guys.

edgalang

Even the newest of the noobs would be able to tell if the front rotors are warped. It is not something that you can look at but something you'd feel. The driver would experience steering wheel shakes and/or unsmooth stops. Trust me, if your rotors are warped, you'll know about it. This was my first experience of rotor warpage and I knew what it was right away, even though this is one of those progressive type of symtoms. Each 100 miles driven would shake the steering wheel more and more to the point that braking during highway driving (around 80mph) kinda spooked me.

wv5b

Another good way to warp your rotators is to heat up the breaks and then go through a pool of some standing cold water. I did that several times in a suburban. I would round a corner and going down the hill in a hurry and have to break quite a bit, and if it had been raining and the water was 2"deep or so was standing in this low spot, I was told that could cause it. I had my rotators turned and not long after that had that re-occur. I have 22K on my tl-s and no problems of anykind.. That car will get up and go and I know what speed is because I previously owned two 5.0L. Mustangs and a Z-28 before buying my TL-S. I drive about 30 miles of interstate driving in early morning and the car just floats at 85-100mph. The Bose system is about the crappiest I have ever heard. My daughter's Bose on her Maxima is a couple of notches better..

2K2 TLS

There are 2 ways you can help warp your rotors.
1: After driving your car, when the rotor is still hot you spray cold water on it. ex: washing your car after you just drive it.
2: not use a torque wrech when tightening your lug nuts. ex: sometimes shops use air guns to put your lug nuts back in, thats not good for your rotors so watch them and tell themt o use a torque wrench.

As for the warranty issue, i had the same problem (shaking while braking). Asked the dealer (los gatos acura) @9000 miles and they said they would resurfce and replace stock pads for free under warranty. I even set up an appointment, but decided to upgrade my entire brake setup instead.

Austin519

Uhm...I got my rotors resurfaced at 1500 miles...under warranty...

Austin519

rominl

after hearing all those stories about too tightened up wheels causing the warpped rotors, i went to local store tonight and got a torque wrentch for 15 bucks and retightened all the screws to 80lb-ft.

hopefully now it's better. though i have a feeling that my rotors are not doing fine from long time ago already....

EricL

1. Try to bed the pads in when you get them. There are articles on Google related that explain how to really bed brake pads in well (it really helps).

2. I haven't had a single problem with lots of mountain driving and with the wheels hot enough to steam from the center caps on my SSRs (they were popping off from the heat and steam until I got some o-rings and new covers). They may eventually warp (given some more time), but they stop hard enough to toss an unstapled passenger out the window without a belt. Toyos are sticky.

3. I never had a problem with the stopping distance, only a bit of fade with VSA on and tons of very high speed braking (sorry, no repeated 0-100-0 tests...) I know there is a TSB about the "pads", but I heat the wheels up so hot just coming down 2000 feet in a mile that they get too hot to touch on a regular basis -- no problems so far.

I would encourage people to get the rotors cut (always with a new set of pads). Anyone who doesn't cut them is nuts (with few exceptions). Most good pads really get some help with the right break in -- look at the following article on green fade, fade, and bedding in rotors (also look at "bedding in brakes" in Google).

http://www.se-r.net/car_info/brake_performance.html

Finally, I generally have my torque wrench handy at rotation time, but I have had some guys use impact wrenches and use a proper star pattern to tighten up the lug bolts (with a few passes). A lot of "better" tire places use impact wrenches without problems (they have the torque set to the correct level) and they take their time to make sure the wheels are torqued right. Even if they pull out a torque wrench, make sure they don't just tighten the bolts to full torque in 360-degree order (like tightening them in clockwise or counter-clockwise sequence)!

my opinions expressed here *and* I've been knocking on fake wood regarding brake sanity (so far so good).

(When I wear out my rotors and pads (one day) I'd like to try something like Tim's rotors with Zeals if they don't make some with the Aluminum hats (look at a Brembo disk)!

edgalang

Yeah good idea. It wasnt until RR did I even know about torquing lug nuts properly. I just wish I took a faster initiative and bought one when I swapped rims with Veilstyles and all this would of been avoided. My brakes were perfect before and with $15, you could save yourself much unneeded hassle.

rominl

yup, i am not 100% sure if it's real or it's just my damn illusion, but now i loosen things up a bit and took a little drive just now with some moderate braking, the car seems NOT to shake as much as before.

i really hope this is the case. the camry i had before uses those stupid iron wheels, so i had no idea about these torque thing about the screws. i always thought i have to tighten them up to prevent my wheel from falling apart. guess it's a good lesson for me

pianoman41

Other people have already chimed in on this, but here is my lug-torqueing mini-FAQ:

Two points: make sure you're tightening the lugs in a "star pattern." Which means don't go clockwise or counter-clockwise to each lug. If you look at the wheel like a clock, you should be going from 12:00 to 7:00 to 2:00 to 10:00 to 5:00. You should hand or spin tighten the lugs while the wheel is in the air (to avoid cross-threading). Then you should lower the wheel enough to put weight on it when you finally torque to 80 ft/lbs (range is 70-88 ft/lbs, so 80 is a good number). Although you can have the car sitting with all its weight on the ground, it's better with most of the weight off so as you torque, the rim/wheel can be "pulled" to the hub without trying to "drag" the other side of the car towards you. As long as there's enough weight on the wheel to keep it from spinning when you torque you're good to go.

rominl

wow, great info pianoman41, i will definitely keep that in mind. yeah when i read the manual it also talked about doing it the star way. any specific reasons behind that?

edgalang

Easy...better distribution of force. Even if it wasn't in the manual I'd still do it that way. Also, if you read up on it, it also suggest to unlock the key first when removing the wheel and lock it last when putting it back on.

rominl

yup, i followed the instructions one by one... boy was that scary to know that i have been doing it the wrong way for about a week.... @_@