03TL_S

so recently i decided to replace my pads with the hawk very low dust ones bec i was sick of cleaning my wheels every 2 days....so got the hawk pads, (forgot the part #) and had my acura rotors resurfaced by a friend who worked at the dealership....
few days later the vibration and noise came back, like the rotors werent even resurfaced.
drove a few thousand more miles and it kept getting worse. took the wheels off and examined the rotors and once again they are nasty and in need of replacment. my tech said the hawk pads were too hard for stock acura ones and ruined them quickly.
NOW
what are some good rotors to replace my brembo/acura ones with. and i can i still use the hawk pads, (they only have 3500 miles on them) and the best part is that they dont dust and my wheels stay pretty.

TeknoKing

Sorry to hear that, but I can safely assume that you did not bed-in your brake pads, and thus the result.

I always liked Rotoras slotted, but there a plenty of threads on this topic.

And NO you can't still use your Hawks pads if you will get new rotors..the pads are garbage... You haven't deglazed them properly, so they are uneven, and they will damage your new rotors. This is the main reason you are told by Hawks, please, please, please, bed-in our brake pads.

01tl4tl

So to be clear- is your buddy at acura a real tech who is trained in turning the rotors?
If the vibration came back - your rotors were probably toast anyway
What NAME of Hawk pads did you get? the Ceramics or HPS or what?

If the rotors were machined too thin or were not cut even side to side, then some aggressive miles were put on new hawks----- I can see problems with that
Hawks directions for bedding are short, due to room on the box

For a detailed understanding of brake pad and rotor bedding, and a good method of doing it- tested by many ziners and I helped write and test it. Based on the info and experience from several high performance makers.
http://heeltoeauto.com/httech/YaBB.pl?num=1184261899

Mystican

Hawks pads have been known to eat rotors, but not the street compounds. Only the racing pads that require racing heat. Are you sure you got the right pads?

AndrewA

iTrader: (3)

Also, when I chose my HPS pads, the Hawk rep very clearly indicated to me that the ceramic pads produced less dust, but tend to be very harsh on the Acura rotors.

03TL_S

yeah they are definately harsh. i need new rotors yesterday.
any advice on pads....i dont want the stock ones, as they turn the wheels nasty in like 2 days

TrevorT

iTrader: (2)

They destroyed my rotors too. A good friend of mine who is a longtime Honda mechanic and works at a honda dealership here used the "on car" lathe to turn the rotors. I bet them 5 different times exactly to the heeltoe specs and still have a lot of issues with them. Squeling under light pedal pressure and grooving of the rotors.

I just gave up and have been dealing with them since. The sad part is they are a good pad in my opinion. I'm going with a rotora setup this time around.

I think the Brembo rotors are just real soft and don't take to even a "light" cutting very well.

01tl4tl

the stock rotors are not the best thing known to mankind~

For good pads that outperform (IMO) the hps pads- RacingBrake ET500
are now avail for the 6MT cars, and for the auto trans TLs of gen2 and 3.

They dont eat regular rotors- I have kragen rear rotors and they are fine with RBs pad.
They work awesome!!! with most brands of high performance rotor,
and with their own brand of rotors... designed to work with each other= amazing stopping power with no noises or surprises

I run the 1 piece RacingBrake slotted front rotor on my Gen2 TL,
with et300 pads for `wife drives the car` and have a set of et500s for when the wifes away- on the backroads I will play~

See azine vendor MrHeelToe for them www.heeltoeauto.com and read the tech info on brakes- brake pad bedding and other general questions- Good suspension articles too
iirc this months secret coupon code is: acurazinerocks

ARX-01b

iTrader: (1)

I love my Brembo's

MrHeeltoe

iTrader: (1)

This is not the rotors' fault. Not the pads'. This is a simple case of this combo might not be the idea.


Brembo rotors have a high clamping force (BTW, that's what causes the dust...not the oem pads begin inferior) which causes and increased heat in the pads. To cope with this you need a little more than a street pad to survive. Add to that the stock rotors not being able to shed the heat quickly or evenly and you have a problem with excess pad buildup on the rotor causing a shaking and glazing.

The excess heat in the pads is causing brake pad material to transfer irregularly onto the rotor face. HPS are glorified stock pads really. You need something more aggressive that is not going to over-deposit material onto the pads. Ceramics on this application hold up quite a bit better, as do ET300s. And they do so with less dusting than oem.

The noise and squeak is caused by TOO MILD a brake usage. You need to press the pedal firmer and put some heat into the brakes to keep the pad material on the rotor at a good level. While the pads do wear more as you brake harder, the car will stop faster allowing you to stay on the brakes for shorter times and cause less heat buildup. Yet the pads must be able to cope with the heat that you put in. Rebedding will get rid of the squeaking, if only temporarily. And it need not be the aggressive method I recommend. Just a light rebedding from time to time.




The pads are not tearing up the rotors. But you do need better pads. I bet if you put some ET300 or ET500 in there and rebed the shake would go away and it would not come back.



Marcus

ps: these are my opinions and my estimations based on experience selling a wide range of products and engineering education. I am not the major authority in the world on this topic, but I have gleaned substantial information over the years that may warrant some ground to stand on here.

I hate cars

Pads cannot make a rotor warp, at least not directly. Stock rotors aren't good in the first place. It's pretty safe to assume they were turned too thin. I never turn rotors on a car that may be driven hard. If it's just seeing grocery getter status, fine, it won't hurt. By removing metal, you're reducing the amount of metal used as a heat sink and they're more likely to warp even faster the next time.

Timeless

I installed Hawk HPS pads about 10k miles ago, bedded them in according to the Hark procedure and they are killing my rotors. The rotors are not warped, but the pads are not wearing smoothly at all. My rotors have ridges in them now.

My rotors were cut and resurfaced and were well above the minimum spec after being cut. I'm a little bit unhappy with the pads.

I hate cars

Please explain the ridges in more detail.

The rotors while in spec stilll have less material than they did before turning. They are marginal for high performance in the first place and now they have less material.

bmaczo6

iTrader: (1)

I would not blame the pads for warping the rotors. If the rotors warped at stock thickness why would anyone expect the same rotor not to warp when material is removed?

I do not understand why anyone goes to the trouble and expense of having a rotor turned and ending up with a thinner inferior rotor. For the record, if anyone has a warped rotor replace it. This is by far the best solution and the only sensible way to go.

I hate cars

100% agreed.

Timeless

I agree with replacing warped rotors, I've never had one that was clearly warped cut, thats just silly.

My rotors were cut, but I specifically asked the tech to only take off the outer most "lip" on the edge of the disc and just to smooth out any imperfections if they were there. The rotors were not warped and the tech who cut them verified this to me after they were run on the lathe.

As for the ridges, if I run my finger down the rotor vertically towards its center I can feel them. Think potato chips with ridges, but on a smaller scale. They run all the way around the rotor on the front (the pads I replaced)

My factory pads did not do this to my rotors, the rotors were extremely smooth when I took them off to install new pads.

I find it bizarre and a little frustrating. Needless to say, I'll be looking at other manufactures when I need to do a full overhaul on the brakes.