warped rotors on ’01 Impala

[Bill Inman]

I have a problem with the front rotors on my ’01 Impala warping. The pulsing is really bad when decelerating from highway speed. They will last maybe a month after installing before they start to warp again. I purchase my parts at the local NAPA store. Is there something I could be doing wrong during installation or it bad parts (cheap material)?. Could it be an issue with other front end components?. The car has 173,000 miles on it. I need to fix this problem again so any help on this problem would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Topic

[redfury]

Likely you are either torquing the lug nuts down too tight, or the more likely culprit is the calipers. If the calipers aren’t bled properly or are sticking due to corrosion or lack of lubrication( either the slides or the piston in its bore-due to moisture collecting in the brake fluid and causing pitting/corrosion ), they won’t release properly and then will ride the rotors and heat them up. Then, when you come to a stop and park the car, the brake pads will insulate just that part of the rotor causing it to retain heat longer than the rest of the rotor….and warp it.

[Bill Inman]

I have never replaced the brake fluid and i’ve had the car since it was new so it’s very possible fluid has accumulated. Is it possible to rebuild the calipers or do I have to replace them? I do lubricate the pins, the wheels are torqued to 100 ft. lbs.. I usually buy the less expensive rotors, so could that be part of the problem? For rotors is it best to buy the higher priced ones?

[Lord Ihcalam]

you could invest in drilled and slotted too. I had the same problem on my saturn, no matter what i did the rotors would warp the first time i took it over a moutain pass. drilled and slotted rotors shortened my braking distance as well as prevented the warping.

[redfury]

New Calipers are about the same price as the rotors. Rebuilding them can be a pain if you have problems with the piston seals. You can always try to clean up the slides and see if that helps. I’d do a brake fluid flush while you are at it, especially if you replace the calipers.

Sometimes you can get the rotors turned and it will get rid of the pulsation, but sometimes that heat creates a hard spot in the metal.

Depends really on how much time you have to monkey with fixing the brakes. Always do them in pairs though…pads, rotors and calipers.

[EricTheCarGuy]

You might have caliper problems as pointed out. If that’s the case they’ll overheat the rotors and they will warp. Also, I think you’d be better at 80lbft than 100lbft on the wheel torque. Lastly, cheep parts yield cheep results so if you feel the quality of the parts you’re using isn’t up to par you may want to try better parts.

[Author]

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