Warped brake rotors

[Brian]

My Pilot was recently diagnosed with warped brake rotors. This is the first time I've heard of this. Is it common? Is this something that should be covered under warranty?
The truck has 25,000 miles.

[colorider]

Originally posted by Brian
My Pilot was recently diagnosed with warped brake rotors. This is the first time I've heard of this. Is it common? Is this something that should be covered under warranty?
The truck has 25,000 miles.

If you do a search, this thread (by the same name) discusses what PILOTinginCO went through with his Pilot.

[iglesias]

Originally posted by Brian
My Pilot was recently diagnosed with warped brake rotors. This is the first time I've heard of this. Is it common? Is this something that should be covered under warranty?
The truck has 25,000 miles.

If the tires were rotated recently, or were removed for some reason, loosen the lug nuts and tighten them with a torque wrench.
If all the lug nuts are not torqued down to the same setting, they can slightly warp the rotor. I think you want them torqued
to 80 ft-lbs, but you should check to make sure.

I had this problem on my Ford Explorer occasionally when I had the tires rotated by the shop I bought my tires from. They used a
torque wrench to tighten the lugs, AFTER they had used the air wrench to put them on. If the air wrench torque was set
too high, then the torque wrench did nothing.

[PNW-Pilot]

I would not say it's unheard of, but far from common.

So far I've been "lucky". It seems like quite a few have rotor problems. But Knock on wood, I haven't had a problem in the 1 year/ 13K miles I've owned mine. I think it has alot to do with weather and your driving style.

[TRACI]

I had warped rear rotors on my 2003 at around 29,000 miles.

[tangotango99]

O4 with 28840 miles my front rotors were warp.My friend advice me let my Pilot cool down before washing the wheels.Did not make sense to me but after $310 I wait 1 hour before washing the wheels

[phil17]

man i think as cars become faster or in the case of Pilot heavier, the rotors are becoming easier to warp. on my family's infiniti I35. we had the rotors turned once and now replaced just 2day in just 48,000km's of driving. my 97 crv is still on original brakes everything and i hope our 03 Pilot will last longer than the infiniti

[ncelk]

Mine were resurfaced 2 times, once at about 16,000 miles and the other at 35,000 miles.

Of note, an independent mechanice works on our vehicles, and they use a torque wrench to tighten the lug nuts.

I also never wash the vehicle when the rotors are more than warm to the touch and yet they still warped.

Same thing on our previous 2002 TL. We are not hard on our brakes.

Our 1994, 1998, and 2000 Accords never had warped rotors.

However, the Honda dealer resurfaced them both times no questions asked and were very pleasant about it.

[lxblack]

Ncelk;

Honda dealer resurfacing twice is not something to be happy about.

Everytime they do that, it shortens the life of the rotor by a bunch. Your rotor wouldn't last too long now.

It'd better if they replaced it...

[nolan65]

Our 04 with 17500 miles had warped rotors and they were resurfaced at the dealer. I think I know where they were warped...coming down Lookout Mountain in TN I hit a puddle of water near the bottom.
I wonder if slotted/cross drilled rotors really work better? Sure they would dissipate heat better but with less mass, they would warp easier.

[Larryl]

You gotta take it easy on the brakes. The Pilot is heavy and the brakes are not so big. The heat from pushing on the pedal a bit too much warps the rotors. I'm looking for a company in Canada that makes rotors, that I've used in the past...lost their number and can't find the receipt. I had a supercharged 88 MR2 and use to race it around the pylons a lot. I turned the rotors into potato chips. The Canadian rotors worked great. They were drilled and made of better material. I'm hoping that someone here knows the company???

[Lmossor]

There are currently 3 post for Honda Pilot OEM rotors on eBay, do a "honda pilot rotor" search.

About $20 apiece and $20 to mail

[lxblack]

How much are the rotors from the dealer?

Does Tim sell those too? How much would he charge?

[pjb3]

Originally posted by nolan65
I wonder if slotted/cross drilled rotors really work better? Sure they would dissipate heat better but with less mass, they would warp easier.

I could be wrong but my understanding is that slots or cross drilling is not to dissipate heat but the edges of the slots/holes scrape the surface of the brake pads and remove any glazing. It is possible to compensate for the loss of mass from the holes or slots by a slight increase in thickness or if it is a vented rotor, decrease the venting.

Do they really work better? A friend has a Suburban used as a tow vehicle and he decided to replace all four rotors and pads. The new rotors were slotted and supposedly had been cryo treated ( I'm not exactly sure what that is or entails ) and the new pads were a special compound as well. When we replaced them the front pads looked almost new after 56,000 miles, surprisingly the rear pads had much more wear. I'm not sure what compound the pads were but they had a different feel, when you ran your finger over the surface it actually felt different from other pads I've done. The end result has been a big difference, but I don't know how much effect just slotted rotors would have.