How do you tell which brake rotor is warped?

[Tuco]

Agh.Minnesota.

Salt the roads?Splurge for the shields.

Don't bother trying to clean and grease the slides.  Just get new ones.

And to answer the original question, set up a dial indicator with a magnetic base on the suspension and zero the dial on the disc. Rotate with the indicator In three distinct radial locations.  Compare with runout tolerances.

[zxcvbob]

I watched a youtube video of replacing the dust shields, and apparently it only takes about 2 minutes to do the whole job.   
I thought several of the steps involved, like removing the calipers and removing the emergency brake, could each take over a half hour and that's if you don't break or lose anything.

[K Frame]

Put the car up on blocks.

Take all four tires off (or two if only 1 set of wheels has disk brakes).

Start telling some tasteless jokes. Say, maybe, dead baby jokes.

The rotor that laughs is the warped one.

[Brad Johnson]

Put the car up on blocks.

Take all four tires off (or two if only 1 set of wheels has disk brakes).

Start telling some tasteless jokes. Say, maybe, dead baby jokes.

The rotor that laughs is the warped one.

You, sir, have achieved Epic Thread Win.

Brad

[Tallpine]

I have yet to get my rotors up to warp speed.

[zxcvbob]

I'm really pissed at Autozone.   

I bought my rear pads and rotors and dust shields from AdvancedAutoParts.com.  I couldn't find a 18mm box end wrench today (and 3/4" wasn't close enough) so I went to AZ to buy one, and also a set of parking brake shoes because my old ones were worn all the way down to the steel.

The wrench is fine.  The shoes are fine.  But the little bag of hardware that came with the shoes had substandard fasteners.  There is no way these are automotive fasteners.  (not even the right color, and no markings on them)  One of them twisted off in the backing plate; I was using a stubby 1/4" ratchet and barely had it snug when it broke.  If it had not twisted off installing it, it would have broken if I ever tried to remove it in a few years.

The broken bolt is behind the hub and inaccessible to drill it out.  You have to pull the axle to take the backing plate off (that's easy in a 3/4 ton, but a real bitch in a 1/2 ton.)  *Maybe* if I knock one of the wheel studs out I can drill it out thru the hole, then install a new stud.  I tried loosening everything so I could almost get a straight shot at it with a left-handed drill bit, but almost wasn't good enough and I broke the bit.

I wrapped a steel wire around the actuator thingy (looks like a drum brake cylinder) to keep the plunger from falling out, and I put it all back together without the parking brake shoes.  Maybe it's safe to put the brake shoes in without that little bracket, but maybe it's not and I don't want to risk it.

I should have reused the old bracket and old rusty bolt. 

Tomorrow I'll replace the dust shield, rotor, and pads on the other side, and won't touch the parking brake.  Next week maybe I can take it to a shop and tell them about the broken screw, and have them do the parking brake job.

[Jamie B]

Damn Chinese hardware!


Sent from my iPhone

[KD5NRH]

But the little bag of hardware that came with the shoes had substandard fasteners.  There is no way these are automotive fasteners.  (not even the right color, and no markings on them)  One of them twisted off in the backing plate; I was using a stubby 1/4" ratchet and barely had it snug when it broke.  If it had not twisted off installing it, it would have broken if I ever tried to remove it in a few years.

This is why I tend to get replacement bolts from Tractor Supply; they're pretty good about having most of the metrics in class 12.  Only goofy bit is Saturn's interesting tendency to have custom fasteners made so ~80% of the car can be taken apart with an assortment of 10mm wrenches.  (Deep, really deep, deep with a huge long u-joint extension, and ratcheting box end seem to do most of it, except for the ones that have already been buggered up, in which case I can get by with one extractor.)