xtnct

iTrader: (33)

I never had a problem with warped rotors until last week (steering wheel vibrations only when braking). The car has about 9000 miles on it. I recall reading warped rotors threads and surveys. Most people stating that they had problems swore they were not abusing or using the brakes hard. Well....this may be your problem. Use the brakes!

In the last 2 week, my wife was the primary driver of the Evo. She is not into cars or performance, so the car was driven like a mini van - if you know what I mean.

One theory I read was that the pads leave a residue on the rotors and make them seem like the rotors are warped. I decided to entertain this theroy as it could have made sense when matching up the driving styles.

I decided to use the car for the next 2 days. I made sure to use the brakes harder than I do usually (That means engaging the ABS from about 70 miles a few times), making sure I did heat up the rakes nice and hot. I would do very aggrssive red light and stop sign stops (making sure no one was behind me). Lastly, I made sure the brakes cooled off before I parked the car to avoid the "real" disc warping.

I did about 3 of those very hot and totally cool down cycles over the weekend. The vibrations under braking seem to be virtually gone. I figure 1-2 more cycles and it will be completely gone.

So those with warped disc symptoms that do not use brakes hard, try using your brakes harder for a few days (ABS them too!), before you go resurfacing or changing rotors. It may work for you as it did for me.

BTW, never had any "warped disc" symptoms when I was the primary driver. I use the brakes in an average manner most of the time, that is, never engage ABS, but do not baby them either.

erioshi

I think you have found what many of us have been saying. I just went through something similiar myself. After lots of spring driving (cold roads, tires and brakes) my car was starting to see a very slight vibration under medium-hard braking. After a day at the track (last Thursday) all of my brake vibration is gone.

This is not going to be the solution for every rotor warping issue, but it is definitly worth exploring if you have been pampering your car.

WildRice

Mine work perfectly but I have had problems before. I went to slotted cross drilled with metalic linings on my 3g Eclipse GT.. had the wheel shake you attribute to warpage.. It was a pad problem like the one being described in this thread. The stock evo pads are very aggressive and take a lot of metal off of the rotors. Using them hard does a mimi resurface job to the rotor both in terms of removing pad materials and rotor metal.

In reading other threads the problem was with actual warpage. This has to do with streeses in the rotor blank in conjunction with heating, cooling and what happens with these stresses as when metal is removed. If you have this kind of problem it is due to defective rotors or abuse. To abuse the brakes on these cars you would have to do some serious hard (lol @ spirited) driving. It seems unlikely that those who drive hard would actually be suprised by its negative effects on the machinery. Since the brake rotors are a consumable it is easy for Mitsu to slip out of the warranty (just as they do with the wimpy clutch). The bottom line is go to some better quality rotors and pads when you need to change. I understand the pad life to be around 20k and judging by what I see with my car, rotors will not last through a second set of pads.

Funky

What you have done is properly bed-in the pads creating an even layer of pad material spread across the rotor face. This is good.

Most people get "warped" rotors because they never properly bed-in the pads and get an uneven accumulation of pad material on the rotors. Any good high performance brake pad that operates on the principles of cohesive (as opposed to abraisive) friction at higher temperatures has the potential to have this problem.

Brake pads do not come bedded-in from the factory. You need to do 10 hard braking runs from ~70mph down to 5mph back-to-back. Do NOT come to a complete stop, and DO NOT engage the ABS... brake at about 80% of lockup. Then drive another 5-10 mins without touching the brakes to let them properly cool. The next day, your brakes will grab MUCH harder.

With some more aggressive AutoX pads (Axxis Ultimates, or Hawk HP+, and possibly the stock EVO pads) they are aggressive enough at low temps to need occasional rebedding. This is because over time they will scrape off the coating of pad material on the rotors unless they are kept at high temperatures all the time. (not possible on a street car) If you do not bed-in the pads, they will eat the rotors.

If you keep your pads properly bedded, rotor wear will never be an issue because the pads will not be wearing the rotors... they will be wearing their own material that they have deposited on the rotors.