The front rotors on my 2000 GS400 were slightly warped and my rear pads were almost gone completely so I decided to do all 4 brakes on Saturday. I took them all apart and dropped the rotors off to get resurfaced, then cleaned and painted the calipers. After installing the resurfaced rotors I put in new pads all around and the calipers, clips, pads, shims etc all went back together very easily. At low speeds it seems fine but my steering wheel shakes from left to right and my brake pedal pulsates when braking at 40+mph. I took the front end down again yesterday as I suspected there was something trapped between the inner edge of the rotor and the hub (there wasn't). I switched the left and right rotors and it made absolutely no difference. I'm going to do the same check on the rear end today. I don't think a problem rear rotor would cause the steering wheel to shake from left to right as mine does but I've never had a warped rear rotor before so I wouldn't really know.

I'm pretty sure it's attributable to a bad resurfacing job, although I've never had that happen before. Can anyone else here think of a possible cause?
Thanks in advance for your help...
J.

 

I think you're right and it's a bad resurfacing job. It's happened to me before.

 

Thanks.
I guess because some moron can't figure out how to use a lathe correctly I'll be buying new rotors a lot sooner.
Is there any way to test and see which rotor is warped? I'd rather not get them all resurfaced again if I don't have to...

 

Hello,
I think that you got a bad resurfacing job. I am not sure how much new rotors are, but that may be your next step. You know, I have a VW Beetle that went 100,000 miles on the front pads. While buying pads at the dealership, I remarked about my intention to turn the rotors, and I was told NOT to do so. I have heard that the German car manufacturers generally do not turn rotors..they either reuse the old rotors unturned, or replace then when the wear limits are reached, or they are really warped.

I installed the new pads, and things are fine 15 thousand miles later. The rotors on the GS are really thick, and I wonder if we should be turning our rotors?

When I bought my GS4, the rear brake pads were just replaced. I am not sure if they used factory pads or not, because I get this clicking when changing directions with brakes applied. I will get factory pads when it is time to do this again. I wonder how bad your rotors were warped before you turned them

Just a thought

GSEREP1

 

really bad job in surfacing.

also, how about the pads? if the pads are really bad coz' the rotors were badly warped already you might also have problems

 

I put brand new pads all around. I drove probably 35 miles or so on the badly resurfaced rotors, do you think this may have destroyed/damaged my new pads?

 

I took all 4 rotors back off on my lunch hour (gotta be a record!) and took them back to O'Reilly Auto parts to get resurfaced only to be told that the front rotors are borderline thickness for resurface and the rear were too thin. 30 minutes on the phone with the district manager later and I have 2 new rear and possibly 2 front rotors on their way (front depends on if they can resurface).
I was given 1.181" as being the cutoff point for the thickness of the front rotors, can anyone verify that?. I'm going to micrometer check them before I leave the store and make them give me the new ones if they are too thin.

Meanwhile I'm driving my 87 Accord beater on a super nice sunny day while my Lex sits on my uncles rack in pieces

 

I took all 4 rotors back off on my lunch hour (gotta be a record!) and took them back to O'Reilly Auto parts to get resurfaced only to be told that the front rotors are borderline thickness for resurface and the rear were too thin. 30 minutes on the phone with the district manager later and I have 2 new rear and possibly 2 front rotors on their way (front depends on if they can resurface).
I was given 1.181" as being the cutoff point for the thickness of the front rotors, can anyone verify that?. I'm going to micrometer check them before I leave the store and make them give me the new ones if they are too thin.

Meanwhile I'm driving my 87 Accord beater on a super nice sunny day while my Lex sits on my uncles rack in pieces