My front rotors for my 14 GSXR are completely glazed over to the point I had serious brake fade issues this past weekend. I tried the scotch bright and contact cleaner method and it didn’t do much. What’s everyone doing to get all the old material off that doesn’t take rotor material away? Thanks everyone.
Diamond knife sharpening stones. Look them up in cooking websites. Or a rotor hone, actually harder to find.
Thats kind of the point, to resurface it. Don't go nuts in one spot but the rotors ( assuming stock) are stainless so they are relatively tough.
Yeah they are stock. This is what they look like. I’ve never had rotors discolor and look “burned” outside of the brake surface area. They don’t seem warped.
Kurveygurl would send one of those foam sanding blocks with your order when you bought pads from them. They would pretty well, just hold it up flat against the rotor on each side and spin away until they are good and clean, then rinse the debris away with brake cleaner.
Looks pretty normal to me. Have you changed pad formulations? Should be cleaning them off good between and reburnishing in the new pads afterward. Your more taking the material the pad has left behind on the rotor off more than the rotor itself. Like i said the stainless is pretty tough, thats why the scotch brite didnt do much to it. Keep in mind untill you break the pads in well the initial bite and power is likely going to be less than your used to.
I don't know if I just got a cheap one perhaps, but I bought one of those hones one time and it seemed to wear out exceedingly quickly???
I don’t believe one will get a bunch of uses out of them, especially if one spends a lot time per rotor. I have an angle grinder that mounts Scotchbrite pads and is used for cleaning gasket surfaces that might be a viable alternative.
I use to use a glass bead cabinet when I was still racing. Not sure if it had adverse effects on the rotors but they cleaned up nice and always performed great after cleaning them.
I ordered a 240 grit rotor hone. Hopefully that will work. I was going to get a more abrasive grit but I figured less was better.
Check the Brake Tech web site he used to have a good tutorial on using the hone to clean rotors. I do it every time I use a different pad compound.
I read the article hopefully I can get results without f’ing my rotors up. When you do it does it remove a lot of rotor material?
No. Watch the drill speed and light pressure, very light. The hone surface is flexible so if you press too hard it will deflect and you'll see/feel it. I put the rotors mounted on the wheel on a Pit Bull tire tree and spin them by hand then work the hone according to Jeff's instructions and the instructions on the packaging (not exactly the same but close enough to fined a middle ground). Then I take the rotor off, mount it backwards, spin the opposite way to keep the directional rotation correct as if the wheel was on a bike and moving, and do the other side of the rotor. I've been doing this on stock and aftermarket rotors (Brake Tech and Brembo) with no problems.
Here's what i've been using for as long as i can remember to deglaze rotors. there's a more abrasive scotch brite ball, purplish in color. Works great for me. Rotors look like new afterwards.
So what causes these hot spots on my rotors? Is it a manufacture defect or something else? It's on both sides of both front rotos, pads are worn evenly in both calipers. 2,500mi street/track day bike. I scrub the rotors every winter with a green scrubbie and clean with brake cleaner. Then bed them by doing ~15 slow downs from 25mph to 5mph. The spots don't go away after scrubbing.
