Neight

I had my oil changed last week and the shop I took it to who I have never had an issue with told me that my rotors were shot. I bought the truck with 26k on the clock and haven't towed heavy and don't think I am hard on the brakes but my wife does drive the truck more than me and we all know how women drive . I'm not questioning that my truck need pads but rotors too? Anyone else had there rotors toasted at 50k? Or in these tough economic times is the shop trying to make some cash...

2003Ram

It's possible. I changed my first set of pads @ 42K and the rotors were fine.

Go check out the truck when it's on the lift and have the mechanic show you what's bad. They would either have to be thin or warped to warrant replacement.

Scotty

Or cracked and thats not always meaning you need new ones. I failed a safety with my 04 for cracked front rotors and went and put new ones with pads on.
Then a tech at a Dodge store here and a couple of others told me they are surface cracks and if I turned the rotors...very lightly, they would be gone.

Then I read on here that our rotors cannot be turned. ???

I still have the old set and will find out this month if they can be turned or not.
So far nobody has a definitive answer as to why they cannot be turned.

04ctd

i had mine turned at 26k or so.

towed a huge boat with no brakes on the trailer in afternoon traffic, warped them.

bought a set from NAPA, put them on,
and had my stock ones turned. (to prevent down time)

gonna swap them out if i warp them again, i guess.

pdogg

I just looked at my pads & rotors this past weekend, at 43k miles, the rotors are like new.. the pads have about 30% life left in them..

Scotty

Anyone know what the specs are for the rotors...how many times can we turn them or whats the limit to when they cannot be turned?

Scotty

MikeyB

I turned mine with no problems. I'll have to look in the shop manual and find the specs on the rotors.

MikeyB

Neight

If you can post up the specs I'm gonna mic them myself to double check them. I find it very hard to believe my rotors are shot but who knows.

John_P

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Neight:

DANG,.....sorry to hear your rotors are already gone! That seems awful soon to me too. I think checking them with a micrometer is a good idea.

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John_P

Mexstan

If they can be turned, should'nt there be a minimum thickness cast into the rotor?

I have close to 100,000 miles on my original brakes. The rears still have about 40% life left and the fronts just under about 20% life left. Admittedly i do not tow that much. Do use the gears a lot to slow down and now the Pacbrake in addition to the gears.

Spooler

Something smells fishy...... The brakes on these trucks are awesome. I would have to gather they are pulling you chain..

MikeyB

Here's the specs that I found in the manual.

Front min thickness 26.4mm (1.039")

Rear min thickness 28.39mm (1.117")

The manual didn't differentiate between the 1/2 tons and the HD's, so I'm assuming they are the same between the two.

MikeyB

Neight

Thanks guys. I pulled the front rotors off and cast on the inside it says min thickness 34.00mm took them down and got the turned and AFTER they were turned there is 40.00mm of meat left on the. So it looks like the shop was just trying to get paid. I plan on heading down there Monday and talking to the manager. Hell maybe the tech just made a mistake when he was reading his mic.....

dj88382000

Maximum allowable rotor runout is 0.131 mm (0.005 in.) HD.

Maximum allowable rotor runout is 0.050 mm (0.002 in.) LD
Thickness should not vary by more than 0.015 mm (0.0059 in.) from point-to-point
min. thickness is on the hub of the rotor