disco pads contacting only half of rotors !

[antoniobanderas]

i did a brake job on this new grand am,because the last owner neglected them bad,i put new rotors and pads,car stop real nice,but today i happened to look at the rims and i did notices the pads are making a new shiny wear on the rotors,Left and Right,both sides the same pattern,problem is,it only covers half the size of the pads!,in another words its contacting just half the rotor surface this means i have only half the braking power and this is no good for my rotors,they might eventually warp or worse,why is this happening? i installed the inner pad with the wear indicator on it,according to my book,is the correct way,WTF ????

[Gimli]

Sounds like your caliper piston is sticking on one side, which makes it push only one side of the pad.

I'd take it all apart and make sure your piston isn't bent in and well-lubricated.

[antoniobanderas]

yes,i will have to,but,why both calipers at the same time? rigth after changing the pads? this is weird I was hoping someone had this syntom before and remembers the cause,thank you so much for the fast reply,Iwill follow up and see

[antoniobanderas]

well.Just finished inspecting the calipers and they don't seem to be sticking,what i ended up doing was filing the pad even,,now i began seeing more contact,i will drive the car for another week,seems the semimetalics are real tough to wear down man!

[MantaGreen97]

LOL you filed the pads? Were they that uneven? If they were they probably weren't made properly or very well.

I would note that this isn't that big a deal (pad wearing only part of the rotor), particularly when you install new pads and/or rotors. It can be normal and should go away (meaning the entire pad should wear against the rotor evenly) within a week or two--filing usually isn't required. Anytime I install new pads/rotors I notice the same thing to a degree (some of the rotor doesn't seem to have the pad wearing on it). It goes away either after bedding (which you should be doing with new pads/rotors) or after a few days at the most.

[ancona46]

there isnt anything wrong with your pads you have to let them wear into the shape of the rotor just takes a little time

[antoniobanderas]

ok ,i seem to see that the calippers dont have much paralel play,to more or less compesate for sligth gap uneveness,but well, i will see what eventually happens is just that seeing only half of contact area looked way to much but I understand ,it will have to wear down to full contact eventually,,thanks you all