Been having a tough time finding good rotors and pads for this 2006 Grand Caravan. The rotors heat up very fast and wobble till they cool down. It must be a factory problem because its been like this since new.

I've even upgraded to ceramic pads and "premium" auto store rotors. Now looking at drilled or slotted rotors but have read negative stuff on these too so not sure where to go from here. This is a 4 rotor disc car.



Anyone experienced this and found a solution?

Might want to check your wheel bearing hub run out. They make shims to fix this problem.

Dan

Over and uneven tightening of lug nuts is the No. 1 cause of brake rotor lateral runout (warp).

We had no problesm with them.We used mostly house brand rotors from Advanced.We had more problems with the premium rotors than the cheap ones.Ive probally done hundreds of brakes on them and just did my nephews about 9 months ago.If you are having that much trouble its either a bad wheel bearing,improper instalition or uneven touque on the lugs,bad hoses or calipars and or a driver with a heavy foot.We had a few of those.One lady went thru pads and rotors in less than 6000 miles.I followed her one day when she left the shop.In almost 5 miles she never took her foot off the brakes.Rocky

On my accord, the napa premium rotors did the same thing after 6 months. Worked fine when cool, after several stops wobble gets worse and worse. Switched to stoptec rotors from rockauto, which are cross drilled and sloted, solved.

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the napa premium rotors did the same thing after 6 months

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I also noticed that replacement rotors seem to rust up much quicker than OEM. Maybe because the metal is our reclaimed junk shipped to china. Does anyone know if anyone is making rotors here in the US?

yes ck the wheel hubs, also make sure its all clean, and ck caliper and brake lines maybe they are hanging causing the rotors to heat up

The death wobble refers to the dodge trucks. Believe me, if you've experienced that,, you wouldnt call a rotor pulsation "the death wobble"!

Like I said we used the cheap rotros at work.Ive installed thousands.Never any real problems.As for rust they will all rust if not used.Have them on at least 6 vehicles here and pretty much no rust.Leave them sit for a few months and any rotor will rust especially in the rust belt.Rocky

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Like I said we used the cheap rotros at work.Ive installed thousands.Never any real problems.As for rust they will all rust if not used.Have them on at least 6 vehicles here and pretty much no rust.Leave them sit for a few months and any rotor will rust especially in the rust belt.Rocky

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I use my car the same amount every day but the replacement rotors rust more quickly than the OEM ones. I have also used the cheap rotors too. Some have went bad (warped) and some haven`t on the same vehicle with no other changes. I always use a torque wrench my lugs nuts. I haven`t had any of the original rotors warp on me. The cheap rotors rust after the very first rain.

are you talking fronts? rears ? left side or right or all 4 wobble?...never saw rotors go that fast..has to be something else causing this heat

My wife and brother are 2 of the hardest people on brakes I know.Both have the store rotors on their cars.Ive never seen them rust in a day.After 30 years of doing brakes every day I will still use the house rotors.Only time we used the pricey ones or factory was if the customer had to have them.Ive bought house rotors and peeled the sticker off some.Guess what they had Bendix etc under the store sticker.When we got Atlas parts at work it was the same thing.Same thing with some water pumps.Buy store brand new and find a Mopar emblem stamped on it.Rocky

My two things:
1. I've used plenty of Chinese rotors, have found no difference in wear or warpage.
2. Tauruses used to have this problem bad, I have two. You need to torque the wheels on in steps, just like a cylinder head. The tire store monkeys "torque" to max number using a torque limiter and air wrench, one lug at a time. Guess how that works?

R.

Had a similar problem on the Durango until recently.
Brake pulsation - more noticeable at lower speeds obviously - even though I was religious about torquing wheels to spec with the torque wrench step-wise in the star type pattern.

Discovered that the brake pads were hanging up slightly on the slide-ways of the caliper bracket, which unfortunately are cast as part of the whole spindle. The draggin was not enough to be noticeable or cause the car to pull to either side. The hanging up was caused by the pad shoe digging into the slide-way upon brake application. Eventually the rut caused by the digging action would not allow the caliper piston to retract normally after brake release - causing the dragging.

Finally discovered what it was after the right front locked up after a brake application and would release until after I put it in reverse and backed up a bit to cause the pad shoe to release off the ridge.

Didn't want to buy a new spindle, so ground the slide-way on the spindle slightly to remove the ruts. Been working fine - and with no pulsation - for 6 months now.

Keep us posted on what you find.

if you can find brembo rotors they are the best,pricey but worth it. jeff57

Thank you everyone for the replies and sorry I couldn't get back sooner. Yes my wife drives this and she is bad on the brakes, waiting to the last minute to brake, ect.

The wobble is intermittent and is there on longer drives especially hills or high speed braking. This weekend I will test the calipers, bearings, spindles and runout to make sure these are not the problem. Problem seems to be the front rotors, which I always use a torque wrench on, but I can't say the tire shop does each time. This is the 3rd set and I'm going for a 4th now at 140K miles. Each set had the wobble under heavy braking.

Good commment on the Ram Truck death wobble, I've experienced that too and this isn't quite as bad.

Thanks all!
CAC

Check the back brakes. If they aren't doing their job, the load all gets transferred to the front.

How old are the struts?

If you are having the rotors turned, I have found that sets the stage for quick warping. If the driver insists on ridign the brakes, the heat will get to them that much quicker.