I've got about 25k miles on my Fit, and I believe the rotors are warped (vibration on braking that comes from the front end). I regularly drive over some mountains and do drive vigorously quite often so I have may have overheated the brakes.

Has anyone else run into this problem? Any aftermarket brake upgrades that might prevent this problem in the future?

Any advice is much appreciated.

 

sry cant help you... but...

25k miles? should still be under warranty right?

 

I have this issue on my 07 GD. It's only on heavy braking though and I have 57K about on it right now. It's not something that really concerns me at the moment, not worth fixing for the money. I'm just gonna wait until I need new brakes. If you live in an area where you brake a lot though, you might want to get it fixed. Mention it to the dealer; who know maybe they will re-face them for free since your only at 25K.

I remember reading a Car & Driver article test drive of the Fit. The test drivers warped the rotors one day very easily because of the enhanced load on the front. They should have added discs all around for the Fit.

 

i would suggest the rear disc brake kit if you do a lot of downhill motoring in the mountainous areas. not sure if they are out yet for the GE's, but that would be the first thing i would do if i
needed more brake capacity. although the drums aren't too
bad, they tend to fade after a few hard stops and make the
front disc work harder....at least thats what it seems like.

i also recommend getting lighter set of wheels and lowering the profile on your tires
more in par with the GD's. i run 195/50/15's and is a tad smaller than the
stock GD's 195/55/15. they help stop/go quite a bit.

 

Overheating can do it.

Overtightening the lug nuts can also do it. I have found that about half the tire dealers that balance and rotate your tires will send the inexperienced minimum wage teenager in the back with an impact gun to rotate your tires .... over-torqued lug nuts is not uncommon and will result in warped rotors. I am very careful in finding a tire dealer that I can trust and understands how important it is.

 

just a fyi........

my local auto repair/machine shop resurfaces rotors for $10 ea if I pull them myself.
Usually a pedal pulse type warp can be trued out real easy leaving the rotor well within serviceable thickness spec.

also on 2 Fit's I have had no rotor warp, wish I could say that about my other cars.

 

I have the same issue with my Fit... 23k miles currently, drove it from NC to CO with a substantial load (moving), started noticing vibrations on braking which I figured were caused by the long trip with the heavy load, especially considering the relatively low milage of the vehicle. When I took it in for recall repairs, I asked them to look at the rotors... they called me saying they're warped and it'd cost $150 for the resurfacing. I can buy much nicer, new rotors for less than that so I passed. Planning on pulling them off myself and taking them to get machined somewhere for now. I've found some high-performance rotors online that might be worthwhile since I drive a lot, somewhat aggressively, and live in the mountains, but not sure if it's worth the cost. Also hoping someone can chime in with worthwhile upgrades.

I'll need new tires in the next 6 months or so, might consider the lower tire profile as recommended by kenchan.

 

I changed the original OEM front pads at 60K miles on at '11 Sport but I drive like an old man (literally). No warping at all in hilly Pennsylvania.

 

more weight makes your car work harder to stop. more work means more heat. heat is what warps the brakes.

 

Exactly. Like I said, I figure the trip caused the warping (through the process you've taken the time to break down).

I was browsing forums to see if I could find any info on advantages to going with upgraded rotors (considering it's such a small car and I'm not taking it on a track) and just found it curious that someone else had warping issues at such low mileage under normal driving conditions.

 

The most expensive I'd go is Brembo blank rotors. There's no need for drilled or dimpled or slotted.

 

Aright cool, thanks man.

 

The rotors aren't warped. If they were, the whole car would vibrate violently and the rotors certainly wouldn't be able to be turned down.

What's likely happening is that after vigorous breaking, the heat can't dissipate fast enough, and this causes hotspots. You can see them when inspecting the rotor. After some time, the hotspots actually alter the physical composition of the metal, like hardened steal. So those hardened hotspots are what's causing your brakes to vibrate because the pads don't 'bite' into the harder metal as well.

You can sometimes turn them down, but if they are bad, you should just replace the rotors. The hardened metal is actually a lot harder to turn down evenly and could even dull the lathe cutting tool in a lot of cases.

 

The rotors aren't warped. If they were, the whole car would vibrate violently and the rotors certainly wouldn't be able to be turned down.

What's likely happening is that after vigorous breaking, the heat can't dissipate fast enough, and this causes hotspots. You can see them when inspecting the rotor. After some time, the hotspots actually alter the physical composition of the metal, like hardened steel. So those hardened hotspots are what's causing your brakes to vibrate because the pads don't 'bite' into them.

You can sometimes turn them down, but if they are bad, you should just replace the rotors. The hardened metal is actually a lot harder to turn down evenly and could even dull the lathe cutting tool in a lot of cases.