Mine are warped. I typically don’t have them turned.

I have had cheapo rotors on other cars that rust overnight so I want something with OEM quality. I have considered to just take it to the dealer but I am sure I will pay out the rear.

Any thoughts?

 

Yeah, do you have a '15 made in Mexico? It's my understanding that the rotors didn't get annealed properly and warp early on these. I don't know how many miles are on your vehicle - whether you are within or out of warranty - but it might be worth contacting Honda corporate to see if they can offer any assistance.

 

Speaking with my past NAPA Auto Parts store management experience. The NAPA most "Ultra Premium" option will be truly made to OEM spec. They will have the same amount of vent holes and design of the vents, and at least the same or better casting density. They also claim "polymer coated" which I think means the edges should stay rust free for a longer amount of time. They also have a line of parts from Altrom and the brakes are called Ultra-8, and in almost all cases, these are actual OEM parts or from the same supplier the OEM uses. They often use modified OEM part numbers.

I have not worked for NAPA in over 10 years, so things can change... I'm just offering information off of past experiences.

Factory lug nut torque specs cannot be emphasized enough. I have witnessed tests, in person, that warped rotors from initial inconsistent over-tightening without ever setting the car on the ground. Torque specs mean everything in keeping your rotors straight. And unless your tire shop buddy doing the work is on your best friend list, don't trust them EVER. Owning a cheap torque wrench is priceless.

 

Thanks so much! On the torque specs - I appreciate the info. These are original and I am sure correctly torqued. The fault lies with me. I travel a lot of open roads and a lot of steep grades. I drive the car like it is a Ferrari. Those little rotors didn’t stand a change. They were find up to about 35k. I am now at 40k.

I have thought about getting the EBC rotors but the greenstuff pads are pretty soft.

 

In case you go NAPA, I said "ultra premium" because that is the actual name. They will always stock "premium" which should be their mid-grade.

On that note... There are some good tricks too. Example: If you come down an off-ramp or mountain pass and it requires you to stop. Do make a stop within the law, but do not keep your foot at the bottom of the stroke. Some people stop hard and leave their foot in the same place, applying a lot of pressure. Ideally, let up the pressure just enough to keep the car stopped. Also... If you can stop just a little early, and then slowly creep forward. Your pads are insane hot too, and the place on the rotor where they are squeezing is not going to cool at the same rate as the rest of the rotor. The slow creep forward will share that heat all the way around the rotor and still keep you from rolling into the person in front of you. So when approaching a line of stopped cars, give yourself and extra car length to creep forward. Hope these helps along the way! As of tomorrow I will have been driving 20 years and maybe half a million miles. I don't think I have warped a rotor in 18 years, ever since my stepdad taught me these tricks. A lot of autocross. a lot of teenage driving, a lot of heavy pulling in a diesel truck, and every drive I take involves some 'spirited' moment. LOL. Again, hope this helps.

 

So, you are one of those who like to creep forward at a red light. What a creep! You make me looking like a fool behind you with all the excessive space between my car and yours. Well, I have been driving for 54 years, never an accident. I hope I know what I am doing by now. We are talking about consumer brakes and driving style. The pads don't get as hot as you think, comparing to the brake pads when you are driving on the track. How hot? Rotors turning red. Most of the time rotor wrap is caused by poorly heat treating the material during manufacture, not from the friction between rotor and pads. Brake rotors and pads in street use typically won't see temperatures exceeding about 200 degrees Celsius, however on track days where the brakes are continuously burdened, temperatures can exceed 500 degrees, or about a 1000 Fahrenheit, pretty easily.
.

 

Assuming near 65+ years old and 54 years without and accident, I offer you a serious congratulations. I am 36 with 20 years legally driving and I am still in that rare club of no accidents too... I hope I make it 54! The OP mentioned driving the car like a Ferrari, so I can only assume that this means beyond the normal consumer expectation. You are absolutely on track with the manufacturing issues. The porosity of the rotors and consistency of the material being used is almost everything. Although I rarely find a series of roads that lead to a stop sign or light while the brakes are still wicked hot, if I do come down a mountain back-road that does come to a complete stop, that may be the time I creep a little. No worries, you won't catch me creeping in general traffic.

Short story:
My first post I mentioned witnessing tests where a vehicle never touched the ground and the technician warped the rotors. I'll tell the story and hope others read it. It was a priceless lesson in using a torque wrench correctly. I was having an issue with a high return rate on rotors for being warped. It is easy to know who is causing issues when you sell parts all over town and only one shop is complaining. So my brake rep and I visited the customer with the frequent issues. My brake rep has a lesson that I guess he used multiple times before since he was son confident. We used a dial indicator to check run out and confirm the rotors for a pickup truck were within .002 run out. The brake rep installed the drivers side his way while the shop guy installed the passenger side his way. They actually did let tires touch the ground enough that they could use torque wrenches. The brake rep brought the lugnuts up to the recommended torque and the tech just made sure the nuts where at torque (even if they were over torqued because he spun them on with the impact to what he thought wasn't very tight, he just made sure the wrench clicked) . They put the truck back in the air, pulled it back down to the rotors, checked the run out. Brake rep was still in .002, and the tire shop tech was at .006. Tire guy messed up the rotor before it ever left the building. My brake rep swore that if the truck would have then heated them up under normal circumstances, the rotors would have come out even worse. Either the shop decided to make less claims, or they really did improve their process. Their claims went back to average.

 

Wow and thank you. I abused those brakes but I will absolutely try this technique when I replace them.

 

Does 'old' mean 'smart'? I've been driving over 65 years.......so what!
When I'm on a long decline or speedily coming to a line of stopped vehicles, I try to do 'two' stops, with the first deceleration taking away some velocity (then allowing parts to cool) and the second bringing me more calmly near someone's rear bumper.
Many years ago I was driving someone else's surplus Jeep on hilly roads and found the service brakes squealing and not holding, so I started using the hand emergency brake lever...until it came loose in my hand!
After changing underwear I drove the rest of the way in 2nd gear.

 

Powerstop @ rockauto

 

I think the correct way to torque the nuts is to go through 2 or more steps, each according to the factory recommended tightening pattern, bringing the torque of all the nuts to the same amount, at each step. Why the tire tech didn't do it that way is beyond me. So for example for a 4-nut tire torqued to 80 ft-lbs you pick which nut is number one, and then you might do step 1, during which you tighten nuts 1, 3, 2, 4, each to to about 55 ft lbs or so, then go around again, step 2, this time each to about 70, then step 3 to 80, then step 4 you go around at least one more time to 80.. You will usually find, at step 4, even though you had torqued all the nuts to 80 in step 3, one or more of the nuts that you previously tightened to 80 has needs to be tightened further in order to bring it to 80. Because when tightening, say, nut 3 to 80, it caused nut 1 to no longer be at 80. So you keep on doing 1, 3, 2, 4, 1, 3, 4, 2, until you find that you have been confirming the tightness, rather than needing to increase the tightness. And each time you torque to a specific amount, you don't just turn until you hear a click. Rather, you turn until you hear a click, and you keep holding the pressure for a few seconds longer after you hear the first click. With a beam style wrench having a scale, you hold the pressure on the wrench to keep the pointer at the correct torque for a few seconds. You don't just bring the pointer to the correct torque, and then relax. With a click wrench you will often hear a click, and when you hold the wrench there for another few seconds, you'll hear another click, as the nut gets a little tighter. You don't stop tightening all 4 nuts until, when you reach the first click and hold, you hear no more clicks.

Same for air-tool with clicker torque adjustment. You keep holding the on button for a few seconds. It is easy to hold the button as long as you want; you don't need any muscle power to do it. If the clicks never stop, and the nut gets tighter and tighter, as sometimes happens, then you have a dirty or defective mechanism.

 

[A]: experience could be synonymous.

[B]: I've found this strategy to work well in reducing the terrible shaking & wobbling from the cheap OE rotors&pads. I also give the breaks a quick (light) rub before attempting to slow the vehicle in any fashion. This method seems to prevent the terrible shaky-warpy stops that rattle the front of the car to hell.

 

A proper initial break-in (or bed-in) technique is vital to future brake performance.
Nobody cares or does it properly it seems.
Brembo has a very good detailed set of instructions on how to do it right, and the procedure is quite complex.
I believe any brakes (just like any vital component of any car) could benefit from proper break-in, brembos or not.
Formula Dynamics / Brembo Brake Bed-In Technique

 

The dealer recommended turning the rotors. How do you, more educated folks, feel out that? Is it better to just replace them?

 

I typically don't turn them as now you have even less rotor mass as before. Not sure what they're charging, but how much difference if you just replaced the rotors instead?

 

You have over 40,000 miles on the car already. You have removed material by driving... Turning them, if they even can, will remove more material. Less material means less ability to manage heat.

$80 buys you two new polymer coated and very nice rotors. $50 gets you new pads unless you want those EBC's. Unless funds are tight, I would just do a brake job and be done with it.

As for the EBC, it has been 15+ years since I looked into them. Make sure you are buying a street car brake.. I have had friends who do track days drive their track cars on the street, and some of those pads are very much designed to work best when hot..

How do I feel about turning rotors? I have sold thousands of rotors. Most parts stores stopped turning rotors because it didn't cost much more to sell new. New-modern car rotors don't have as much material either. Also the high risk the customer was coming back anyway meant turning their rotors could just hurt customer satisfaction.

 

Thank you guys. That has always been my thought process on turning rotors but I figured I should ask.

Funds are not tight and I will just go ahead and order everything up.

Thanks again!