Pulsing brakes with 5k miles
 

My rotors appear to be warping at just over 5k miles. Are there any aftermarket rotors for the Fit ? I saw some drilled ones on ebay but they did not have enough details as to the construction to convince me they were better than the stock rotors. I would like to get something better than stock along with the hawk pads I've read about so this doesn't happen again. I am on the highway for my job 5 days a week and I can't be having my car down for repairs.

Thanks, Jackson

they most likely warped from your driving style, or from getting them hot then driving through a car wash or driving them through a puddle. Just take them off and take them to a shop that can resurface them for you, and be easy on them from now on

It takes a LARGE amount of punishment to warp rotors nowadays. Chances are you just have extra pad material left on them. When you come to a stop the heated pad material will stick to the rotor where the pad is touching it, the next time you step on the brakes there will be pulsing caused by the different levels of friction as the pad passes over the bare disc vs. the bare disc with material on it - an uneven braking surface on the disc.
I've had the brakes on my old civic "warp" then "unwarp" dozens of times during ownership, while the rotors were perfectly fine.

Most current example is my company car, a Taurus. if I have to make a hard stop, where I can't roll the car forward afterwards, the wheel will have a terrible shudder when I brake for a while. After an hour or so of normal driving (without additional hard stops) the extra material wears off the rotors and they are back to normal.

Unless you are racing or carrying huge loads there will be no benefit to swapping out pads and/or rotors on the Fit. They only thing they offer is more dust and noise, and decreased cold-stopping ability.

The best way to avoid this is to NEVER come to a complete stop and leave your foot on the brake
Brake early down to 3-5 MPH then slowly roll the car the rest of the way. Use as little pressure as possible on the pedal once you've stopped.

I found a very good article on abrasive vs. adherent friction and how/why brake pad material trasferres back and forth between the disc and the pad, a good writeup:

StopTech : Balanced Brake Upgrades

Thanks Rich that was a very informative article. It may grow out of it after a couple of hundred more miles according to them. I had to panic stop today when a truck thought it would look good as part of my passenger side fender and they still stopped just fine but the pulsing got a little worse with more heat. I did brake lightly for the first 500 miles of ownership.

yeamans, I don't drive slow but I'm not a maniac at the wheel either, usually in the left lane with the faster traffic. All of my previous cars were full size V8 Chevrolet cars such as Caprices, the brakes on them never pulsed unless they were in need of a total replacement, and those cars have twice the weight to stop as a Fit.

I am going to the dealer tomorrow where I bought it to take my friends there who bought a new Civic SI and get my free first oil change, I will ask them what they think while I'm there.

Thanks, Jackson

That was a really good read! Thanks RichXKU

My two old civics would have a heavy shudder when slowing down from a very high speed or moderately high speed and stoping quickly, however it always went away right after ( I dont think I ever stayed on the brakes afterwards though, either rolled lightly at the end or put it in park or neutral) On a slightly different note I have always suffered some fade with a car that has had drums.
If I remember correctly if you happened to bop a curb or were in an accident and did not fully rectify the damage the car can shudder under braking. From the forces being applied to missaligned geometry or weak or tweeked components and a high resonance of flexion occurs.
I also had harsh shudder on my old civic when a SUPREME TWIT worked on my car and forgot to tighten the left front caliper, it also at times made my car sound like a Harley!