Hypermiling helped ruin my brakes. Toast after only 25k km / 15k miles

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by taredog

Most of us have single piston calipers. It is very important that the caliper can move on it's mounting bolts. What did the inside pad and the other side of the caliper look like? May have been rust plus a frozen caliper problem.

I didn't specifically check the slider pins / calipers, but I don't believe it's the problem. (Based on pedal feel & stopping ability seeming normal).

When I get back on land next month, I'll sort out the brakes and all questions will be answered.

[SmallFry]

What is the comparison of costs of replacing the brakes vs. mpg/money saved? Allegedly, I try that in my big truck when I'm empty or light and not in heavy traffic. GA overdrive @ 600 rpm is better than 0 trottle at 15-1600 rpm, right? And another thing I've thought about is that it's cheaper to replace the brakes earlier than expected because the fuel savings far outweighs the brake loss.

[elhigh]

Originally Posted by captainslug

WD-40 is not a very good lubricant. It's a strong degreaser and water-displacer.

I was going to go there, you beat me to it. WD-40 does a decent job as a penetrant, and is okay - not great - as a water displacer. It's my first choice for shooting into cracks and stuff, but that's only until I can get parts loose. Then I reach for grease or something else that'll actually stay around for a while.

As to shooting it onto brake discs, I wouldn't be too concerned if it was done, but I'm not about to go doing it on purpose, either.

[Funny]

Not to place more fuel on the fire, however, I remember reading somewhere that the brake pads themselves contain a certain amount of solvents and volatile chemicals that dissipate during the first 500 or so miles of use. Therefore, shouldn't the small amount of WD-40 being applied to the ROTORS (not applied directly to the pads) burn off with very little effort, possible not contaminating the pads? Never had a problem with rusty rotors on my daily driver, nor have I driven a car that had a freshly applied coating of WD-40 on the rotors, so I can't speak for that experience. However, I did use WD-40 on my Rx-7 rotors when I stored it over two winters up here in MA for six months at a time, and when I took the cover off in spring, whaddayaknow? No rust both times, maybe the WD-40 needs adequate time to age.. I also never clean off the anti-corrosion coating when I change the rotors.

[Frank Lee]

I think the "adverse effects" of having something like WD40 on the brakes are being blown out of proportion.

Right now I have bad axle seals on my F150 and the shoes are oil soaked (for some reason I am resisting tearing into that project). Yes I can tell the difference between oil-soaked and dry when I'm driving it but really the difference is quite small. It stops just fine, and I suspect if I had to stop hard it would do that just fine as well. If someone else drove that truck and they didn't know about the oil I bet they wouldn't even suspect a problem.

I think a big factor is loading. We typically are very lightly loaded when going about the daily grind and the brake system isn't being taxed much. Load heavily and it becomes more of a factor.

Bottom line is IMHO no harm can come from some WD40 or some such on the rotors; it probably burns off pretty quick.

[MetroMPG]

Picked up my new pads & rotors today. $100

Chose premium pads only because several people told me they had bad experiences with economy pads (wearing early, noise, brake dust). The parts counter guy wasn't helpful in determining the difference between the premium, mid-grade & economy choices. "Might even be the same ones in different boxes." Made in Italy.

Oh well. Somewhere a marketing hack is smiling.

Chose the economy rotors. $2 more than machining the factory discs (which I'll keep and have machined if these new ones turn out to be worse in any way). Made in China.

Should have a chance to install everything, grease the caliper sliders, and bleed/replace the old brake fluid on Sunday.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Picked up my new pads & rotors today. $100

Chose premium pads only because several people told me they had bad experiences with economy pads (wearing early, noise, brake dust). The parts counter guy wasn't helpful in determining the difference between the premium, mid-grade & economy choices. "Might even be the same ones in different boxes." Made in Italy.

Oh well. Somewhere a marketing hack is smiling.

Chose the economy rotors. $2 more than machining the factory discs (which I'll keep and have machined if these new ones turn out to be worse in any way). Made in China.

Should have a chance to install everything, grease the caliper sliders, and bleed/replace the old brake fluid on Sunday.

I always get stuff with lifetime warranties, regardless of supposed quality issues.

I've been warned against it how ever many times, but I've never had a problem with any of it, and even if I did have a problem, I'd just take it back for the warranty. LOL.

I even get lifetime warranties on my brakes and related parts. I've not had to pay for more than one set of brakes on any car that I've owned/worked on.

One of those ways that I make an extra buck on return work - get the lifetime warranty the first time, then when they come back, it's the same price for them, but I get the parts free.

[Piwoslaw]

Svieta spends most of her time standing outdoors, gets driven about once a week, and even then doesn't get much brake usage (my rear pads were replaced 4 years ago and are barely used). This was bound to happen sooner than later, so each time I used the car I would use the brakes much more often than necessary, but even that didn't help much.
Last November inspection saw the rust on the brake rotors and the only reason I passed is because my mechanic was there and promised to replace them. I waited until after winter to do it.
It turned out that they looked OK from the outside, but the inside was a tragedy: the mechanic said it looked like someone had poured acid on them:

We are still wondering what to do with the rear rotors, since they are integrated with the wheel bearing, which triples the price

Hopefully everything will be done by the end of the week and I'll if there is a difference in coasting.

Also, I wonder if covering the wheels while parked would have a measurable effect? The way the car is parked one side gets lots of sun, the other gets none, both get regularly peed on by our dog and the neighbor's cats

[mozul]

There's an anti-cat spray you could use on your wheels. It worked for me to keep them out of my convertible when I had to park on the street.

[justme1969]

yeah that has nothing to do with hypermiling but I do give help I spray storage vehicle rotors with water displacing silicon spray and never had any issue stopping when taking it back into service. Now I dont know what pads you were running yet but dog pee or rain, and full mettalic pads spells rusted
rotors/drums.
silicon spray is good answer here but better is to get a car cover if its sitting long term. My probblem with most car covers is they lock humidity under them and cause everything to rust. apply this info when purchasing a cover.

I brought a 72 granprix sjx back to life over 3 year period and learned these simple lessons.
good luck!