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Originally Posted by dodgeboy16
Thats not the way to handle this problem. Chrysler is who put the pads ( to hard ? ) or rotors ( to soft? ) or both on the SRT-8s. My Rotors were so worn at 1500 MILES I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Long story short was this. I told the dealer if the rotors wore that much in 1500 miles then what are they going to be like at 15,000. It was Chrysler who F_ _ _ ed up not me, and if they weren't going to fix the problem then there are other ways to handle the problem. My Brakes were replaced last week, 4 rotors and 4 sets of pads.
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Just so you have an easier time articulating the problem to the dealer - there is no such thing as "soft" rotors. If you say this to him (assuming he has any knowledge of brakes), you will lose some credibility. Rotors that wear out quickly do this for a few possible reasons:
- The friction plates are thin. BMW is a good example of this. Many people claim BMW rotors are "soft" because Mercedes rotors last 50% longer. In fact, BMW rotors are lighter because they have a bigger air gap and thinner friction plates, allowing the car to handle better and improve convective cooling (vs Mercedes). BMW allows only 1.6mm of rotor wear, while Mercedes (with thicker friction plates) allows 2.4mm of rotor wear. There's your 50% difference! No difference in rotor hardness. It's the difference in new rotor thickness vs minimum allowable thickness.
- The pads are too aggressive. I believe this to be the case with the SRT8. The rotors are merely innocent victims. Many race pads, when run in their operating temperature range of 400 degrees (F) or more, are very rotor friendly. Those same race pads, when operated on the street at lower temperatures can be incredibly abrasive. Hawk Blue is the ultimate example of this. In my opinion, the SRT8 pads are behaving as if they are race pads being used on the street.
- Finally, excessive rotor wear can be caused by mechanical problems ranging from sticking calipers (not applicable to the fixed mount, 4-piston Brembos), to residual line pressure. Again, I do not believe that to be the case here at all.
Also, the pads are not "hard" or "soft". The abrasiveness of the pads depends on many factors, including size disparity between the particles used in the raw materials for the friction compound. I doubt this is the case, since DCX presumably went with a pad supplier who has sophisticated quality tools to ensure particle uniformity. So it probably has more to do with the design of the compound and the finished product's mix of abrasive vs adherent friction.
If this sounds like Greek, here's an excellent white paper that will give you some background to understand all this:
http://stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_warped_brakedisk.shtml. Skip down to the section titled "The Nature of Braking Friction."