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Rotors Warped After 25k miles?


pivko

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Hello,

 

I have the European sister of Journey, the Freemont, 3.6 V6 petrol, AWD. Recently, when braking from freeway speeds, or in when going steeply downhill I sometimes notice vibration in the steering wheel, sometime even the whole car. The dealer says (probably quite correctly) that the rotors are warped and should be replaced. My question is: Is this normal? The car has 25k miles (40k kms) on the odometer to me it is still relatively low mileage for rotor exchange. I have not used the car in any extraordinary manner (everyday city traffic to and from work and occasionally longer freeway trips). Any ideas / experiance.

 

Kind regards

Michal from Prague

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Pre 2012 models had undersized brakes. Don't know what year yours is, but those models were known for premature brake issues. Things do happen though. Save yourself a bunch of money and replace them yourself with quality aftermarket parts. It's extremely easy to replace the rotors on these cars.

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To be fair, warped rotors seemed to have been an issue with many car brands in the early 2000-2010. I had the same issue with my Ford Windstar, neighbor had the issue with his Caravan, and my sister's Explorer. All along, my Ford Explorer (Eddie Bauer) had huge rotors and pads that lasted forever with no issues. Only one rotor replacement in over 15 years. I guess the car makers weren't expecting these utility style vehicles to be used for that purpose.

If you are getting that shaking, get it fixed ASAP. It can be a really dangerous situation. Rotors are not hard to replace on the DJ if you have basic mechanical knowledge. And from what I see, parts are not that expensive.

Good luck.

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As mentioned, buy good quality rotors ( after market / maybe MOPAR has better ones now ? ). My 2012 ( smaller sized brakes)  is on its 3rd set of fronts, changed in  March 2014 before extended warranty ran out and last change was 55 , 000 kms year and a half back. Now at 68,000 kms and no issues at all with rotor shakes  bought MOPAR parts too...maybe they as mentioned now are using better quality materials. 

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  • 1 month later...
11 minutes ago, Johnnyh said:

I have a 2016 Journey just turned 20,000 and the rotors are warped. Dealer admits the junk Jap steel used for the rotors and I should replace them. Not paying a dealer to put the same junk on again. Going with EBC's.  

 

Best thing to do.

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40 minutes ago, Johnnyh said:

I have a 2016 Journey just turned 20,000 and the rotors are warped. Dealer admits the junk Jap steel used for the rotors and I should replace them. Not paying a dealer to put the same junk on again. Going with EBC's.  

That's what I did on my 2011.  EBC rotors and greenstuff pads.  They have worked great over the last 3 years.  

 

Peace.

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  • 3 months later...

I agree Journey's brakes from 2009 to early 2012 suck, they eat pads like hot butter. But please stop using the term "warped". A warped rotor is when the rotor exceeded maximal operating temperature and did not come back to orignal form. Usually vibration when braking is due to an unbalanced rotor caused by uneven wear of the rotor surface. It is called thickness variation. To prevent that when you change rotors perform brake pads bed-in. It is usually written on the manufacturer website and be sure that your calipers are functionning properly and that the pads are moving freely. I've learn from my mistakes ..... LOL. Oh and yeah original rotor aren't good I went with the drilled one from PowerStop but didn't perfrom brake pads bed-in and had to replace front rotors again 6 months later. I went with wagner rotors and wagners pads since september and still good to go. Will see if it will be a good replacement if they aren't vibrating till the summer. PowerStop begin vibrating only 3 months and half on the highway after installation but I had right pad stuck in the shoe so I had dragging and before I found out I think damage was already done to the rotor. So might not be the brand itself.

 

So the problem with the journey's are pads and caliper's design. I'll be performing brake cleaning after winter. Never had to do brake maintenance that often to prelong their life.

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Ya he probably just changed his brakes what else can we say, he knows the rotors are "warped" :P and that YEAH iit s normal ...... just need to live with it and be prepared to replace rotors more often than other cars or just buy a new car. I decided to live with it and practice my mecanic on this car :D

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