Can anyone tell the difference between rotors and pads (truthfully)?
 

Elbert wrote in news:g8op02hlu2mtffrvt1hp0t1h4n0ikemcrc@
4ax.com:
YEA... I've been trying to figure out... is the search "here" for an
answer or is it just a debate? (In reference to the original poster).
I think a number of people have posted some clear and concise answers.
Bottom line is that rotors indeed do warp, pads wear, and both need to
be replaced over time.

I think I've found most of the answers I needed although I'm currently
working on the definition of "soap based lithium brake grease" at the
moment (mainly because the lithium appears to merely be the
saponification agent that congeals the oils used, which tells us nothing
about which oils were used in the first place).

However, my thirst for the one and true answer aside, I must agree with
you. After having read about fifty brake repair articles on the web, I
can definately agree there's a lot of bad information out there.

Witness this Edmunds article I read today (filled with errors!):
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/how...7/article.html

I can count more than a half dozen errors in that article. Edmunds is
doing a disservice to their clientele by publishing that article on the
web.

For example, brake rotors almost never warp. Of course, they "can" warp.
And you can get hit by lightening. But, they don't warp. What people
call warp is not warp. It "feels" like warp. But it's not warp. That
much is clear from reading scores of articles in the past week and
asking questions and reading every answer over and over and over again.

You may disagree but that's the "answer" I found in this quest.
That's why I am replacing the pads, rotors, and I will test the pistons
this weekend for sticking. I'll replace them if need be. I'm looking up
exactly how to pack the front wheel bearings at the moment. It's all
obvious to me now, but it was NOT obvious to me when I originally asked
the questions! With your help, I have arrived at the one and only truth.

It's the same with many things in life. Take that lightening bolt. I've
asked dozens of people WHY your're somewhat protected in a car from a
lightening strike. Know what almost all of the people asked said ('cept
the electrical engineers?). Like those who say brake rotors commonly
warp, almost all I asked mistakenly said what appeared so very obvious
to them - that the rubber tires "insulated" the occupants from the
lightening reaching the ground. Can you believe that? Like brakes
warping, that erroneous answer "sounds" logical until you actually
understand the dynamics of what is really happening.

Just like Galileo thought the curve of a chain hanging on two posts was
a parabala, things aren't always what the easy answer would seem to
suggest. Hell ... even the venerable Aristotle was wrong about the
velocity of falling objects but his theories held for hundreds of years
.... until Galileo actually put Aristotle theories to the true test.

One reason I "believe" the articles that tell us our brakes almost never
warp is that the ones that talk about warp dont' seem to even recognize
there ia the alternate view, while the ones which propose the alternate
view always seems to know there is the prevailing presumption.

So, I pretty much have the answers to the questions posed.
There are so many more questions that I'm researching but they are off
topic for this thread.

Thank you all for helping me and the hundreds of others who read this,
Stu