fatboysam

I went to a Indy shop to show vibration problem in my steering wheel, he looked at the rotors and said they are in excellent shape, and they don't look warped. But he said the only thing might be wrong is some deposit on the Rotors, so he suggested to do Machine the rotors...

Is Machining the rotor and resurfacing the same thing ??


The problem is he is asking too much money for machining the rotors $200.00... I contacted some other indy shops and they declined to do resurfacing work on rotors and insisted me on replacing the rotors, but my brake pads have 20k miles left,,so i really want to try out machining the rotors... Any suggestions on which type of shops can do machining the rotors.... and what will be a reasonable price for it ?

TU2TLE

I had the same issue. When I would break hard my steering wheel would vibrate. the weird thing is it didn't do it when i would slow down like a normal person.I thought it was my rotors and I was going to have to order new ones. They checked them out and they were in mint condition. He then decided to have a look at my control arms. My bushing was cracking on my control arm. He says it happens sooner with "Spirited Driving". They support the whole car when accelerating, breaking, everything. The weight of the front end is dependent on these arms. It might feel like your rotor, but it could very well be your control arms.

Tue-Track

Here is a picture of what you do to make the disc straight again.
(Maschining the disc)

It will always be better replacing the disc. But if they are new and very expensive I would do this. We do it once a week in the shop.

We take about 100$ for all 4 disc's in Denmark.

BTW - The indy shop can check the disc's before they maschine it. If they can't, find another shop..

pcy

Resurfacing of rotors can be done on any lathe machine. Remove the rotors from the car, put on the lathe machine and have a cup of coffee. No need for fancy equipment. NAPA part store [and possibly others] machines the rotors for a nominal fee.

To reduce the overall weight of the car, thickness of the rotors is kept to as low as possible and as a result doesn't allow for whole lot of machining/resurfacing. Given the low cost of rotors, I'd recommend just replacing the rotors with new ones. Replacement of rotors is pretty straightforward task requiring no special tools.

As others suggested, I'd inspect the control arm bushings before resurfacing the rotors.

tonyb635

I agree, remove them yourself and take them to a shop for turning/resurfacing. I did my rear the other year and the cost was $12.00 for both! Then while they are off throw a new set of pads on there and you will be ok for quite a while.

ditka550

The rotors on these cars are very thick and designed to last quite a while. Thats why BMW puts such soft, crappy, dusty pads on them from the factory. Under normal driving you would probably replace the pads twice before you would worry about the rotors on these cars. I don't see a problem with resurfacing them but if you can remove them yoursekf and take them somewhere as it will save you lots of money.