Just curious if when you have your brake rotors turned if they are thrown off balance afterwards. I noticed there is a weight in each one to balance them.
I have to do brakes on my wifes Dodge Caravan soon, and will probably have to have the rotors turned. If they were 20 bucks at Autozone like ours are, I'd just buy new ones, but unfortunately they are not
So I'm just curious now about turning the rotors and if they'll still be balance or not. I don't want a shimmy in the steering wheel.

Thanks!

 

There will not be a shimmy. They take off a small amount of metal depending on how deep you scratched the rotor, they will be just fine.

 

I never turn brake rotors. Just throw them away or find a good set of used ones. By turning them you reduce their material thickness and thus the amount of heat they can ultimately absorb and dissipate. This directly translates into losing performance.

In tests we have discovered that for every .010" you remove from your rotors, you ADD 8-10 feet in stopping distances from 70 mph. That means if you have a groove as deep as a beer can and turn it out smooth, add new pads and use fresh fluid... at best you will be 70% as effective as you were prior.

Do not gamble with your brakes. How many times could an accident be prevented if you only had FIVE feet more room?

 

I'd like to see the published results of those controlled tests.

.010 removed from each friction surface amounts to about 5-6 ounces of removed material, or about 3% of a 12 lb rotor. I find it difficult to believe that much change in mass changes 70 mph full anti-lock braking by 8-10 feet. In my experience, just 'bedding in" new pads/rotor surface until they get very friendly has more effect than that.

I agree about not turning rotors, but not for the same reason. The surface finish of the friction surface is critical, and I've seen too many cases where the turned rotors either were not then abrasive finished to achieve the correct surface finish or were done improperly. In one case the brakes couldn't hold a 140 hp FWD car during braketorquing and the brakes could absolutely not lock the wheels. It is the finish, not the amount of stock removed that causes the biggest problems, IMO.

Even if they are nearly $100/each, like the cruved-fin directional 13 inch Corvette C5 fronts (GM pricing), it's cheap insurance to replace them.

Of course every rotor has a minimum thickness dimension cast into it. It allows considerably more than .010 from each friction surface.

My $.02