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louie
Dodge Dakota
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8/20/2004
10:32:10
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 Subject: early brake roter replacement
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I own a 2003 quard cab, 8 cylender and had to replace both rear roters and turn down the front. The vehicle only has 10,000 miles on it. I am not hard at all on the brakes. My 1996 Dakota went 56,000 before turning down the front roters. Anyone else have this problem or may know what caused it.
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Andy
Dodge Dakota
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8/20/2004
15:12:39
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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Yeah, the stock brakes on our trucks are junk basically. Mine were warped at 5,000 miles. Now with 10x as many miles on powerslot rotors I still have yet to have any service done on them.
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Hammerdak
Dodge Dakota
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8/20/2004
18:25:04
|  RE: early brake roter replacement
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Yeh! It's a given. The OEM brakes on the Gen3 Dakotas are the single worst feature. Crap right from the start.
I replaced mine after only 12,000km/6,500 mi.
The fronts had warped and I saw no point in spending money to fix crap.
28,000km on Rabestos (sp.) pads and rotors from Speedy and no problems, brakes or otherwise.
Don't despair Louie , just don't replace them with Mopar parts when the time comes (like in 6 months) and trust that you've still got a great truck.
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Noltz
Dodge Dakota
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8/20/2004
23:59:43
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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Wow, that's freakin' fast. I've got a Gen2, but a family member has a '03, so I'll warn him about that.
This forum is great!
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Lab Rat
GenIII
8/21/2004
00:40:35
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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I see a lot of these complaints, but I'm at 38K, have no problems with the rotors at all and I drive like a banshee. Replaced the pads at about 35K with ceramics, although the OEMs weren't dead. Number one thing I do is get off the pedal right after a hard brake, that way the pads and rotors can cool instead of bonding pad material to the discs.
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eddy
Dodge Dakota
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8/21/2004
02:01:14
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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After 7800 miles of hard driving my 04 V8 quad was vibrating's steering wheel was vibrating very badly on braking from 40 mph, and after a little fighting I got a free set of front rotors from my dealer. At 17,400 I feel the slightest jingle and shimmy once again during high speed breaking and I'm ready to go after market and get some good stuff as soon as this becomes intolarable again. I love the truck except for a few week points. I will re-engineer DC's cheapness as the need arises until I have what in my eyes is the perfect truck.
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eddy
Dodge Dakota
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8/21/2004
02:04:57
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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By the way on my 95 Ranger the rotors were fine with one turn at 106K thousand miles when I traded her. It NEVER got to the point where hard braking caused severe feedback through the steering wheel. Even at its worst, there was never a shimmy, just a slight veering to one side that I was told was caused by a bad wheel bearing. Speaks more to the superior build quality in general of the time frame on certain components than on the superiority of Ford to Dodge.
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dakvader
Dodge Dakota
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8/21/2004
06:28:23
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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Have an 03 with four wheel disc brakes and 33,000 miles on her. No warping but those pads are simply crap. They squeek like holy he11 and are annoying. No warping at all though so they must be improving on the brake issue.
Would like to upgrade to Better rottors and quiter & safer pads. Any recommendations out in dak land that I should go with. Looking to go with upgrade rotors front and back. Might ethier upgrade caliper or paint stock one to aid in the eye appeal. Thanks for any recommendations.
jeff
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Redline
Dodge Dakota
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8/23/2004
14:32:59
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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I found an odd rusted/pitted ring on the inside face of the stock rotor when I bought it at 23K. I thought it odd; it looked like the rotor had a wear surface over pot-metal that wore through. I replaced that rotor and the other stock one looked fine...that was two months ago. Now the other stock rotor has the same look and I have to repalce it. To boot, I took the pads off to fix the excessive squeeling and when I put them back together, the Caliper pin threads on the spindle stripped-out. After researching this, it turns out this is a known problem with Dodge. I've been mechanic'n for 30 years and have stripped my share of bolts, but not the damn threads in something as critical as a spindle. This stuff should not be happening!
I've been driving Ford Rangers for the last 10 years and I guess I've grown accustomed to a certain level of quality I'm not seein' in this Dodge.
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Germ
Dodge Dakota
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8/23/2004
20:23:22
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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How can you tell when the rotors turn? I notice my brakes squeak, but it only tends to happen on days that it's really really humid, rainy, or right first thing in the mornin.
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DSW
Dodge Dakota
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8/23/2004
22:59:15
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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The only way to get rid of the crappy warping brake rotors is to replace them with quality replacements. I bought my 00 with 60K and turned or replaced the rotors every 5-10K from there. I was replacing the rotors with $30 AutoZone rotors and towing a 3000# boat, perfect recipe for warped rotors :(
I finally bit the bullet and spent $200 on Raybestos BruteStop rotors and SuperStop pads. Best money spent on this truck so far ;)
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RadioMan
Dodge Dakota
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8/24/2004
06:59:49
|  RE: early brake roter replacement
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Message:
I was wondering if DC did any better in the
quality dept when the 03's came out with four
wheel disk brakes. I see by louie's post, they
did not!
Louie, consider yourself luckey you can buy
aftermarket parts that are better than what DC
installs. Once done, your brake problems will be
over with. Now you're down to two faults. Ball
joints and tranny problems.
Isn't it nice to keep buying American and keep
Americans working? Just too bad we are getten
stuck with American junk!
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Bob Lincoln
Dodge Dakota
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8/24/2004
08:52:43
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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#1 cause of warped rotors is excessive and/or uneven torque on the lug nuts. I always use a torque wrench on them, especially after the wheels have been taken off by anyone else.
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02cc dak vt
Dodge Dakota
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5/31/2005
21:34:35
|  RE: early brake roter replacement
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I am on my third set of brakes on my 02 cc , i went through two sets on my 97 cc dak before going to a tacoma, but recently on my 02 dak i did the job myself and found something that was a problem i have not seen talked about here.
on the spindle there are two support bars for the disc brake pads on either side of the caliper and the last two sets of pads had worn grooves in the front most bar, this was keeping the pads from moving properly and especially when putting new pads and rotors on, the pads want to find these old grooves witch are not in the right spot for new ones cuasing the pads to drag and overheat.
i have tried slotted rotors and they warped too but i let someone else install them who didnt address this grooving of the pad retaining bar. all that is needed is to do a little grinding to restore them to a smooth flat surface so the pads don't hang up and drag.
just thought id put my two cents in, any one else notice this problem ?
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John K
Dodge Dakota
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5/31/2005
22:05:36
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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I've noticed the worn grooves you are talking about, though I never thought to do anything about them. Smoothing them out seems like a good idea.
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.boB
Dodge Dakota
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6/01/2005
16:17:38
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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There's a lot of mis-information and mis-conception about the brake rotors, brake pads, and brake function. Not just on Dodge Dakotas, but on a lot of other vehicles as well.
There's only one way to identify a warped rotor - use a dial indicater to measure run out. If you go by pedal feel alone you'll be wasting a lot of time, money, and effort throwing parts at a problem and accomplishing nothing.
Brake squeal is caused by pad vibration in the calipers. That's why it goes away with firm braking pressure, and is loudest with light pressure. It's easily fixed for less than $5.
Ceramic pads do squeal. But it's at such a high frequency we can't hear it. They are also low dusting, so your wheels look better. These two facters make them almost idiot proof, and that's why shops like to install them. Some ceramic products will perform better, and some won't. I prefer carbon fiber and proper installation.
Bob Lincoln is right. Improper lug nut torque is a very common cause of warping. But keep in mind that actuall warped rotors are not nearly as common as you might think.
Read this:
http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/warped_rotors_myth.htm
Slotted rotors and drilled rotors as commonly purchased are for looks only, and will decrease braking performance.
Every bit of information I have written here is easily available, right here on the net, from a variety of reliable sources. I didn't have to make any of it up. Just sit down and do a little research, and you'll be surprised at how many myths can be easily busted.
Sources:
Wilwood Brakes
Baer Brakes
Bestop
Hawk
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dmould
Dodge Dakota
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6/01/2005
17:03:52
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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Message:
No problems at all with my 2004 Dakota with the 4-wheel disk brakes, 21,000 miles. I think the brakes are great, good feel and strong stopping power, no squealing, very little brake dust. I tow a 4000 pound trailer on occasion, as well as some smaller hauling jobs, so the brakes do get a workout. I always check the torque on my lugnuts after my vehicle has had the wheels off. Could it be that they finally solved the brake issue for the last model year of the generation III?
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02 cc dak vt
Dodge Dakota
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6/01/2005
22:47:14
| RE: early brake roter replacement
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boB is right it is rare to see a truly warped rotor, it is usually pad material unevenly built up on the rotor that can cause localized overheating and that can change the the metals structure.
when i say my rotors warped, even the slotted ones i tried, there was actually uneven wear from pad material sticking to the rotor. it is hard to see this buildup since the rotor surface is a combination of pad and cast iron after a while.
taking a mic or good dial caliper to the rotor you can see this.
once the rotors get that way and the high spot overheats it precipitates the carbon from the cast iron and forms a hardened area that will not wear the same as the rest of the rotor.
turning dose little good. i have even tried grinding the rotors on a diamond grinding lathe ( accessed through my work as machinist )just to see if i could save my expensive slotted rotors. no luck the metallurgy had changed too deep in the rotors surface.
but as i mentioned before these grooves i noticed in the pad retaining bars on the spindle seemed to be keeping the pads in too close contact with the rotor, and since smoothing them out my new set of cheap wagner rotors ( three year warranty on them by the way, well see ) have worked fine after 5k mi.
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