I changed out my rear rotors and pads over the weekend, i took everything apart and cleaned up everything real good, made sure the sliding bolts would slide with out issue but my rotors are still heating up more than they should. I haven't been driving the car but when i talk to a mechanic i go to sometimes he says drive it for a couple days so that they can break in, if it kept doing it after a couple days i should bring it by and he'll check it out. is he right? does it need to be broken in?

 

How can you tell the rotors are overheating? New brakes always need a break-in period and then a few hard stops to bed the pads to the rotors. When I swapped in ECS red stuff pads and slotted rotors, they recommended 1000 miles of city driving to grind off the coatings from the pads and rotors, then 3-4 hard stops from 20, 30, and 40mph to bed in the pads.

 

After a 40 minute trip I could smell the burning smell and it was pretty strong.

 

Depending on the brand and purpose of the rotors and pads you chose, one or the other or both could very well have a coating on them that's burning off. Most aftermarket rotors are coated with Zinc or some fancy sounding proprietary shenanigans to keep them from rusting before you put them on your car. I would give them a few hundred more miles to break in and if they still stink that bad, pull the wheels off and make sure you installed everything properly and the calipers aren't frozen.

When you put the new pads and rotors on, did you completely depress the caliper pistons? The rear calipers use a special tool that turns as it compresses the piston.

 

Depending on the brand and purpose of the rotors and pads you chose, one or the other or both could very well have a coating on them that's burning off. Most aftermarket rotors are coated with Zinc or some fancy sounding proprietary shenanigans to keep them from rusting before you put them on your car. I would give them a few hundred more miles to break in and if they still stink that bad, pull the wheels off and make sure you installed everything properly and the calipers aren't frozen.

When you put the new pads and rotors on, did you completely depress the caliper pistons? The rear calipers use a special tool that turns as it compresses the piston.

 

Yes, I borrowed the tool from auto zone to depress the caliper. Besides the smell should they be getting super hot? I burnt my finger tip, that's another way I know it's to hot. They fronts were just warm when I was comparing them.

 

The rears will be hotter for sure. The smaller surface area of the rear rotors and the fact that they're not vented means they'll get hotter faster and stay hotter longer. Don't burn yourself anymore lol.

 

haha will do. i still need to do the front rotors and pads. i had bought wearever platinum ceramic pads and wearever rotors all the way around and only did the rears.

 

Fronts are easier IMO, don't need to dick around with that stupid brake tool.

 

I would say its absolutely normal to smell brakes for the first couple hundred miles. They'll also get a lot hotter than before because of how close the tolerance is between new pad material and the rotor. As long as they arn't glowing or smoking substantially I think you're in the clear.

Jason