As I was doing this, I noticed that one of the prongs on the back of the brake is broken. There used to be 3, but now there is two. Do I need to get new pads, or are they ok to use still? If you are having trouble visualizing what I am talking about, open up the link and you can see what the three prong design looks like on the 4th picture down.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2218737

Thanks

 

Bad idea to replace rotors without pads. If your rotors needed replaced then your old pads are likely unevenly worn or glazed. If you bought the pads with a broken prong take them back. The purpose of the prong is to seat the pad into the caliper so it is solid and pulls away with the rotor when you let off the brakes. If it doesn't seat, it can move around and cause uneven pad wear, dragging, and noisy brakes.

 

I was having some wheel shake when braking (worse when going down hill) so I thought I could just replace the rotors since my brakes weren't making noise or cutting into the rotor. Could the wheel shake have been caused because one of those prongs was busted?

 

Thats possible. Either way, you need to get new pads before you kill your new rotors. If money is tight just pick em up cheap at auto zone or wherever. I use them (wear-ever brand) on my 97 and they are just fine. They might wear more quickly but the car stops well.

 

will do

 

Cool. What I really meant by going to auto zone is that you should go there asap. Not drive around for a few days while waiting on a shipment from anywhere else. When you put the new pads on get some sand paper and scuff up the rotors a little bit to make sure they seat right.

 

That's what I did. All done now and no more wheel shake so whether the problem was the pad or the rotor, it is fixed. Thanks for the help.