Very true and an old adage in racing circles: neverevereverever set your
handbrake after coming off the track. You will warp the rotors in MINUTES
if you leave the pads in contact after a hot lap session.
For a street vehicle, it's not as bad because the brakes don't get that
hot. But it can contribute if you've been doing a lot of city driving and
over time will greatly accelerate warping. Lower-quality steel and a
hit-and-miss treatment process also aggravates the problem.
I pull a trailer fairly frequently and I warped the rotors the first time
at 15k. Even with a trailer I would still expect better life. The reason
you should never turn warped rotors is that once warped (better to say
"unevenly heated"), you have forever altered the crystalline structure of
the metal. That structure is now biased and will no longer conduct the
heat evenly, leading to another warp; in my case, 13k miles later.
Mark Litherland
'00 SLT 4.7 FOR SALE
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