[Summerheat]

Sorry for spamming this sub-forum lately. It's been really nice out lately and I had some free time, so I've been digging into the saab.

When I got the car about a year back, it had pulsing brakes. Figured the rotors were warped, so I replaced them. It's been fine for about a year, but now their starting up again.

Today when I took the caliper bracket off I noticed something very strange. The pads seemed to have rubbed a divot into the caliper bracket. It is no longer smooth and straight. What could have caused this? Everything was lubed up nicely during the previous brake job.

To make matters worse, after I put everything back together, it now screeches like a banshee...

 

[EdT]

Are we talking front or back calipers? (Not that it necessarily makes a big difference.)

Were the pads replaced, or just the rotors? My guess is that the rotors weren't warped, but there were deposits from the pads in the rotor, which caused the pulsing. Take a look at the rotor and if there are dark spots that's probably where the pulsing is coming from.

Pads will wear minor divots where they hang off the caliper ears. That's inescapable. Mild divots can be filed out. Bad ones would require replacing of the brackets.

If you post some pictures, that would help us diagnose it.

My experience is that Saab OEM rotors rarely, if ever, pick up deposits. And the pads fit properly.

 

[Summerheat]

These are the front calipers.
A year ago, I replaced both the pads and rotors.
These are pretty pronounced divots.

here is an image I hope it works

https://imgur.com/a/19TeqUk

 

[Summerheat]

For what its worth, I checked the new pads I have installed with some old ones from the wagon. It seems like the new pads I have installed are slightly narrower than the old ones, a millimeter at most. These new pads I've had on the car for about a year and they seem to be wearing pretty good.
Do you recon i warped a set of rotors in less than a year? About 15k km of city driving.

 

[EdT]

The divot on the right side looks pretty normal. The left side looks almost like it's spalled, not worn. Definitely much worse than it sould be.

What brand of pads and rotors are we talking about?

In my experience, rotors rarely warp. But deposits on the rotor surface can sure make the brakes pulse or act unevenly.

15,000 km of city driving should not do anything much to the pads/rotors. I have at least 35,000 km on my brakes and they're working perfectly smoothly. And yes, that's Toronto driving.

 

[Summerheat]

The divot on the right side looks pretty normal. The left side looks almost like it's spalled, not worn. Definitely much worse than it sould be.

What brand of pads and rotors are we talking about?

In my experience, rotors rarely warp. But deposits on the rotor surface can sure make the brakes pulse or act unevenly.

15,000 km of city driving should not do anything much to the pads/rotors. I have at least 35,000 km on my brakes and they're working perfectly smoothly. And yes, that's Toronto driving.

The pads are Bosch perfect stop metallic. Rotors are from a brand called Genius. They look smooth, from the outside at least. I am unsure how to look for deposits in the rotors.

 

[Jeremy R.]

The divot on the right side looks pretty normal. The left side looks almost like it's spalled, not worn. Definitely much worse than it should be.

I was thinking the same thing about the left side. It looks more like metal corrosion, or some failure of the metal.

Summerheat, in my experience, you can't really see deposits on the brake rotors, and it's very hard to get rid of them. If yours aren't coated, you could have them turned, or just replace them. It does look like Genius is the brand name some company called Transit uses for coated rotors. I'd be tempted to get a set of decent brand name rotors, like ATE. A couple of people around here have had issues with Zimmermann rotors, although I haven't.

 

[EdT]

I wonder if the inside of the rotor has some surface issues that made the brake pad bang around and knock the bits out of the caliper bracket?

 

[Jssaab]

I always thought thre should be a stainless piece that goes on top of that area to help the pad slide liek other cars

 

[Jeremy R.]

My mother-in-law's Civic has stainless steel clips that the caliper slides on. I thought that was pretty cool. New ones are included with brake pads, so you get a nice clean smooth sliding surface every time you replace the pads.