Just got this in an email from my cousin

[Scootertrash]

I got this off reddit.com. It is a couple days old so there is no hope of finding it again, but the post was something like “This woman came into the shop I work at asking for an oil change and to fix the “slight scratching noise” her brakes were making. This is what we found. After we told her how much it would be to fix it, she DECLINED THE REPAIR. We made her sign a stupidity waiver not holding us responsible since she refused the repair, and sent her on her way.

http://i.imgur.com/XlrLp.jpg

[yaegerb]

That doesn't seem possible. I would think something major would fail (perhaps the pads blow into a hundred pieces) before you ground the rotor down to the inner supports. Some people....

[Chazz of Blades]

What.

The.

trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro?



Can you somehow sneak an acceptance to be spayed or neutered into those stupidity agreements?

[Scootertrash]

The pads are long gone my friend. Look at how thin the backing plate for the pad is.

I posted this on another forum and some of the mechanics have said they've seen this type of thing also. One guy promised a pic, we'll see if he remembers after the weekend. ;)

[Scootertrash]

Can you somehow sneak an acceptance to be spayed or neutered into those stupidity agreements?

I don't think so. I think you just have to let Darwin work his magic..........

[yaegerb]

I guess I mean the backing plate. Rather the entire unit, pad, backing plate, etc. I would think that steel would grind down faster than the rotor steel.

[Scootertrash]

I know what you mean. Crazy stuff. I've seen some interesting damage in all my years of wrenching. It's unbelievable how oblivious people can be.

ETA:

My other observations:
The backing plate for the pad doesn't fit the caliper properly. See how the retainer spring doesn't line up with the locating holes in the caliper?

It's awfully clean. No metal shavings what so ever. ??

There is no heat discoloration on the worn cooling fins or the pad backing plate. I've done brake jobs where the pads are gone, rotor is ground up and shot and the backing plate for the pad is discolored from the heat of metal on metal friction.

Where are our resident auto mechanics to verify this can happen?:naughty:

[Chazz of Blades]

Notice the wear marks on the fins from exposed rivet metal though?

[Scootertrash]

Notice the wear marks on the fins from exposed rivet metal though?

Yup.

I'm just amazed at how someone could let it go this far.

[badass350x]

Makes total since to me, would like to see what the leading edge of the backing plate looks like!

[falloutboy]

Earlier this year my dad had a customer bring in a 35+ft class A motor home to his shop. The rotors weren't quite that bad but they weren't far off. The braking surfaces were literately paper thin. You could have stabbed through them with a screwdriver. I wish I would have gotten a picture of those 4 rotors. they were gnarly.

[wisconsinite]

I guess I mean the backing plate. Rather the entire unit, pad, backing plate, etc. I would think that steel would grind down faster than the rotor steel.

rotors are typically cast iron, a little softer than steel.

[aldochina]

think the brake pedal shuddered a hair!! clueless!

[atc007]

While I didn't "inspect" that pic too much. Like chazz said,,you CAN see the rivet marks,that WAS done with that setup. real,or unpurpose. I think it's real. Now here is MY problem. What shop on this EARTH would send her BACK out on the road to drive towards his family????? I would have held the keys, called the cops and said ,looky here,she says don't fix this !!!. At least she can always have a place to live at DC's Dads place ! Holy friggin crap,what a world we live in.

[hillbilly 200x]

The slider are sized up as well, only wore one side. I have seen that once before it has a few years backs. The car sat in my drive way for about an month before the owner could work up enough money for new pads, rotors, and calipers.
I am with atc007 that shouldn't have left the shop. What if she hit your wife or your kids or your best friend, the stupidity agreements isn't going to bring someones life back!!

[bkm]

I don't think its real. Look below the brake pad. The ground down surface extends down further than the pad reaches. This was done on a lathe and put together for picture purposes. Its way to clean, no metal shavings everywhere, and not one hot spot.

I have seen them just start to get into the cooling fins and they are hot spotted all to hell and back, cracked and flaking all over the place. This is a fresh lathe job.

[dcreel]

I have to agree with Bryan.. The inside of the rotor where it has been ground down would have to have contacted the bottom of whats left of the pad. The bottom of the pad isn't even shiny. If the bottom of the pad had contacted the center most part of the rotor to grind it down almost an inch the bottom of the pad would be ground down too.. Its not its still rusty..

Someone did that on a lathe and put it together for the picture..

[tx200m]

Seen that plenty of times, we used to keep the rotors and hang em on a peg board for the customers to gawk at.

[Blown 331]

I'm not saying this one is real but I've seen that plenty of times in person for real. I used to work at a GM dealer, but I actually personally know 2 people who have done this. Some just keep going until the caliper piston pops out of the bore.

[300rman]

That pic isnt real, But I HAVE seen this happen....


I don't think so. I think you just have to let Darwin work his magic..........

It doesnt work...these morons drive like this all the time and dont die. Then you have guys like my Dad who is ANAL about keeping good tires on his vehicle. Had a rear blowout at 80, almost lost it. Would have totaled his truck, trailer, and the car he just bought...

[fabiodriven]

I tend to think this is indeed real.

There's a lot of over-analyzing going on here. You guys are acting like a group of forensic scientists or something. What needs to be remembered is this- This is a mechanical setup that has been pushed wayyy beyond its intended limits and then some. Once you pass the threshold of what this setup is meant to do, and then you go ahead and push it even farther past that, things happen that you otherwise would have never imagined. I saw one guy post on in this thread saying something about the brake pad being the wrong one because the retainer clip wasn't even seated in the grooves. Well that's wrong. The retainer clip doesn't always seat in a groove. It just grasps the back side of the caliper.

I do inspection stickers for a living. I do it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and I've been doing it for over 4 years now. I've seen a lot of mechanical parts that have been pushed beyond their limits. I don't doubt for a second that this nightmare is in fact real. I'm hoping Mosh will chime in. He sees stuff like this all the time.

[Big Mike]

I have seen it before and it is disgusting. The worse I have saw was a fully loaded service van that had rotors as bad if not worse than this. It was a van that belonged to another branch of the company I worked for, and we were told to report any safety issues to our supervisor as we did the inspections and repairs on the fleet during their quartely meeting, and the guy actually got fired for letting his brakes get that bad. While I felt bad, at the same time I didnt because he should not have continued driving like that and risked killing someone.

[JasonB]

that is awesome! almost as cool as the post I saw a few years back about a motor home owner who had hauled a truck in tow behind the motor home for some number of miles with the truck not being in gear; the truck had burned the tires off and had been ground down to just past the rear end and into the bed lol looked pretty cool

[fabiodriven]

I just re-read a lot of the comments, I just kind of breezed through them this morning. I'd like to alter my original point just a bit after having read the comments a bit more carefully.

I do see what you guys are saying about the lack of metal shavings and hot spots. I think you're right there. Also, the lack of a contact point on the inside part of the rotor. This could be a sham.

However, if anyone is doubting that this actually happens I want to assure you that it does. I have seen rotors like this more than once. I don't understand why somebody would stage this because it is something that actually does happen.

[dcreel]

Until you have seen the Brake drum on a semi explode.. You haven't seen anything yet.. lol

[M.Pargiello]

I remember my old lincoln LSC was like that in the rears. Bought the car and the brakes sucked. Didn't make noise (Still cant figure out how), so I went to change them and found a similar situation. I will have to find the pics. I was amazed.