What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

Yes, if you get the pads to hot they can glaze over (tribology), and or the rotor getting high and low spots in it that cause brake pulsation, change the pads and the glaze is gone, or sometimes you can even "knock" the glaze off by running them across asphalt or whatever, but the only way to get ride of the high and low spots on the rotors is to machine the high spots out/off of the rotors.. Bedding the pads in, is so you will have 100% (or as close to it as possible lol) slightly uneven pad material contact to the slight uneven rotor surface, if you don't bed them, then you will not have full contact between the two, this is even harder to do (bedding) when "pad slapping"...

 

No, that is part of the bedding process, they wear in together, the pad material will wear into the imperfections (slight high/low spots) to smooth everything out, the pad material eating into the rotor will build up and the rotor thickness will start to vary more and more, if the material builds up in the variances to much, then it will start pushing the pistons back causing the pulsation, but that is only thickness variation (high/low spots) in the rotor, the rotor from heat can also warp, get wavy if you will, and either will cause a pulsation, and either requires machining the rotors back smooth, and at that time the pads really need to be replaced as well or you will have the opposite effect of pad slapping, the rotor will be smooth, but the pads will still have the same wear patter as the pre-machined rotor, and you will not have full pad material contact with the rotor... Different rotor (metallurgy) material will wear at different rates also, like most modern day BMW's pads wear into the rotors causing faster wear (removing metal), like a softer rotor, but they don't warp (easy anyway), they will look like they have been pad slapped sometimes, but it is just from the pad material eating the metal away... I have also seen and found out the hard way that those BMW rotors (and others) can not be machined....

 

Brought it to the dealership for the second time to get the leaking rear shocks replaced under warranty. (They didn't have the parts in July...but "forgot" to tell me when they cancelled the appointment that involved me taking a day off).
Despite me asking, more than once, if they had the right parts....which they assured me they did....the mechanic discovered that I had a TRD lift and so they didn't have the right shocks.
So I am driving a Corolla for a few days while they scramble to get the right parts and have it ready for the long weekend.

Castlegar Toyota: we're not happy unless you're not happy!

BTW: last time I will darken their door....but the warranty ends on Monday, so taking it to my preferred (but further away) dealer to start over would involve another day off work this week, which ain't cheap or really an option.

 

Finally figured out what was rattling under the truck when accelerating. Rock stuck between frame and heat shield. Tried posting a video but wasn’t able to. Also got oil results back from Blackstone. Everything looked great except silicon levels. Maybe K&N isn’t that great of a filter like I’ve been reading about.