Just a friendly reminder here for all of us gear-heads out there. I bought my DD about a month and a half ago, and had been hearing some grinding in the rear brakes, so i decided to do them today. This is what I came across on my passenger rear brakes.

So this is just a friendly reminder for all of us to be safe, this could have EASILY killed me, someone I love, or a random driver because of a shop that sold this vehicle to me with brakes in this type of shape. ALWAYS Check work done by others! I am taking responsibility for this, but just imagine what could have happened if the rotor separated while at high speeds and launched a brake pad. In the first picture you can see it already sliding around on the rotor, hence why its out of the bracket.

So to wrap it up, just be safe and when in doubt, check it out!

 

I'm assuming its a cast iron rotor / brake hub & that is a crack caused by heat or torque?
Also noticed the "chattered" braking surface......wow

 

It felt like a cast iron rotor, but yea due to some type of wear or rust related failure the entire rotor separated from the hub. I have NEVER seen this on a car and i've owned and worked on quite a few.

 

Jesus. That's crazy. Are their any markings to indicate what brand they may be? Is it possible the PO installed cheap Chinese knock off rotors?

 

I have seen that before. A factor of extremes in temps, along with wearing the rotor. That rotor appears in the picture to be wavy like it has run like that for awhile. I noticed a noise from my Blazer a few months ago. Now I see the inside pad is gone. But no cracked rotor yet.
QUESTION: My 98 blazer is suppose to have about 126,000 miles. The rear pads are gone, & they are the OEM pads. Shouldn't they have gone a lot longer before being wore out? Crap my 97 Blazer never wore out the rear shoes in almost 200,000 miles
Not trying to hijack the thread just a question on rear brakes since we are posting about them.

 

I'd say there was a little grinding noise!

Pad life depends on your diving habbits, if you brake a lot and suddenly, or if you do mostly highway your brakes will last a lot longer. Plus 70% of braking is done with the front.

 

No unfortunately there was not enough of it to tell any manufacturer, but judging by the extreme wear I'm guessing the truck got new rear brake pads and rotors then sat for a bit and then it got sold and I just happened to be the next guy in line. It was a miracle I didn't get hurt with this rotor, the other side was fine, just really worn. The pads on both sides were down to the metal, so I just replaced all rotors pads and got a new caliper for the one side since it was fully extended and seized that way. I got lucky that's for sure.

 

And for blazerguy, those were shoes on your 97, they typically did last longer, at least in my experience they did, but the type of braking force has a lot to do with the wear and how fast as stated above. I went to a parts store and got all new rotors and pads for like $87 out the door. the New caliper only put me back about $45 from pep boys. So not all too pricey, just really dumb **** people (like me...) Overlook.

 

Calipers, brackets, pads, rotors, and hardware should all be replaced every time you do rear brakes on these. You'll understand why in a couple of months when you have to re-do what you just did

 

not as long as you add anti-seize to the threads of the bolts your using

But i do replace the hardware every few months, good advise