500 Trekking Front Rotors

[Cblasig]

When I got my tires rotated recently, they told me that my front rotors were in bad shape and needed to be replaced. The car is less than a year old and only has 12k miles on it. I called the dealer to see what the issue was, and they said that it's normal for the X's, and that they wouldn't need to be changed. Has anybody else run into this issue? What's causing the rotor to wear faster than the pads? The car stops perfectly fine still. It's just makes a weird noise.

[Fiat500USA]

Welcome to the forum. If you got your tires rotated at one of the chain repair shops I would take what they say with a grain of salt. They love to oversell unnecessary repairs. A rotor can have some grooving in them and still be fine. If you just called them, you may want to have them inspect the brakes, however, brakes are a wear item and the cutoff on warranty on pads and rotors is 12 month/12,000 miles.

[Haring]

Fiat studios will pull the same crap too (not all of them). When I had my Abarth I was told I needed new pads/rotors. A group of us did an install party and all did our brakes. When I got mine off they were fine. I'm guessing the service dept was slow and just wanted an extra $600 (or what ever it costs to have them do it).

[dnc11]

My car is one and a half year old with 8,000 miles. I went to the FIAT Studio this last Friday for an oil change, and left with new front brake pads and rotors. They were covered under warranty since they were under 12,000 miles.

[PLP]

Rotors and pads are not the best on them. We also got deep grooves. Pads were replaced as they were making high pitch squeaking noises. Still, would stop great no matter what, just the noise. There is a TSB on pads.
As for rotors - maybe you can get them done as well... but I doubt they would be any different.

[carfreak09]

My car is one and a half year old with 8,000 miles. I went to the FIAT Studio this last Friday for an oil change, and left with new front brake pads and rotors. They were covered under warranty since they were under 12,000 miles.

What exactly was wrong with your rotors and pads?

My X has 46k and the brakes are in great shape, despite all those miles being city/suburban driving. The fronts easily have 50-60% pad life left and rotors are in good shape other then one gouge line on the passenger side (some kind of debris must have caused it).

[PLP]

My X has 46k and the brakes are in great shape, despite all those miles being city/suburban driving. The fronts easily have 50-60% pad life left and rotors are in good shape other then one gouge line on the passenger side (some kind of debris must have caused it).

Some models somehow must have gotten bad batch of pads/rotors. No one specified, at least not to my knowledge, what production dates they were, but the problem exists. Seems yours is not one of them.

What happens is that the pads are squeaky - that's the most often happening problem. Another is that the pads dig deep groves in rotors. Braking is fine by all means, but the appearance of rotors and noise (mainly on cold brakes) is unbearable. If you add some overnight condensation, then you hear them a mile away.
They claim it is due to some lubricant on the brake components... maybe. So far after cleaning and replacement of the pads is good.

[triplany]

the rotors on my 500 had grooves, squeeled, after only 1800 miles on it. Fiat replaced the pads and rotors and now I have 5500 miles on it and everything looks perfect! I have to say my experience with my local fiat service center has been amazing!

[carfreak09]

Some models somehow must have gotten bad batch of pads/rotors. No one specified, at least not to my knowledge, what production dates they were, but the problem exists. Seems yours is not one of them.

What happens is that the pads are squeaky - that's the most often happening problem. Another is that the pads dig deep groves in rotors. Braking is fine by all means, but the appearance of rotors and noise (mainly on cold brakes) is unbearable. If you add some overnight condensation, then you hear them a mile away.
They claim it is due to some lubricant on the brake components... maybe. So far after cleaning and replacement of the pads is good.

I had the squealing issue and it seems to have coincided with the development of the gouge line I mentioned. However, the noise eventually went away on its own so I never brought it up to the dealer. These brakes are definitely sturdier then my 500 turbo. That car's front rotors were warped and pretty much worn out, along with the pads at 40k.

[davevoss]

Grooving on the (especially front) brake rotors has been noticed and reported by quite a few 500X owners, however is nearly every case there wasn't an actual brake related issue, apart from the appearance of the grooves. I don't believe there is anything wrong with the brake rotors, instead the brake pads fitted happen to be fairly aggressive, which I would argue is a good thing, as the braking performance is enhanced. I'd rather have grooved rotors and shorter panic stop distances, than rotors without grooves.

Some folks prefer to only have to replace the pads when doing a brake job, however it is generally recommended that the rotors and pads be replaced together to maintain optimum brake performance. To that end, grooving on the rotors, no matter how soon after the brakes were new, doesn't really matter, as the grooves in the rotors are matched with the ridges on the pads (as they wear together), and so the braking surfaces continue to be in full contact. One could argue that if the rotors are smooth without any grooves when the pads are worn to the minimum, that those pads are too soft, and that braking performance is less than is could/should be.

Bottom line, if the brakes work as they should, and there isn't an unusual amount of noise, then try not to look at the rotor grooves too often, just plan on replacing both when the pads are worn out, as that's the best practice anyway. For reference, I have ~53k on my 500X, the pads are about half worn, the rotors have noticeable grooves, and the brakes work wonderfully without any noise.

[FiatDood]

Grooving on the (especially front) brake rotors has been noticed and reported by quite a few 500X owners, however is nearly every case there wasn't an actual brake related issue, apart from the appearance of the grooves. I don't believe there is anything wrong with the brake rotors, instead the brake pads fitted happen to be fairly aggressive, which I would argue is a good thing, as the braking performance is enhanced. I'd rather have grooved rotors and shorter panic stop distances, than rotors without grooves.

Some folks prefer to only have to replace the pads when doing a brake job, however it is generally recommended that the rotors and pads be replaced together to maintain optimum brake performance. To that end, grooving on the rotors, no matter how soon after the brakes were new, doesn't really matter, as the grooves in the rotors are matched with the ridges on the pads (as they wear together), and so the braking surfaces continue to be in full contact. One could argue that if the rotors are smooth without any grooves when the pads are worn to the minimum, that those pads are too soft, and that braking performance is less than is could/should be.

Bottom line, if the brakes work as they should, and there isn't an unusual amount of noise, then try not to look at the rotor grooves too often, just plan on replacing both when the pads are worn out, as that's the best practice anyway. For reference, I have ~53k on my 500X, the pads are about half worn, the rotors have noticeable grooves, and the brakes work wonderfully without any noise.

Maybe they still function OK, but the high pitch squealing is unacceptable. After the dealer replaced mine with the same components and it happened again, I had to take it upon myself to actual fix the issue. Spent $120.00 for a new after market set on Ebay and issue is no longer there. Spent money on something that should have been under warranty. Not very good service and poor quality parts