Grinding and ridge line wear

[Mahilly]

I’ve been experiencing an intermittent grinding in my brakes. It’s not much of a noise, but I can feel a grinding sensation through the pedal during breaking. After some inspection, I found the front rotors have fairly significant Ridgeline wear, but only on the interior sides of the rotors. The outer surfaces of the rotors appear normal with no ridge wear. This is consistent on both front wheels with the same amount of wear on both. It’s been two years and 30,000 miles since the pads and rotors were replaced with new. My question is, is this type of wear pattern normal and typical? To have Ridgeline wear only on the interior side of the rotor? Or is this a sign of an improper brake job? I’m thinking that the wrong pads (too small) were installed on the inside face of the rotors. Appreciate any thoughts or comments.

This is on a Ram 1500 Laramie, Hemi 4 x 4.

 

[Wild one]

I’ve been experiencing an intermittent grinding in my brakes. It’s not much of a noise, but I can feel a grinding sensation through the pedal during breaking. After some inspection, I found the front rotors have fairly significant Ridgeline wear, but only on the interior sides of the rotors. The outer surfaces of the rotors appear normal with no ridge wear. This is consistent on both front wheels with the same amount of wear on both. It’s been two years and 30,000 miles since the pads and rotors were replaced with new. My question is, is this type of wear pattern normal and typical? To have Ridgeline wear only on the interior side of the rotor? Or is this a sign of an improper brake job? I’m thinking that the wrong pads (too small) were installed on the inside face of the rotors. Appreciate any thoughts or comments.

This is on a Ram 1500 Laramie, Hemi 4 x 4.

Sounds more like lack of brake maintence on your part,you need to stay on top of keeping the sliders/pins clean and lubricated,and that's your job,so i think you're barking up the wrong tree trying to blame a shop who did a brake job 2 years ago. Make the time to service the brake hardware at least once a year

 

[Mahilly]

Okay interesting take. Can you explain how my lack of maintenance would result in the exact same ridge wear on one surface of the rotors, isolated to the two wheels of one brake job? Decades of owning, driving and maintaining dozens of vehicles and I have never experienced this before. Thanks.

 

[Wild one]

Okay interesting take. Can you explain how my lack of maintenance would result in the exact same ridge wear on one surface of the rotors, isolated to the two wheels of one brake job? Decades of owning, driving and maintaining dozens of vehicles and I have never experienced this before. Thanks.

If the inside pads are wearing, the calipers aren't sliding properly,common sense would tell you that,and that goes back to poor brake maintence
Chryco products require a bit more brake maintence then some of the other vehicles out there

 

[Mahilly]

I guess I should also mention that I just recently (6 weeks ago) had the rear brakes serviced and replaced by a different shop. They cleaned inspected the front brakes and gave them a clean bill of health. No mention of any problems and reported 80% brake pad surface remaining. I didn’t mention the grinding issue to them because my assumption at the time was the issue was in the rear brakes. Obviously not the case. So again, my question is about the inconsistent Ridgeline wear on the front rotors. Thanks.

 

[Mahilly]

If the inside pads are wearing, the calipers aren't sliding properly,common sense would tell you that,and that goes back to poor brake maintence

Again, it’s not the pads that are wearing, it’s the rotors with ridgeline wear on one surface. Thanks.

 

[Wild one]

Again, it’s not the pads that are wearing, it’s the rotors with ridgeline wear on one surface. Thanks.

And just what do you think causes ridge wear other then pads that aren't moving off the rotor surface,because the caliper isn't sliding properly.Clue me into what is causing the wear then.
It's lack of maintence on your part,so give up on trying to blame the shop that did a brake job 2 years ago,and you haven't serviced the sliders since then,that's all on you bud,not the shop

 

[Mahilly]

Let me guess, you’re a retired brake shop mechanic? If this is really just a maintenance problem on my part then I’m willing to accept that. But I’d love to get a response to my original question if anyone else is reading this post. Thanks for the help.

 

[04fxdwgi]

Brake parts noise is usually caused by dry (non / under lubricated) guide pins and guides or loose parts (not be confused with brake pad squealing / screeching).. The calipers, may at times, need to be removed, the guides and pins cleaned and properly lubricated. It can also be caused by a wheel bearing being loose and causing misalignment. Damage and foreign objects, like stones, do it also.

Just curious why a different shop just inspected and and said they are OK and you still have complaints. Are you sure it's the brakes?. Can pictures be provided, as one's attempted description of a problem may be totally off from another's attempted interpretation of what is trying to be explained.

Just an FYI.... Perhaps someone that can't diagnose brake wear patterns and problems should refrain from being nasty to someone that contributes ton's of info to help others. Just a friendly suggestion.

 

[Daw14]

Why did you not return to the first shop for your rear brake “service “ ? It would have been a great time to confront them about the shoddy work you believe they did on your truck.
You came here for an answer to you r question, but do not like it , return to the original mechanic . Or have you tried that and got an unacceptable answer from them , then sent down the road ?

Keep in mind most people who give advice here , also are mechanics or at least do all maintenance and all other work on their own vehicles.

 

[crash68]

My question is, is this type of wear pattern normal and typical? To have Ridgeline wear only on the interior side of the rotor? Or is this a sign of an improper brake job? I’m thinking that the wrong pads (too small) were installed on the inside face of the rotors. Appreciate any thoughts or comments.

Doubtful it's the wrong size inside pads as they are sold in pairs (the inside and outside pads together).
If you don't want to accept the maintenance issue explanation then the other option is improper use of the brakes based on the composition of the pad material. Not all brake pad material is the same nor how you use the different types of material and it's more than if they're metallic, nonmetallic, ceramic, etc.

 

[Mahilly]

Thank you all for the help and comments. To answer your questions, the original shop that did my front brakes is a shop I have used and trusted with all of my vehicles for nearly 20 years. Unfortunately they closed about a year ago so there’s no going back to them, and I’m still looking for my new guy. The recent rear brake job was done by an out of town shop while on a road trip. A caliper seized unexpectedly so I was in a pinch, found a shop and had them do a complete rear brake job. Like I said before they inspected the fronts and said they were fine. I have no reason not believe them. I also have no reason to believe my original shop did a poor job as they always did good work, but anyone is capable of making a mistake. At this point, I have new or newly inspected brakes at all four corners. The uneven ridge wear is something I haven’t seen before and doesn’t seem to be the cause of the intermittent grinding I’m still feeling in the brake pedal. Of course I could be wrong, I’m not an expert. A simple lack of maintenance also doesn’t seem to explain this problem. I’ll check the wheel bearings out and see if that produces any answers. I know my sense of humor sometimes doesn’t land well, so I apologize if I was being rude or disrespectful. I do appreciate the help.

 

[Wild one]

Thank you all for the help and comments. To answer your questions, the original shop that did my front brakes is a shop I have used and trusted with all of my vehicles for nearly 20 years. Unfortunately they closed about a year ago so there’s no going back to them, and I’m still looking for my new guy. The recent rear brake job was done by an out of town shop while on a road trip. A caliper seized unexpectedly so I was in a pinch, found a shop and had them do a complete rear brake job. Like I said before they inspected the fronts and said they were fine. I have no reason not believe them. I also have no reason to believe my original shop did a poor job as they always did good work, but anyone is capable of making a mistake. At this point, I have new or newly inspected brakes at all four corners. The uneven ridge wear is something I haven’t seen before and doesn’t seem to be the cause of the intermittent grinding I’m still feeling in the brake pedal. Of course I could be wrong, I’m not an expert. A simple lack of maintenance also doesn’t seem to explain this problem. I’ll check the wheel bearings out and see if that produces any answers. I know my sense of humor sometimes doesn’t land well, so I apologize if I was being rude or disrespectful. I do appreciate the help.

There's always going to be a ridge on the outside edge of the rotors,as the pads don't cover that area. In the meantime pull the calipers and clean and lubricate everything,and get us some pic's of the pads and rotors.
FYI i don't have much patience for morons,not saying you're one,but you're definitely stubborn and hard headed,now get out there and get us some pics and do some maintence on your brakes,and we'll see if we can help you out
You can also check your wheel bearings over while you're working on the brakes,give the tires a wiggle and put a prybar under them and lift up,before you pull the wheels,and see if you have any movement,and when you have the calipers off,you can give them a good spin,and see if they're noisy

 

[04fxdwgi]

There's always going to be a ridge on the outside edge of the rotors,as the pads don't cover that area. In the meantime pull the calipers and clean and lubricate everything,and get us some pic's of the pads and rotors.
FYI i don't have much patience for morons,not saying you're one,but you're definitely stubborn and hard headed,now get out there and get us some pics and do some maintenance on your brakes,and we'll see if we can help you out
You can also check your wheel bearings over while you're working on the brakes,give the tires a wiggle and put a prybar under them and lift up,before you pull the wheels,and see if you have any movement,and when you have the calipers off,you can give them a good spin,and see if they're noisy

This right here ^^^^^ in the 1st line.. If you are trying to explain a small raised area on the outer edge of the rotor, then @WildOne gets the door prize. It is perfectly normal, as the pad doesn't touch that area.

 

[olyelr]

Are you talking about the surface where the pad hits the rotor has several different ridges? Or just that upper lip where it dosnt hit?

 

[Sherman Bird]

I wonder if the intermittent "grinding" which can be felt in the pedal isn't ACTUALLY intermittent ABS activation, which I've encountered NUMEROUS times as a professional.
In one case on a Toyota 4-Runner, the dealer and another indie shop rebuilt the brakes 5 TIMES total in a "shotgun" attempt at fixing it.
That customer, referred to me due to my diagnostics reputation, was flabbergasted when I identified intermittent ABS activation as the true culprit. The fix? A new ignition switch!

 

[Sandevino]

 

[Mahilly]

I wonder if the intermittent "grinding" which can be felt in the pedal isn't ACTUALLY intermittent ABS activation, which I've encountered NUMEROUS times as a professional.
In one case on a Toyota 4-Runner, the dealer and another indie shop rebuilt the brakes 5 TIMES total in a "shotgun" attempt at fixing it.
That customer, referred to me due to my diagnostics reputation, was flabbergasted when I identified intermittent ABS activation as the true culprit. The fix? A new ignition switch!

First an update, I’ve had another shop (#3) inspect and service my brakes and they find nothing wrong.

This was before I read Sherman’s post above about ABS activation. The grinding sensation I feel in the pedal does very much resemble ABS pulsation but on a much smaller scale. I’ve now done some more research on this and I’m finding that this type of ABS module pulsing is a fairly common complaint by Ram owners. So I’m now pretty convinced this is my issue. Thank you Sherman for this advice!!

Now, to continue research and determine a fix…?

 

[etbrown4]

The ridge line means nothing. The fact that you had brakes inspected means little because most of the time the shop just looks at the outer rotor surface and pad, and misses the inner.

All the grinding I've ever encountered on my 3 Rams was premature pad wear on just one side, due to the insufficiently lubricated pins, a worn pad caused by the calipur not sliding.

If your rotors are perfectly smooth on both sides, the problem is unlikely to be pads or rotors.

Maybe ABS is a possibility but a grinding, metal on metal sound, not so likely from ABS.

 

[EdGs]

All the grinding I've ever encountered on my 3 Rams was premature pad wear on just one side, due to the insufficiently lubricated pins, a worn pad caused by the calipur not sliding.

I had this very thing happen, slide pins were dry as a popcorn fart, one slide pin decided it didn't want to play anymore and my front passenger inside pad wore at a slight angle and got to where the rotor said hello to the backing plate.

New front rotors, pads, and lube time....lol