I bought my 960 with 41K(!) and put in a new timing belt as you all suggested.
Runs great, except for the brakes. The previous owner had new pads and rotors a couple thousand miles before I bought the car. My mechanic says the rotors are warped, but "there's no safety issue." The throbbing is annoying. My question-
will I do any damage if I live with it, or should I spend the $750 he says it
will cost for new brakes? I think the previous mechanic must have torqued them when he put in the last rotors. Thanks.

Dear rockfarm,

Good p.m. and may this find you well. The torque spec for the lugnuts is 63 pound feet, or 85 Newton Meters. Anything much over these levels, puts the rotors at risk.

Yours faithfully,

spook

Outrageous price. Your car is old enough to have a stuck or or insufficiently returning piston in caliper. Change the caliper for a renovated original one. Very good learning job for an aspiring DIY, get a Haynes or similar manual and study the 700-900 FAQs here (found under Features drop down menu)

Wow, $750, he has a real imagination and a disregard for your budget. Does this vibration go through the brake pedal or just the steering wheel? Not sure if strut rod bushings are used in the 960 but warped rotors are kind of unusual, see recent posts and the IPD piece on the subject. If this is too technical, I am saying you would be crazy to hand him that kind of money.

Rotors about $40 each and pads about $40 per axle. He must be planning to put on all new/rebuilt calipers also?

He may know something he isn't telling you like a caliper is stuck and dragging a pad on the rotor causing overheating and warping?????????? Do you see/hear/smell overheating after you have driven around for a while?

There are two ways a caliper can stick. The hydraulic piston can stick if the brake fluid isn't flushed about every 2 years. Or the caliper can stick on the guide pins that support it. Guide pin sets are about $20 as I remember.

A lot of this work is fairly easy, but dirty, for a DIY.
--
'96 965, 16' wheels, Michelin Pilot Sports, rear 18mm bar + Koni, 204HP cams, 126K. Put 200K on '85 745 TD.

It is a princely sum he is asking indeed, I would like to know what he plans on doing for that price. While it is feasible it could be a seized piston or a caliper stuck on the pins it is unlikely. The number of calipers that I replace for this kind of stuff is so few and far between to be not even worth mentiong here. One caveat though, I am in So. Cal and we just don't really have rust issues here. If you are in snow country where they salt the roads then all bets are off. I would be more inclined to believe that you have low quality rotors coupled with a less than professional installation (read that as they were not torqued properly).

Let us know just what you are being promised for this $750.00 or so that he is asking.

Mark

Thank you all for the input. I'm inclined to think that there weren't any problems with the caliphers, just the rotors. No bad smell, no pedal throb, just a wobble under heavy braking. Since I live on a dirt road, I'd notice if there were problems with front end suspension parts, but it's smooth as silk except when braking. I'll get another shop to look at it, since I'm not tooled up to do more than basic stuff to the car (I'm a woodworker, not a wrench turner).