my car was parked (86 rx7 rx7) and got stolen from my secured underground parking. it was missing for 4 and a half weeks. the car was driveable, the engine was recently overhauled, although the brakes were neglected as i wasnt going to put the car on the road until this summer. when the car was found, it was a mess in the interior, the stereo was missing but otherwise mechanically the car was sound-- thank god as there was no insurance.

the brakes however, are down to absolutely nothing. it is metal on metal. my question is, the rotors are pitted pretty bad, need replacing for sure, but they arent warped. is it possible for me to just replace the pads as a quick fix until i can replace the rotors? it is not financially feesable for me to do the whole kit and kaboodle at present, and i need my car on the road like yesterday. i know it is not recommended to just replace the pads, but am i looking for trouble if i do, and why.

thank you for you help all of you. this forum rox and has been ultra mega helpful always.

oh one more thing... there is a coolant leak (very small) since she was returned too. when i fill the coolant, i can hear a hissing when i pressurize the hoses, it comes from around the heater hose area, although i replaced the heater hose and found that didnt solve the problem.... what could it be?

 

If the rotors are realy bad and you just change the pads, you will be putting yourself and everyone else on the road in danger. you run the risk of the pad material shredding and you will be back to metal on metal before you know it. I don't know what you can afford but rotors are about $45 each. If yours aren't too bad, you could try getting them turned ($5 - 15 each). To save money you could do the fronts now and the rears later.

 

Without seeing the rotors it's hard to tell but I'd say that if absolutely necessary then yeah, you could probably install a new set of sacrificial pads and have semi-working brakes.
You'll have to drive like Grandma, always aware of your disadvantage but I've seen cars with absolutely hideous rotors that the owners were totally unaware of.

Naturally, neither I nor anyone else will recommend this but we all know that necessity is the mother and there are lots of substandard cars on the road.

Ignoring the ethical minefield of asking/answering a question that even you already know the proper answer to, the only thing to do is install new pads and see how the car behaves.
Unfortunately, even brake pads aren't cheap and the set you install now will have to be replaced when you swap in the new rotors so it'd still be cheaper in the long run to just park the car until you can do the whole job.

You could probably find a better set of rotors at a junkyard...have you looked?

 

Shop around - you should be able to find rotors for around $30/ea or less. Google on "RX-7 brake disk".


-b

 

Look for coolant at the rear of the engine behind the throttle body (TB). Specifically, there is a hose that runs from the thermowax unit to a connection under the upper intake manifold. That is a good possibility, especially if you don't see an obvious leak and pooling/dripping coolant. Get a flashlight and look for coolant at the rear of the engine behind the TB and under the intake manifold. You will almost certainly have to remove the upper intake manifold to replace this hose.

 

To answer your question straight up, yes I'm sure you can drive on your pitted rotors for a little while, but like everyone says it won't be too expensive to do it right. I've seen frickin' scary rotors and RIDDEN on frickin' scary rotors (I told the chick she should have the brakes checked, she shrugged it off, so I'll never ride with her again as well as for many other reasons she's a retarded driver...), so yes it can be done, just please don't. Plus if you just replace the pads within a couple days you'll probably HAVE to replace the pads again once you replace the rotors.