During the manufacture of the brake rotor, tolerances of the braking surfaces for flatness, parallelism, and lateral runout are closely held. The maintenance of close tolerances on the shape of the braking surfaces is necessary in order to prevent brake roughness or brake pedal pulsation.

In addition to these tolerances, the surface finish must be held to a specified range of 60 Ra roughness or less. Controlling the braking surface finish avoids problems of hard pedal application, excessive brake fade, brake and steering pulls, and erratic performance. In addition, control of the surface finish can improve brake lining life.

Light scoring of the brake rotor surfaces not exceeding 1.5 mm (0.06 in) in depth is normal and not detrimental to brake operation.