I don't know where you are from, but in Western Pennsylvania, we don't cut rotors, we throw them away! A new rotor tends to last about 2 years, then the road salt eats the rotors and once a rust ridge builds up around the outside edge - they are junk.
The reason why cutting rotors is a bad idea is because when rotors gets hot they tend to crack. You can't really see the cracks, but if you magnaflux them or penetrant die check them - they are there.
The problem is - the new rotor / new pads will last about 50,000 miles if you have a lot of highway miles it can be more or less - depending upon how much you use the brakes.
Here in the mountains, you use the brakes all the time.
Putting new pads on old rotors is bad business, because the cracks in the rotors opens up as the rotor gets hot. This acts like a small lathe and removes material each time the brakes are applied. So the original pads might get you 35,000 to 50,000 and the replacement pads might last 18,000 miles.
So you might say - oh those were just junk pads, im going to buy better pads but no rotors.
Again, you get another 18,000 miles and they are worn out.
The rotors are a throw away item, a cheap piece of insurance, that tells you - if you have an emergency - my vehicle will stop! Will yours? If the rotors rattles when you apply the brakes or the rust ridge migrates into the pad surface and only part of the pad touches the rotor then the dam thing won't stop. Its cause and effect.. maybe you Cali Boys don't have that problem, but it is a real problem here in the rust belt!
