So, my brother and I did some brake/suspension work on my 95 civic about 3 weeks ago. We replaced the front struts/springs, and we replaced the brake pads and rotors as my old ones were squeaking quite a bit because they were worn.

Since money was (and is) an issue, I put on some 20.00 pads and some decently-priced rotors. A week later, I began experiencing the same problems I had with my old rotors (squeaking, rattling when I apply pressure to the brake, and a back-and-forth motion when I slow to a stop).

It seems pretty odd to me that these parts would wear out after a week.

Additionally, I discovered that we neglected to clean the protective oil off of the discs. I asked my brother if we needed to do something like that, and he told me that it wasn't necessary. Still, I can't help thinking that was a contributing factor.

As far as I remember, I haven't done any hard braking with the car except once to test out the brakes and shocks. I don't think it was too hard, though.

So what happened? More importantly, how do I prevent this from occurring in the future?