Good Brake Rotors?

OK my truck seems to eat rotors... Its heavy, I tow a small trailer a fair bit, wheeling etc. I replaced them not that long ago (a couple years maybe?) And they are toast again. Shaking/vibrations under medium to hard braking. They were just Oreilly rotors last time.

Will a "better" brand rotor last better? Anyone care to suggest one?

OEM is usually the best.

As a former shop manager, I saw the same parts being shoved into premium boxes and I always thought that they were all the same chunks of cast iron so it didn't matter. But experience has taught me differently.

The factory rotors on my 96 Impala SS lasted 30k. I replaced them with drilled/slotted rotors from some upscale company at 30k. I just took them off at 140k. Not kidding. And I wasn't nice to them. I towed 3500 lbs with that car, drove like a moron, used metallic brake pads on them. They were wonderful.

I now have about 8000 on my new cheapy parts store rotors and good brand name pads (properly bedded) and they're already squeaky and pulsing.

I wish I could say what brands are good, but I can't advise on that. I just know that it does seem to make a difference.

iceracer wrote: OEM is usually the best.

Unless it's a 2000 Grand Cherokee, in which case OEM has approximately 1/3 the lifespan of Brembos. BTDT.

Keep in mind that pulsing brakes can also be a result of material transfer. Coming to a full stop with hot brakes is the best way to do this, and it's more a question of pads than rotors.

Keith Tanner wrote:

iceracer wrote: OEM is usually the best.

Unless it's a 2000 Grand Cherokee, in which case OEM has approximately 1/3 the lifespan of Brembos. BTDT. Keep in mind that pulsing brakes can also be a result of material transfer. Coming to a full stop with hot brakes is the best way to do this, and it's more a question of pads than rotors.

Good point. Its a possibility. I drive in stop and go traffic every damn day. Can it be worn back off wihtout turning the rotors? Im running semi metallic pads if that makes much difference.

You could try bedding the brakes again. Can't hurt, anyhow.

I have had great service from the Centric 120 Series rotors. The ones on my Focus are going on 25K miles with Stoptech Street Performance pads and are still smooth as butter (also follow their prescribed heat cycling and bed-in procedure when new, which goes a loooong way towards achieving perfect performance and longevity). I have also had them last a full season of track events on my track car, about 2500 miles of 9/10s full road course driving with the rotor temps reaching 900*F multiple times per session. The Centric 120 rotors are my current favorite in terms of performance value per dollar. rockauto.com has pretty good pricing on them and quick service.

+1 for Centric or Brembo blanks

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Worth a shot. I did bed them in when I replaced them. Would they need to be turned again to get a fresh rotor to bed to?

Assuming these would be Centric 120 series (from the pt#)?

Bedding is quick and easy. Try it before you do anything else.

In reply to java230:

Yessir, that is what the 120 Series part numbers look like.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Ill find a time with no traffic and go to town.

In reply to WildScotsRacing:

Thanks!

I do a lot of arrive-and-drive in Chump, AER, and WRL. I can tell early in my second stint if a car owner cheaped out on the rotors or not.

BTW, if you use brakes hard, cross-drilled is a waste of money.

https://youtu.be/78wbht355R8

I put Centrics on everything, including my race car.

Wasn't there recently (in the last year or so) a big article linked on here from carrol shelby or something that rotors don't warp - they actually just build up brake material from the pad unevenly? If that's the case a good bedding procedure should help.

In fact, once at an HPDE my student was having horrible shudder on braking. Brand new brake stuff all around. We came into the pits, checked everything out, found nothing. We went back out and I asked him to brake HARDER. Problem went away completely in about a lap and a half.

I guess my point is - are you sure the rotors are actually toast?

While it may not hold true for all applications, I found that Wagner brand rotors tended to be heavier then say the Rabestos brand for the same car. Heavier means more metal and thats a good thing, in most cases. I know for my case it ended the warped rotor issues I was having.

I've never noticed a difference in rotors. Bedding, however, makes all the difference in the world.

Carrol Smith, not Carrol Shelby
http://stoptech.com/technical-support/technical-white-papers/-warped-brake-disc-and-other-myths

I had a recent experience with a bad set of new Wilwood rotors. Lots of vibration. I swapped them out for another set and got spectacular vibration. Like "I can't see out the rear view mirror and the bolts from my sway bar brackets just fell out" vibration. Our customers were reporting problems as well. Wilwood finally admitted to having a batch of rotors that had inconsistent friction on the surface. They turned them and claim the problem should be gone. Haven't had a chance to test it yet.

Somehow or another I ended up with two disks by different makers on the front of a Civic. Both were 'correct'. I was going around in circles trying to figure out why the car stopped strait until the brakes were hot, then it started pulling to one side. HP+ pads, super blue, stainless lines, everything worked, bled and re bled, rebuilt rear calipers, driving me nuts. Finally noticed the front rotor castings were significantly different. The rough looking one was 3 lbs lighter than the good looking 11lb (IIRC) one. the difference in weight was in the wall thicknesses, not the width that the caliper was clamping. The heavy one worked better hot.

Another vote for Centrics

java230 wrote: Good point. Its a possibility. I drive in stop and go traffic every damn day. Can it be worn back off wihtout turning the rotors? Im running semi metallic pads if that makes much difference.

The only way I know is to sand the rotor with garnet paper. It won't plug the cast iron. Sometimes the problem can be seen clearly, and sanded off. Otherwise the whole rotor would have to be sanded and hopefully the buildup removed.

java230 wrote: OK my truck seems to eat rotors... Its heavy, I tow a small trailer a fair bit, wheeling etc. I replaced them not that long ago (a couple years maybe?) And they are toast again. Shaking/vibrations under medium to hard braking. They were just Oreilly rotors last time. Will a "better" brand rotor last better? Anyone care to suggest one?

Measure runout when you install them.

I go with Centric premiums on all of our DDs and have also had good luck with Brembo blanks in the past. A proper bedding in is key.

Robbie wrote: Wasn't there recently (in the last year or so) a big article linked on here from carrol shelby or something that rotors don't warp - they actually just build up brake material from the pad unevenly? If that's the case a good bedding procedure should help.

That is BS. Rotors do in fact warp. Even if perfectly cast with no core shift (basically never happens in the real world) they still get a lot of differential heating and cooling they WILL warp. I've seen enough warped rotors to not believe that it can't happen. How does a rotor get saddle shaped? It wasn't machined that way and pad composition leaves a much different kind of swarf than iron chunks when machining.

Eight blind men an the elephant. Rotors do warp. Rotors also do get differential pad transfer. Rotors also do get differential thickness from being installed with runout error.

Get rotors without a ton of core shift (basically, don't buy Autozone crap - get Zimmermann or Brembo if available for your car, premium NAPA if not), make sure they don't have runout when installed (clean the rust off of the hubs!), and bed the brakes properly and shift to Neutral at lights instead of holding the nice hot brakes clamped firmly.