Ebay Brake Parts: Okay or Junk?

[Vibetastic]

Hey everyone.I just started getting the grinding noise from my front brakes at 45,000 miles.I looked on Ebay to see if front pads and rotors were available and found this:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVWItem number 280275888529I see alot of people selling these same parts on Ebay. Has anyone out there purchased these? Are they any good? The price seems a bit low to be quality parts.

[Wolfman213]

That seems like a pretty good deal! If you end up being the first keep us posted on how they are.

[ned23]

Those rotors don't look too bad. Always change your rotors. I'll tell you something else, I'm going to give you a brake shoe recommendation and if you buy them you're going to thank me later:Akebono. I put these on my 2004 Vibe and they were an amazing upgrade! You'll think you got a whole new system. http://www.akebonobrakes.com/

[bodhi_tree777]

Quote, originally posted by ned23 »Those rotors don't look too bad. Always change your rotors. I'll tell you something else, I'm going to give you a brake shoe recommendation and if you buy them you're going to thank me later:Akebono. I put these on my 2004 Vibe and they were an amazing upgrade! You'll think you got a whole new system. http://www.akebonobrakes.com/Made in Kentucky, as well. good deal. Where did you buy yours?

[northvibe]

drilled rotors are a NO. If they heat up enough they will crack, PLEASE stay away from fully drilled or slotted. Just get grooved ones (no fully drilled though).

[ned23]

Quote, originally posted by bodhi_tree777 »Made in Kentucky, as well. good deal. Where did you buy yours? Yep, made in USA! I got them at a local, non-chain brake shop in the city. They're fantastic. I may put them on my 2009. They leave almost no black dust on your wheels!I am now a firm believer that the the first "performance upgrade" anyone should do to a new car is the brakes and tires. You'll get more bang for your buck there than anywhere else.

[ned23]

Quote, originally posted by northvibe »drilled rotors are a NO. If they heat up enough they will crack, PLEASE stay away from fully drilled or slotted. Just get grooved ones (no fully drilled though).I use solid rotors, as well. I'm not sure what he's doing with the car so I didn't comment. Drilled rotors are not designed to last as long as solid ones, they're designed to cool faster for frequent, hard braking.

[Vibetastic]

My car is a daily driver, but I'm in alot of stop-start traffic most days. I doubt if there is any real benefit to having drilled rotors. I don't race the car.I think I'll stick with solid ones and upgrade the pads.The grinding just started a few days ago. Do Vibes have a little tab that touches the rotor to warn you that the pads need replacing soon or am I actually grinding metal to metal now?

[northvibe]

I do lots of road tours and you should see the cracks the drilled rotors get. I wouldnt touch those if they were free. The slotted groove ones are nice though. You want a real good rotor get the stoptech rotors that are slotted and hawk pads. The cheap rotors will wear fast and be worthless for real braking.

[Wolfman213]

the drilled rotors arent good in the long run since the drilled comprimises the structural integrity, how ever a few years ago i was reading about some place that the die made the holes in the rotor. the theory was that since they didnt ruin the integrity by drilling them that it had the advantages of cross drilled without the ill side effects. any thoughts?

[northvibe]

well what we see on them is that the holes crack between eachother. so then chunks of the rotor fall out. Maybe the ones on top of the line sports cars made for track are fine but I would never touch them on my car. if you look the stoptech ones have the slotted groove, all the evo, sti's and my friends SC cobalt run the stoptechs and the brakes are never a issue on the tours. The whole holed rotor imo is just a gimmick for street use.

[shemp]

There is no need to get new rotors every time you do brakes. You should turn them every time though, but as long as they are within spec, throwing them away is a waste. I concur that drilled rotors on a street car are strictly cosmetic. Slotted rotors help clear away brake dust, but the holes don't really do much to cool the rotors under normal driving conditions.

[ned23]

Quote, originally posted by shemp »There is no need to get new rotors every time you do brakes. You should turn them every time though, but as long as they are within spec, throwing them away is a waste. I concur that drilled rotors on a street car are strictly cosmetic. Slotted rotors help clear away brake dust, but the holes don't really do much to cool the rotors under normal driving conditions.I disagree only insofar is if you're looking to get the top performance out of your brakes and calipers. You can never get turned rotors back to the original width. So, your calipers will need to extended more on old rotors with your new pads. You can never to the original precision without taking a lot of metal off. They also tend to get pitted over time and you can never machine all of the pits out. Sometimes machining makes the pits bigger.Rotors are "wear" parts. They're designed to wear-out. Also, remember, rotors aren't "thrown away" they're recycled for the scrap metal value and turned into new parts.

[Vibetastic]

So, the best thing I can do is get some slotted (not drilled) rotors and some Akebono or similar pads. Is that correct?

[shemp]

Quote, originally posted by ned23 »I disagree only insofar is if you're looking to get the top performance out of your brakes and calipers. You can never get turned rotors back to the original width. So, your calipers will need to extended more on old rotors with your new pads. You can never to the original precision without taking a lot of metal off. They also tend to get pitted over time and you can never machine all of the pits out. Sometimes machining makes the pits bigger.Rotors are "wear" parts. They're designed to wear-out. Also, remember, rotors aren't "thrown away" they're recycled for the scrap metal value and turned into new parts. I don't claim to be a brakes guru, but with all due respect it sounds like you have a pretty loose handle on automotive disk braking systems and maintenance.The pistons in your calipers are self-adjusting. As your pads wear and material is removed they get thinner, and the pistons adjust themselves to maintain braking performance thru the life of the pads. The system is designed with an operating range with the max. being brand new pads and brand new rotors, and the min. being rotors turned to minimum spec width and worn out pads. Performance must be maintained within that range.Yes, rotors are a wear item but they are designed to be machined to a min. spec and thus their useful life is intended to be longer than a set of brake pads. If the rotors are warped/pitted/gouged/whatever such that they cannot be turned true within the spec width, then they must be replaced. Most often they can be turned once or twice before they need to be replaced. Feel free to replace yours every time, but I'm here to tell you that you are wasting your money....BTW: obviously they get recycled, but even then a massive amount of energy is consumed to melt them down and cast/forge new parts. If you are concerned about preserving the environment, you might want to consider that.

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by Vibetastic »So, the best thing I can do is get some slotted (not drilled) rotors and some Akebono or similar pads. Is that correct?Along with everything else mentioned, don't forget proper lug torque and proper bedding and seasoning of the rotors and pads.. You can look at the Baer Brakes tech section for the proper proceedure.... Let me tell you, I believe in it.. after owning a set of cross drilled rotors for 5-6yrs of some serious flogging, I never once had to have them turned because of warping... I did have them turned once due to grooves, but that was a pad issue... Proper bedding and seasoning is a good way of getting the most performance from the system for a long peroid of time..

[northvibe]

I say if you want quality brake gear, get stoptech rotors and Hawk pads. Otherwise if you dont race/autox etc just get the open stuff.