Chineese crap

[woodchucker]

Just took the van to pick up some stuff. Noticed the brakes sounded like they had a stone in them.

I just replaced them last year, rotor and pads. You can't find anyone to resurface rotors anymore.

As a matter of fact NAPA told me the town prohibited them from turning drums and rotors. They wanted them to build a separate out building for it.

Anyway in one year the Chinese shitty rotors are gone. I used OEM Toyota pads, I checked the calipers are fine they are not hanging up... So the answer is the crappy rotors just ate away so fast. $26 per rotor.. Pads were higher than the pair of rotors.

I have to redo it after a year. I guess I am buying OEM rotors since this stuff sucks.

Buyer beware.. same with HF.. I've been burned a few times recently. putting me back on a more cautious buy with them.

[Larry Blanchard]

My mechanic tells me that the rotors are made so thin nowadays (supposedly to save weight) that it's not safe to turn them down.

[Jeff Mazur]

Seek out builders of quality goods, and spend the little (or even not so li ttle) to get that quality. Starve out the rats and they'll go away. It is consumers who are, ultimately, more price-conscious than value conscious t hat allow this garbage to remain economically viable for its producers.

I'm not saying that you had lots of options with the brakes, but when you d o have options, consider them carefully, and look to the long-term.

Just my two cents' worth.

[Lew Hodgett]

Seek out builders of quality goods, and spend the little (or even not so little) to get that quality. Starve out the rats and they'll go away. It is consumers who are, ultimately, more price-conscious than value conscious that allow this garbage to remain economically viable for its producers.

I'm not saying that you had lots of options with the brakes, but when you do have options, consider them carefully, and look to the long-term.

Just my two cents' worth.

------------------------------------------------------ As a representative of suppliers of premium goods and services, I always had competitors who had a lower price on their side.

Somehow, managed to make a living.

The old adage still applies:

Only the seller knows the true value of the goods or services in any transaction.

Lew

[clare]

John Ruskin had it right in is "common law of business balance" :

There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person's lawful prey. It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money ? that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot ? it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.

>

[Leon]

Many rotors are a composite material vs. solid steel. You turn them you ruin them.

[Larry W]

Most auto manufacturers do not recommend resurfacing rotors any more. And for most models, the cost today os so low that it doesn't pay anyway. Rotors for many models are only $20 or so, I've purchased some for my Jeep that (198,000 miles on it) as low as $15 each. I remember when a mid-sized brake rotors were in the $60 to $90 range.

[pastedavid]

FWIW about 18 months ago I replaced the rotors and pads on my car with Bosch items. And very good they have been, too. They cost 80 quid all in (with a can of brake cleaner), so that's about USD120 ish. Brakes and tyres I will not skimp on.

[clare]

Many??????? Extremely few production brake rotors are anything other than cast iron or cast steel.. Most of the damage done to rotors is due to chemical reaction with metallic compounds in the prake pads, compounded by road salt. All rotors have a "service limit" and a "machining limit". Used to be they were significantly different and you could cut a rotor up to 3 times. With the advent of CAFE, and the resulting weight reduction "imposed" on manufacturers, brakes are often now undersized for the application, and so low in mass that they cannot handle extreme heat - and machining them reduces the mass to the point the quickly warp after being machined. With today's labour cpsts, and the cost of 3C parts, it is cheaper to replace than to machine MOST brake rotors. Good brake pads today are VERY expensive compared to rotors - It is false economy to buy the cheapest rotor you can buy unless you are also putting on the cheapest pad you can buy and are not planning on keeping the vehicle roadworthy for any length of time.

My modus operendi is to never buy either the cheapest or most expensive part unless there are only 2 or less options.

[woodchucker]

And with Rotor and pads thats about what I spent. And again last night.

There are no made in usa rotors avail. I am not even sure if Toyota is made in Japan anymore, look at most of the Japanese electronics, it's made in China..I wouldn't doubt that the rotors are coming from China for the Toy. I had to get them and Toyota was not open so I'm not certain.

[Leon]

Yes, many. Many is not a specific number or ratio to all as a whole. Plenty more than pre 90's

[Leon]

Actually to be more specific and to clarify that the composites have been commonly used even in the 80's,

COMPOSITE BRAKE ROTOR APPLICATIONS Some of the earliest applications for composite rotors were the 1982 Lincoln Continental, 1984 Ford Mustang SVO, 1987 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, and 1988 Ford Taurus and General Motors front-wheel drive "W" body cars (Buick Regal, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and Pontiac Grand Prix). Since then, the number of vehicle applications has continued to grow.

[clare]

What normal production non-specialty vehicle uses composite rotors. Name 3 - 2 of which must be generally available for under $60,000 US

[clare]

OK, there is more than one definition of "composite" The "composite" you are refirring to is still an all-steel rotor - - Those "composite" iron/steel rotors could still be machined, successfully. Just took proper adapters for the brake lathe. I machined hundreds of them

When "composite" rotors were mentioned I was thinking Carbon Fiber and ceramic composite rotors which have worked their way into the ultra-high-performance brake world over the last number of years -not as standard equipment on any mass produced sub-$80,000 car. These rotors can NOT be machined on any normal brake lathe.

[clare]

The old Thyssen Krupp (now Waupaca) still makes brake rotors - for OEM at any rate - not sure how many make it to replacement market. There are still some made in Canada too - and a fair number of Brazillian and Mexican producers and European producers also sell in the North American market. They are more expensive than the 3C stuff, but usually significantly higher quality and quality control.

[clare]

My last front pads alone pretty well hit that mark here in Canada - for 2003 Ford Taurus. Front rotors run $20 for the cheap crap to $45-ish for the decent stuff. I had ESB rotors and "green" Kevlar pads on the Mystique - $300 for the front pads and rotors IIRC - but they lasted over 5 years.

[clare]

That was parts only - at my "trade" price, as a licenced mechanic. Yes, we pay a LOT more for many things up here north of the border. But that was for "specialty" performance parts. I could have put 3C parts on for about $65, and continued to change them every year for 5 years - paying the same amount or more. They actually lasted 8 years but were in bad need of replacement by the last year. (I had not served them the last 3 years - always figuring on scrapping the car.) The brakes were new on the car when I bought it - and were totally shot within 2 years and less than 10,000 miles of driving.

The pads I just put on the Taurus were $135, my cost, in the box. The real good ones were almost $200, and the cheap ones something like $60. The BPI Raybestos Element pads sell for about $70 online in the USA

[Lew Hodgett]

----------------------------------------------------------- I'm not a mechanic, don't play one on TV, but $300 sounds like a lot of money for just a front end brake job.

Had my front end done on my Toyota Tacoma at about 95,000 and was told to come back about 140,000 for the rears.

Don't remember how much the fronts cost but it was nowhere near $300.

If it had been I'd still remember it.

Lew

[Morgans]

Actually, they are cast iron, not steel. That said, quality control and metallurgy are not Chinese strong points.

Add to that, that the makers of rotors for the Detroit iron used to age each rotor, for up to a year before they put the factory turning on it and shipped it out. That is the primary reason they used to hardly ever warp, and if they did, not so badly. Do you think the Chinese age their cast iron for a year? Nope.

[Gil]

Yeah, it's pricy up here. Just did the front brakes on my 2003 Silverado

1500. $108 for each rotor and $89 for the pads, plus 13% sales tax on all of it. Don't know why there should be such a great price differential between here and the U.S. There's not that much difference in the dollar.

Gil