So I wrote him back explaining my position, answering his points and asking if he was willing to check them out and here's what he said:

"It's a tuff call when it comes to brake rotor. My vendor does not cover it beyond 90 days for economy grade rotors.

If it is the premium grade then they can work something out. It is best that you have it turn locally."

 

Im running into issues using with my EBC Red Stuff pads and some locally made rotors (see other thread). Just curious what rotors other people are running with theirs?
Please only respond if you have/had the Red Stuff pads and can tell me what rotors you have/had with them. Thanks!

 

stock rotors had 32k miles when i put on ebc reds. I didn't have the rotors turned at all, i just bed in the pads and at 65k miles they're doing awesome but it's getting time to replace rotors and pads.

 

I'm running with Ebc Red and DBA rotors (4000 series slotted). Braking is very good with that set up for street and a few track sessions.

 

Merged Keeps things simpler.

EBCs on PowerStop Cyro rotors - almost no wear on them after 2 years and 2 half-race seasons with Yellows in there now.

 

i had issues once like this on a truck, i had the brakes done and i kept warping rotors or what felt like warped rotors. turns out there was an agent (grease or something) on a pad and was heating the rotors excessively. just an idea

 

The thing that bothers me about this thread is the mechanic being 99% sure the rotors were warped. Well, rotors are warped or they are not. 99% sure means he didn't check.

 

My guess is that he drove it, felt it, but never bothered to take of a tire and check it first hand... not that you really can eyeball it but ya know.

 

get a dial indicator and see for yourself if the hub is bent or if rotor is warped. I had a hub become bent once not sure how. If they turned your rotors on the car they could have been true at that point but if someone took them off then put them back on differently then they won't be ture anymore.

Just dig in man brakes are not hard then you know someone is not just racking the bill up on you. When I bought my car from the dealer they gave me some OEM rotors and they are thick and heavy. Unless you drive really hard they should hold up well. The ones on the car were much thinner could have been the ebay special.

 

For the love of Pete, "warped" rotors means pad material transfer 99.9% of the time. If you have very very thin rotors you can have actual deflection in the rotor surface.

"Warping" comes from hot spotting on the rotor surface. Turning (if you have enough meat on the rotors), proper pad choice, and bedding will be needed to correct. (Also worth noting to check lug tq. - make sure all are the same).

 

I heard back and the company's rep and he asked me to bring the rotors in. Here's the email with some interesting info about rotor sources (according to him):

"I'll see what I can do. Bring it by.

It is not a matter of where it is made. What you want is the quality of the brake rotors. 90 percent of the rotors are made in China. There no US plant that produce brake rotors for oem replacement. Manufacturer that produce big brake kit and company that produce drilled and slotted rotors are all from China. All of the name that you are familiar with about brakes most are made in China.

Quality is what you want when buying brake rotors. Must people look for the lowest price when shopping online. Rule of thump holds true "you will get what you pay for"

Not many people can afford premium grade rotors this is why we carry the economy line as well. If you want to look for USA made brake rotors, you won't find it. If you do fine it will be 3-4 times of what you've paid.

The price that you've paid for cross drilled/slotted rotors is actually less than what you would pay for blank rotors are the local parts store for the same grade.

I have a customer that wanted factory Ford rotors. He brought it to me and the label says made in China from the Ford dealer. That is ok because it is the premium grade and not the economy grade rotors.

What I'm trying to say is where it is made should not be an issue. What you want to look for are the quality of the blanks. You go to your local electronic stores all are made in China or some where in South East Asia. You have high end and low end electronics but both are made in China. This is the same way with autoparts. If all of the things we buy are made in the USA, we won't be able to afford it. We as American are not willing to work for the same hourly rate as the people overseas, so the plant owner send the production overseas.

EBC China, PowerSlot China, StopTech China, Rotora China, Some of the Brembo China, Wagner China, Raybestos China, PBR China, Ford China, Subaru China, etc.

Look for quality of the blanks not were it is made. You pay less it will be low quality, you pay more it will be higher quality.

I hope this clear things up about where rotors are made.

I will contact the vendor about replacing it for you."

 

well i see the advice that everyones offering: they all make good points although there is one thats been left out, normally everytime i do a brake job on my car, ive taken one of the air powered little grinders, the ones u can put some grease on them the size of a hand gun, and lightly touch over the flat part of the hub to make it smooth before reinstalling the rotors if it happens again, that makes the hub itself flush which can keep any of the floating parts from moving...worse comes to worse u can always remove the pads and sand them down with like 300-600 grit sandpaper just make sure to wear a mask and gloves so you dont breathe in asbestos haha

 

So the time has come when the good ol' USA can't even make a cast iron brake rotor. Is there anyone besides me who thinks this is crazy?

 

"Can't" is not the word at all. There are still some very high quality casting houses in the USA. However, the typical automotive replacement parts customer buys heavily based on price. As a result, importers that bring in parts from China, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Brazil, etc., flood the market with cheap stuff that we think is nearly as good as the real item. It usually isn't (except in a few rare cases), but we tend to buy it anyway. End result? One U.S.-parts house after another turns to offshore suppliers. If more customers were more discerning and had more patriotic pride, we would pass on the cheap stuff and buy American.

"We" asked for this. And now we have it!

Chris

 

I have had my evo since new and after about 2 years i got the same pulsation so I turned the rotors and they were ok for about 6 months then warped again so I turned them again but warped again. I then replaced the pads and rotors and after almost a year they warped again. I turned the rotors and now they are warped again. Im thinking of getting some high quality 2 piece rotors to see if it will fix my constant warping issue. Maybe this is just a normal characterisic of the Evos. After the 3rd warping I got brake cooler ducts added but still didn't help. I dd my Evo and have never road raced or auto x it. I always torque the wheels also.