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Ceramic Pads + White Box Rotors????


runt

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It's about time for a front brake job on the GP. At least I think I'm going to have the stuff ready because I think one of the pads on the GP has left it's post early.

 

Anyway...I'm looking at Ceramic pads on Rockauto and I'll pickup a set of white box rotors locally. Anyone have experience with that??

 

Thanks.

Jeremy

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R1 concepts

 

/end thread

 

Uneven rotor wear, seen it myelf

 

/thread

 

Nothing wrong with white box rotors these days, after all, rotors are pretty much throw aways once the pads are worn. Why blow big cash on brand name rotors or performance ones for a DD??

 

Ceramics are your best bet, but not all are made alike. I actually love the Wagner Thermo-Quites!

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R1 concepts

 

/end thread

 

Uneven rotor wear, seen it myelf

 

/thread

 

Nothing wrong with white box rotors these days, after all, rotors are pretty much throw aways once the pads are worn. Why blow big cash on brand name rotors or performance ones for a DD??

 

Ceramics are your best bet, but not all are made alike. I actually love the Wagner Thermo-Quites!

 

Not sure what you mean by uneven rotor wear. One would wonder if there was something else with the car that caused them to wear unevenly. I have them on the Bonneville on all 4 corners and have had them there for...40k miles now, and you know how I drive. I've overheated those brakes to the point of complete failure going down Mollhulland Canyon Highway in California; a road so badass that there's a movie about it. I was going downhill toward mailbu when I smelled the smoke and had absolutely no braking power left so I had to downbrake into 1st to take the next turn. Rotors were fine, but the pads looked like a dried up lakebed. Still not warped, still not worn unevenly, and not cracked either.

 

Best two pads I have ever used, which are also very highly recommended on GMForum.com, are Bendix CT-3's and Akebono PRO-Act Ultra Premiums, with the Akebonos being more preferred. You can find them on rockauto and O'rilleys.

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There is no reason t blow that much on a daily driven car... I have done what your talking about doing with no issues at all runt... You will be fine... The white box rotors are perfectly fine for what you use your car for

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I think I'll pony up a bit more for Wagner pads. I'll also look at pricing for White Box rotors v. R1 concepts.

 

Really, I did brakes over 50k ago so I'm not shocked that they are wore out. I'm not super hard on the car but living in quite a hilly area they do get some good use.

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Im not sure what pads you have on the regal, but the rotor wear is a bit uneven. The pads could be the issue especially if you have overheated them.

 

On the front or the rear? I've always had problems with the rear brake wear being uneven. Front pads are a year old, and those are Powerstop rotors that are nearing 80k very hard miles. I'll be fixing the rear with the gen2 knuckles next year.

 

There is no reason t blow that much on a daily driven car... I have done what your talking about doing with no issues at all runt... You will be fine... The white box rotors are perfectly fine for what you use your car for

 

There's a fine line. I drive in rush hour traffic at times and people can be pretty stupid. $20 extra on pads makes the difference between 4 feet away from the car in front of me to -2 feet from the car in front of me. If anything, my daily driver is the more important car to have good brakes on.

 

I think I'll pony up a bit more for Wagner pads. I'll also look at pricing for White Box rotors v. R1 concepts.

 

Really, I did brakes over 50k ago so I'm not shocked that they are wore out. I'm not super hard on the car but living in quite a hilly area they do get some good use.

 

Keep in mind R1 Concepts also makes white box rotors. They call them their blank rotors, whereas their other rotors are their their crossdrilled/slotted e-line. I don't bother with anything but blanks for the rear of my Regal because I know the braking ratio for the rear is pretty low anyway, and they're probably going to get ruined sooner or later because of the shitty 1st gen w-body rear brakes.

Edited by xtremerevolution
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There's a fine line. I drive in rush hour traffic at times and people can be pretty stupid. $20 extra on pads makes the difference between 4 feet away from the car in front of me to -2 feet from the car in front of me. If anything, my daily driver is the more important car to have good brakes on.

 

 

When it comes to pads...definitely. Rotors...not so much (when using blanks). I have satisfied ceramics and white box rotors on all 4 corners of the regal, and the brakes on that car are fantastic. Much better than other stock 2nd gen's I've driven.

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When it comes to pads...definitely. Rotors...not so much (when using blanks). I have satisfied ceramics and white box rotors on all 4 corners of the regal, and the brakes on that car are fantastic. Much better than other stock 2nd gen's I've driven.

 

I'll second the importance of pads over rotors. I can't say that rotors make a huge difference for a daily driver.

 

Oh, and did I mention that even R1 blanks are zinc coated? Not sure if retail white box rotors are...

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Well...as I was looking on the web (rockauto) I found I can get Wagner Ceramic pads for about $38. Ok, cool. Until they want over $10 to ship. FUCK NO. I can get Duralast Gold Ceramics locally for $39. While it's probably not quite as good of a pad it should do fine for me. Either that or I can grab some NAPA Ceramic pads for about $50. The rotors at NAPA (I think) are a touch better than Duralast but then again I'm sure the same mexican lathed them all so who knows.

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Not sure what you mean by uneven rotor wear. One would wonder if there was something else with the car that caused them to wear unevenly. I have them on the Bonneville on all 4 corners and have had them there for...40k miles now, and you know how I drive. I've overheated those brakes to the point of complete failure going down Mollhulland Canyon Highway in California; a road so badass that there's a movie about it. I was going downhill toward mailbu when I smelled the smoke and had absolutely no braking power left so I had to downbrake into 1st to take the next turn. Rotors were fine, but the pads looked like a dried up lakebed. Still not warped, still not worn unevenly, and not cracked either.

 

Best two pads I have ever used, which are also very highly recommended on GMForum.com, are Bendix CT-3's and Akebono PRO-Act Ultra Premiums, with the Akebonos being more preferred. You can find them on rockauto and O'rilleys.

hey andrei get this you know the r1 rotors you recomended i have already cracked one:think:

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Well...as I was looking on the web (rockauto) I found I can get Wagner Ceramic pads for about $38. Ok, cool. Until they want over $10 to ship. FUCK NO. I can get Duralast Gold Ceramics locally for $39. While it's probably not quite as good of a pad it should do fine for me. Either that or I can grab some NAPA Ceramic pads for about $50. The rotors at NAPA (I think) are a touch better than Duralast but then again I'm sure the same mexican lathed them all so who knows.

 

Please, do not get Duralast Gold ceramics. I tried them and they are by far the WORST pads I have ever put on any car I have ever put brakes on. I cannot tell you how irritated and annoyed I was after I smelled smoke every time I made a hard stop. They felt (by comparison) extremely spongy, soft, and didn't have any bite compared to the Bendix CT-3's before them or the Akebono's that replaced them.

 

Zinc isn't going to keep rust away after a few years. I'll probably paint them anyway (the hats and edges) and it'll just have to hold up good enough.

 

That is true. It only lasts so long, but it does hold for a little while.

 

hey andrei get this you know the r1 rotors you recomended i have already cracked one:think:

 

I gotta see a picture of this. How did you manage that? Have you called them about it yet?

 

:iceburn:

 

Aren't they warranted?

 

I still plan on trying them

 

Yeah that's what I was thinking, they should be warranted, and even if they're not, they should be able to send you a new set of rotors free of charge to keep you happy.

 

Jake, let me know what you do with this.

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Soooooooo................................................... yeah. You can't say anything then. LOL <3

 

Not until I see a picture. I have to say I've never seen one crack so this is news to me. I know Jake's car is heavy but a cracked rotor is pushing it. Maybe they drilled the rotor too close to the edge? I doubt these guys know a whole lot about making performance rotors, so that's definitely a possibility. I've seen rotors cracked on factory Porsche brakes and on aftermarket F-body brakes as well due to the manufacturer drilling too close to the edge. If I were to buy rotors again I'd honestly buy slotted and not drilled. Nonetheless, I'm still curious.

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its a very small crack i will see if i can get a pic but its enough i can catch my fingernail on it

 

Still unacceptable. How long ago did you put these on? These guys are pretty legit from how I've dealt with them. The first time I bought from them, I got a set of front pads and rotors for the Bonneville, and one of the pads was bad, so I told them and they refunded the cost of the pads and didn't ask for them back either. You should have no problem getting that rotor replaced if its cracked.

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See, I LOVE the look of the drilled/slotted rotor but that totally scares me. With the shit materials out there today and with the less than quality machining and inspection techniques involved with some of these companies I think I'm going to stay away.

 

Oh, and R1 on ebay was over $100 shipped for fronts only. Not a chance, rubber pants.

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See, I LOVE the look of the drilled/slotted rotor but that totally scares me. With the shit materials out there today and with the less than quality machining and inspection techniques involved with some of these companies I think I'm going to stay away.

 

Oh, and R1 on ebay was over $100 shipped for fronts only. Not a chance, rubber pants.

 

Yeah, for crossdrilled/slotted rotors, obviously. But you're comparing apples to oranges if you're doing that since you're looking for white box rotors.

 

Their blank rotors are $40 for the pair for the front for your car, with $26.50 shipping to me. Both front and rears for your car are $115 shipped.

 

Since I put the Rotors on the Bonneville, I've been keeping an eye on them to watch for cracks, simply because I've seen it happen. I'd say slotted rotors are a much safer way to go regardless of what manufacturer you use. I've seen drilled brembo rotors crack.

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okay all i have to do is take a pic and they will send me a new set

 

That's more like it. I would have stopped recommending them if they would have done otherwise.

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